A Mason's Ironstone teapot and cover, and a sugar-bowl

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Valerie Howard With the sudden death of Valerie Howard on 10th January 2003 the ceramic world lost a very special person. She uniquely embraced so many different aspects of the decorative arts world in which she was a scholar, researcher and writer. She also enjoyed successful careers both in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and later as a specialist antique dealer. Anyone who had the pleasure of meeting and knowing Valerie will never forget her bubbly personality, infectious enthusiasm, and invariably you always learnt something through her generosity in sharing the results of her studies. Valerie joined the Ceramics Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum at a time when the collections were administered by some of the greatest names in the ceramic world, including such eminent scholars as Arthur Lane, Robert Charleston, John Mallet and John Cushion all of whom specialised in the English and European pieces, and John Ayers whose expertise and scholarship was with the Oriental accumulations. Like anyone who was privileged to work with such men Valerie was able to benefit from their teaching. Her knowledge and genuine love of ceramics was greatly influenced by the exciting period she spent working with the nation's most comprehensive collection of pottery and porcelain. Valerie left the Victoria & Albert Museum to have her family but was always spoken of with affection by her former colleagues in the ceramics department. She had certainly made her mark within the Museum and was a difficult act to follow. Being bi-lingual Valerie devoted a proportion of her life to translating a number of books on both ceramics and textiles which remain standard reference works. Having lived in Paris, and with a home in Provence, it was hardly surprising that she developed a special affection for the tin-glazed earthenware of Quimper and 18th century Marseilles faience. It was always difficult when visiting her shop not to be drawn away from the English ceramics and let the eye wander over the superb ranges of French pottery. Valerie developed a real niche in the market for these wares and was internationally recognised as one of the premier specialist dealers in this field. In 1985, having missed her daily access to ceramics, Valerie turned her considerable expertise and skills to dealing full time, initially in one of the arcades at Portobello Road before (in 1988) moving to her tiny, but exciting, shop off Kensington Church Street. Six years later with her business and reputation expanding she moved into number 2 Campden Street which rapidly became a Mecca for anyone interested not only in her French artefacts, but more particularly Mason's porcelain and Ironstone in which she became one of the premier dealers in Britain. Valerie's love of the subject and her unerring ability to find rare and unusual objects stimulated her annual December exhibitions. The catalogues for these remain standard works of reference through to today. Undoubtedly one of the most exciting of these 'special' displays was held in 1993 and entitled an, 'Exhibition Dedicated to the Landscape and Flower Painting on Miles Mason Porcelain and Early Ironstone Chinas'. Looking back on a range of ornamental wares gathered together for the display it was a typical Valerie 'tour de force'. Throughout her life Valerie was unstintingly generous with her knowledge and her pots. In 1996 when the Wedgwood Museum, in association with the Mason's Collectors' Club, decided to celebrate Mason's first 200 years, she willingly lent many rare items for the exhibition and provided various illustrations for the publication which accompanied the display. Nothing was impossible for Valerie. If a specific pattern or shape was needed to make the display complete she knew not only where such an example existed, but she that was happy and willing to contact her clients and borrow back that essential 'missing link' in the exhibition's narrative. The collectors always beat a path to Valerie's door, but her presence at the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar held every June in London, was an added bonus for all her friends. The warm welcome and genuine delight with which greeted you on her stand, was one of the highlights of the Summer Season in London. Valerie will be greatly missed by her collectors, who came from the four corners of the world, as well as all the other friends she made over the years from so many different walks of life, but who were associated with both the English and French decorative arts. Undoubtedly her memory will live on through the pieces she found for collectors world-wide, and through her writings and research. By Gaye Blake-Roberts Director of the Wedgwood Museum

A Mason's Ironstone teapot and cover, and a sugar-bowl

CIRCA 1815-20, WITH CIRCULAR IMPRESSED MASON'S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA MARK TO SUGAR-BOWL

Details

A Mason's Ironstone teapot and cover, and a sugar-bowl
Circa 1815-20, with circular impressed MASON'S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA mark to sugar-bowl
The teapot of bullet shape, with a richly-gilt scroll handle, a leaf-moulded spout and a pinecone finial, painted and gilt with sprays of flowers and butterflies within a ozier-moulded border, the sugar bowl similar (sugar bowl finial repaired)
The teapot 4½ in. (11.5 cm.) high (2)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

C.f. Geoffrey A. Godden, Mason's China and the Ironstone Wares, (Suffolk, 1980), p. 176, p. 265 for a teapot and sugar-bowl of similar moulded form.

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