Historically it is male names that have dominated the narrative on ceramics, but over the past five years curators have sought to redress the balance by showcasing female artists through exhibitions such as the February/March 2021 ‘Pioneering Women’ exhibition held by Oxford Ceramics Gallery. Rosebery’s auction house in London will next week host the second of their tri-annual Design Since 1860 sales, which is punctuated by the work of pioneering female artists. 

 

Lot 141: Jacqueline Poncelet (b.1947) Studio Pottery and Contemporary Ceramics

 

Jacqui Poncelet was one of a group of female students that graduated from the Royal College of Art in the early 1970s; having experienced the tutelage of Hans Coper they were encouraged to move away from the ties of the potters wheel and seek their own independent styles.  Jacqui graduated in 1972 in the same year as Jill Crowley, a year after Glenys Barton and Elizabeth Fritsch, and a year prior to Alison Britton – and this group of radical female artists laid the foundations for 'The New Ceramics' movement seeking to re-establish the ‘vessel’ as an abstract form.  Jacqui’s fascination with pattern eventually took her in other directions; her work diversified to include painting, sculpture and public art commissions.  But the slab-built vessels being offered in the auction on 4th July were created around 1977 during her focus on ceramics with some resembling works previously held at the British Museum. 

 

Lot 51: Grete Marks (Haeben-Loenstein / Margarete Heymann) (1899-1990) Bauhaus vase

 

Lot 51 in the Rosebery’s auction is a ceramic vase by Grete Marks.  Born in 1899 as Margarete Heymann, she was one of the first female students admitted to the Bauhaus school of art and design.  Despite founding director Walter Gropius’s attempts to steer women to practice weaving, Marks fought to study ceramics.  The vase coming up for auction is typical of her work with its Bauhaus emphasis on primary geometric shapes which during her lifetime was declared degenerate by the Nazis. 

 

Lot 133: Janet Leach (1918-1997) Studio Pottery and Contemporary Ceramics

 Vase with white glaze dripped over dark stoneware

 

Janet Leach is a well-known name in the field of studio pottery but might have gained more recognition of her own work had she not been tied by name to arguably the most famous name in 20th century pottery.  A fact perhaps bypassed by many, is that Janet Leach was the first female ever to study pottery in Japan, and only the second ever westerner, and her work is quite distinct from that of her husband.

 

Lot 93: Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881-1945) for Wedgwood  Punchbowl or Centrepiece pedestal bowl

 

Wedgwood is a name known to most and many will even be aware that their Fairyland Lustre range is the work of designer Daisy Makeig-Jones, but it is easy to overlook the huge achievements of this young woman working in the 1920s.  At a time when many women were employed as illustrators at the potteries, Daisy Makeig-Jones was Lead Designer, and successfully turned around the fortunes of the then failing empire that is Wedgwood, producing designs both wildly creative and technically difficult to achieve.  The striking example included in the Design sale at Roseberys beautifully showcases the imagination and ingenuity of this pioneering female.

 

Lot 97: Constance Spry (1886-1960) for Fulham Pottery Crown and Lion vase

(first designed 1936 for Edward VIII coronation, then produced again for Elizabeth II), 1953 

 

The vases of Constance Spry are now a familiar sight at Roseberys; in September the auction house hosted the sale of The Andrew Weaving collection which achieved record high prices – most significantly the Crown and Lion vase bearing the stamp Elizabeth II which hammered at £10,000 within days of the late monarch’s passing.  Having in 1917 taken a senior position at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, in 1921 become a headmistress, and in 1928 opened her own flower shop, Constance Spry was a true ‘career woman’.  She had a revolutionary approach to floristry as well as to her private life where her perspective on gender, sexuality and aesthetics was very much ahead of her time.

The work of these and other female artists feature as part of the Design Since 1860 sale taking place at Roseberys Auction house on Tuesday 4th July.