Leach Pottery Restoration Project Auction

Today at Lunch time I went to have a look at the pots up for Auction at Bonhams

in New Bond Street - London. For the Leach Pottery restoration Project.

I was able to talk to Harry Isaacs, who was a potter at St Ives with Bernard Leach, Harry introduced me to Lady Carol Holland Chair of the Bernard Leach (St Ives) Trust ltd.

I also met John Bedding also a past potter at St Ives and now owner of the St Ives Gallery. He had put the exhibition together, and the photos above of Bernard are taken from his article in the Catalogue. They were lovely people and Harry has said that he would give me a personal tour of the Restored workshops. I wasn't able to stay for the Auction itself as that started at 6.30pm. but they had been surprised by the amount of interest it had generated. They are due to open to the public on Saturday the 8th March. I asked permission to take some photos for the blog, and they wanted to know about us. Harry even gave me his email and phone number to arrange a private tour. How about that guy's who's up for that ?.

Unfortunately my pictures didn't come out very well, even with the flash. The Large vase is by Seth Cardew and had a guide price of £800 - £1000 .The dish is by Mary Wondrausch. Sorry Hannah, I went to scan the picture from the Catalogue, but found it had been torn out of my copy. Ok it's Wednesday morning and i've had a look at the Bonhams website. it looks like they raised around £39,935 from the sale. Some items didn't sell, Clive Bowens big jug went for £220. and Mary's Dish went for £280. That's cheap, and the Seth Cardew pot sold for £800. I hope they raised as much as they had hoped for.