Martin Brothers

Price Realised: $48,000

This excellent example of Martinware was part of a rare private collection offered in our December 2017 auction. Totaling close to $500,000, the full collection included some of the best works created by the extraordinary artists.

Eclectic to the core, the Martin Brothers’ work bears the influence of art and architecture from the Middle Ages and Gothic periods, but much of their unique pottery exists in a category of its own. While holding on to the eclectic characteristics of Victorian times, many of their sculptures took on exaggerated forms and personalities. Among recognizable Martinware forms are their sculpted face jugs, Gothic stoneware vases and spoon warmers resembling monsters, mythical creatures, classical figures and the use of sea life motifs and other fantasy-inspired figures. A fantastical beast-form spoon warmer jug more than tripled its low estimate when it sold for $19,200 and other forms outperformed their estimates as well.

The collection was relatively unknown, belonging to a couple in the Vancouver Islands who began by collecting Moorcroft pottery. The couple were advised by scholar and dealer Richard Dennis and traveled to London in 1978. Staying in an apartment over his studio, the wife of the couple discovered the collection of Martinware he was assembling. The couple would continue to seek guidance from Dennis, as well as Vancouver gallery owners Neil MacMillan and Dan Perrin, who are recognized as “market makers” for Martinware. The collection had no obvious gaps and was extremely balanced, including works by not just the four Martin brothers but also the various workmen who were known to have worked in their studio. He concluded his comments by saying the sale was “the most fun he’d ever had in 40 years.