Unique Picasso Ceramics | Charles Mathes. The market for Edition Picasso ceramics is hot. The auction prices of some pieces have soared 5. I’ve discussed the reasons for this explosion of interest before (the Runaway Bull, the Runaway Bull Returns, the High- Flying Owl), reminding people that the Edition Picasso Ceramics were not personally painted by Picasso. Though Picasso decorated over 4,0. Edition Picasso is comprised of some 6. Picasso’s unique prototypes by the artisans at the Madoura pottery in the South of France. Of course it is worth noting that Femme du Barbu is hardly among the “best” Edition Picasso ceramics. For starters it’s an edition of 500, the largest edition size made. I’ve found 16 other sales of this ceramic since. Madoura Picasso Editions The numbers refer to the Catalogue of the edited ceramic works 1947-1971 Alain Ramié, Galerie Madoura, 1988. Category: or search: Show as a list. Show as photographs. Madoura Picasso Editions. The two-day auction of Picasso Ceramics: The Madoura Collection on 25 and 26 June. The previous world record price for a Picasso ceramic edition at auction was €312,750 / $414,073 achieved for an edition of Grand vase aux. Pablo Picasso hand-decorated ceramics at the Madoura Pottery in the South of France from 1947 until his death in 1973. These are known as the Edition Picasso. This Edition Picasso “Tête de chèvre de profil” AR 1. Sotheby’s Paris on May 2. When people hear about this distinction their initial reaction is often that they don’t want to buy “reproductions,” only originals. Unfortunately original Picasso paintings can cost as much as $1.
A desirable Edition Picasso ceramic can sell for 1/1. Goat plate illustrated above brought only 1/9,2. No wonder these multiples quickly became collectable after their introduction in 1. That’s right, Edition Picasso ceramics purchased for fifty dollars in the 1. So you would figure that the ceramics that Picasso personally decorated would be a lot more valuable than the ones that were replicated, right? Well, yes and no. Yes, they’re worth more. But no, they’re not worth 1. Or even 1. 00 times more. Or, often, even 1. And some of them have recently sold for less than Edition pieces. One reason for this anomaly is the very rarity of Picasso’s “original” ceramics, most which were never commercially available. People equate rarity with value, but prices are determined in the marketplace. Picasso kept the vast majority of the unique pieces for himself and most ended up in museums or with members of the artist’s family. Consequently, the kind of competition that makes prices rise never developed for originals – they rarely came up for sale. However as early as the 1. Edition Picasso began appearing at auction. If a collector wanted an Edition Picasso ceramic there was a huge selection immediately available, but if he wanted a ceramic that Picasso himself had painted he might wait years before one appeared. The very term “Picasso ceramic” came to mean one of the multiples replicated by the artisans at Madoura. It’s therefore doubly difficult to compare values for unique Picassos and Edition Picasso pieces, since not only do auction results swing wildly from place to place and year to year, there just isn’t much comparable sales data. Because of a rare coincidence, however, we now have a unique opportunity to make such price comparisons. In London on June 1. Sotheby’s sold a collection owned by Marina Picasso of over 1. Marina is the daughter of Picasso’s son Paulo and his first wife, Olga Khokhlova). On the same day in another part of town there was a dedicated sale of Edition Picasso ceramics – at Christie’s South Kensington, the venue that has accounted for many of the recent record- breaking sale prices. While comparing apples and oranges is still easier than comparing most of the ceramics in these two sales, some pieces are directly equatable. For instance, take a look at these two pieces: The one on the left is from the Edition Picasso, Picador et taureau, AR 1. AR” number is from Alain Ramié’s definitive catalogue raisonné). The one on the right was entitled Tauromachie in Marina Picasso’s collection, a unique ceramic hand- painted by Picasso — almost certainly the prototype for the Edition piece. The AR 1. 94 Edition Picasso Picador et taureau plate brought the equivalent of about $1. Christie’s South Kensington. At the Sotheby’s sale across town the comparable unique piece sold for the equivalent of $6. Granted that neither one of these ceramics is a great work of art. In fact if you had been at Madoura in 1. Edition piece was probably one of the Picasso tsotchkes priced at five or ten bucks. But if you use these two ceramics as a guide, a Picasso “original” is worth 6. Edition Picasso piece. However, another pair of ceramics tell a different story: In the Christie’s sale, the AR 2. Edition Picasso ceramic, pictured on the left, sold for $2. I’m using the auction houses’ conversions to translate all of these prices from pounds to dollars). The one of the right, one of Marina Picasso’s unique pieces, sold for $9. Sotheby’s. The market — as well as your eyeballs — might suggest that these ceramics are “better” than the Picador plates. However, using these vases as a guide, a Picasso “original” is worth only 3. Why does a “better” original bring a smaller multiple? The most expensive piece in Sotheby’s sale of Marina Picasso’s ceramics, by far, was described as a vase but seems more of a sculpture than the usual shapes and plates in the Edition Picasso. It sold for $7. 62,6. No Edition Picasso ceramic is even remotely comparable to this piece. The top lot in the Christie’s sale was Femme du Barbu (the Bearded Man’s Wife), AR 1. Using these two ceramics as a guide you might conclude that the best Picasso original is worth 4. Edition Picasso multiple. Femme du Barbu (the Bearded Man’s Wife) AR 1. Of course it is worth noting that Femme du Barbu is hardly among the “best” Edition Picasso ceramics. For starters it’s an edition of 5. I’ve found 1. 6 other sales of this ceramic since 2. Madoura sale in 2. Femme du Barbu was estimated in the Christie’s catalogue for about $1. In short, it’s a fairly large, very common ceramic, and it’s whimsical and fun. But you can say the same about many, many other pieces. Find great deals on eBay for madoura picasso pottery. Shop with confidence. Skip to main content. eBay: Shop by category. Enter your search keyword. Advanced: Daily Deals. Vintage PABLO PICASSO MADOURA Edition Picasso Plate. The pottery and gallery Madoura edits and exhibits Picasso's edited ceramic work. This exhibition follows on the heels of the highly succesful tour of the The Edward Weston Collection of Picasso Edition Ceramics which. Picasso and Madoura's artisans. and imprinted in the manner of an edition of. So in the interest of fairness let’s look at what actually is considered to be the “best” Edition Picasso ceramic because of its scale, rarity, beauty and renown: the Grand Vase, AR 1. This ceramic is over ten inches larger than Femme du Barbu, it’s from an edition of just 2. Alain Ramié’s catalogue raisonné and in a famous photograph of Picasso by Henri Cartier- Bresson. One of these pieces made the auction record for an Edition Picasso ceramic: $1,1. Madoura” sale in 2. Another brought $1,0. Thus using the Grand Vase as a guide, the best “original” Picasso ceramic in Marina Picasso’s collection was worth less than the best Edition Picasso piece! Prototype for Picasso “Grand Vase” AR 1. One of the 2. 5 Madoura Edition Picasso copies brought $1. If you want to get picky, at $7. Marina Picasso’s unique vase pictured above isn’t the “best” unique Picasso ceramic ever to sell at auction, at least in terms of price. Ironically that honor belongs to Picasso’s prototype for the same Grand Vase that set the record for most expensive Edition Picasso ceramic. This prototype sold in 2. Christie’s in London for $1,5. In other words, the original sold for only 1. Clearly something is screwy here. Either Edition Picasso ceramics are overpriced, unique Picasso ceramics are underpriced, or a combination of both. To say nothing of the possibility that the entire art market may presently be in the same kind of mania that precedes stock market crashes (and the fact that it’s silly to try to draw conclusions from individual sales in thinly traded, inefficient markets). Regardless of whether an entire market is elevated or depressed, however, certain ratios should be constant unless there is a fundamental paradigm shift as there was in the 1. Japanese buyers. In Western culture, oil painting is the most important fine art; ceramics are less important. In Asia it’s just the opposite. When the Japanese entered the market, they were willing to pay vastly higher prices for ceramics than anyone ever had before. When they stopped buying at the beginning of the 1. Unique Picasso Goat plate from Marina Picasso’s collection sold at Sotheby’s in June 2. Let’s return for a moment to that $1. Picasso painting, and the fact that you can get a fine Edition Picasso ceramic for about 1/1. The Tête de chèvre (AR 1. If you believe in numerology (and the metric system) you’ll be interested to learn that Picasso’s probable prototype for Tête de chèvre sold for $1. Marina Picasso sale at Sotheby’s, about ten times more than its Edition Picasso equivalent but close to 1/1,0. Picasso painting. So, how much more should unique Picasso ceramics be worth than comparable Edition Picasso pieces? If the answer is 1. Grand Vase prototype should have brought at least a BILLION dollars — 1,0. Edition Picasso Grand Vases have recently sold for. If the answer is 1. Edition Picasso Grand Vases have brought at auction. If it’s a mere 1. Goat plates would seem to suggest, then best original Picasso ceramics should sell in the $1. If the other examples compared above are better guides, then the best unique pieces should be $6,3. To my mind the buyer of the beautiful Picasso at the top of the page got a steal. Clearly Christie’s believed that the “best” Edition Picasso ceramic in their sale of June 2. Personnages et Têtes AR 2. At 2. 2 inches tall, not only was it the largest piece in the sale, it was one of only 2. Madoura. It was pictured on the cover of the catalogue and brought the second highest price in the sale (after the outlier Femme du Barbu ), selling for $1. Yet more than half of the unique Picasso ceramics from Marina Picasso’s collection at Sotheby’s sold for less than the cost of this Edition Picasso multiple. Granted that the originals were smaller in size and arguably less interesting than Personnages et Têtes, but they were actually from the artist’s hand, not “authentic replicas.”Which would you rather own?
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