: A record price paid at auction for any piece of American art
pottery was established on June 6, as a rare piece of Rookwood
pottery sold for more than $350,000 at Cincinnati Art Galleries.
The piece was one of more than 1,400 pieces of pottery offered
during the three-day sale with examples coming from several
coveted collections including Vance Jordan, Truett Lawson and the
collection of John Hunter and Allen Weisberger.
The record setting Rookwood piece measured 141/2 inches and was a
black iris glazed vase decorated with electroplated copper and
silver overlay of lotus blossoms by Kataro Shirayamadani and
executed in 1900. The rare vase was decorated with flying cranes
that were depicted moving through black clouds on the surface of
the vase. This particular vase is believed to have been exhibited
in the Paris Exposition of 1900 and was also exhibited in 1991-92
at The Cincinnati Art Museum's exhibition "Rookwood Pottery: The
Great Gamble." The vase was one of approximately ten pieces of
Rookwood consigned from the collection of Truett Lawson.
Shirayamadani red vase with dragon, $29,900.
Bidding on the lot opened at $100,000 with stiff absentee
bids in place, bidders in the gallery and a solitary phone bidder.
Auction coordinator Riley Humler, related that the spirited action
initially came from three bidders up to the $150,000 level.
The phone bidder then hammered away with another bidder to the
$300,000 mark with a final bid of $305,000 coming from the phone,
resulting in a selling price of $350,750, including premium. The
successful buyer was described as a "local collector who decided
to stay home and bid by phone."
"We felt the vase would break the existing record for American
art pottery but were somewhat surprised by the outcome," stated
Humler after the auction. "This is certainly the finest Rookwood
vase we have ever had the privilege of selling in our 15 years of
auctions and we are extremely pleased that the vase has come home
to Cincinnati, at least for the foreseeable future." The previous
record for a Rookwood vase was also established by Cincinnati Art
Galleries in 1991 when they sold a Shirayamadani vase from the
Glover Collection for $198,000.
Other top lots in the auction included a Rookwood pillow vase
with Indian portrait decoration by Grace Young that realized the
highest amount Cincinnati has ever gotten for an Indian portrait
vase, $51,750.
Another of the Shirayamadani vases to do well was a 14-inch tall
red vase with dragon decoration that sold for $29,900 despite a
hairline at the rim. A large porcelain vase by Rookwood's
president John Dee Wareham, which had descended in the family of
one of Rookwood's last owners, did well selling at $17,250.
Teco vase with nude, $24,150.
A small six-inch vase decorated by E.T. Hurley with the
portrait of a cat caught the fancy of both cat lovers and portrait
vase collectors. "You see a lot of fish and dogs, and while they
are often beautiful and intriguing, they are rarely really cute,"
said Humler. "This cat captured the essence of a cat, everyone
really liked it." Bidding on the lot was active with it selling at
$12,075.
A large Rookwood vase with an Oriental flair by Arthur Conan with
crisp decoration did well at $10,925, a vellum glazed vase by
Lenore Asbury $13,225, a pair of Rookwood penguin bookends $2,875
and a set of three tiles decorated with a landscape went
reasonably at $7,475.
Other pieces of pottery sold during the three-day auction
included an unusual piece of Weller with architectural form
selling at $4,140; a Loetz vase by Josef Hoffmann in brilliant
green with black decoration, $9,200; a Galle mold-blown vase in
purple cut-back to yellow, $7,475; and a Daum lamp in the Winter
pattern realized $10,350.
A Teco piece, atypical of their pots in that it did not have an
architectural form and was decorated with a free-form nude
attached to the rim, attracted quite a bit of competition with it
selling at $24,150 despite a repair.
