John Ward (1938-2023)

Vessel

matte white glaze with radiating green lines, the rounded body rising and shaped to six points at the rim, black glaze to the interior

impressed potter's seal

18cm high.

Provenance:

Private collection, Oxfordshire.

This significant group is the result of two individuals’ particular collecting eye, a great affection for Ward’s work that simply led from one piece to another, without thought of investment or building a ‘collection’ as such, but driven on instead by a deeper admiration for what this artist was doing. The first piece they bought was in the 1980s, a small squared pot with a green and white banded design, spreading out from a centre on each side like ripples on water. It was purchased from the New Craftsman Gallery in St Ives, one of a small number of places from where they acquired their Wards over the next three decades. Others included Amalgam, Tim Boon’s exceptional gallery in Barnes, and Peter Dingley and Guido Marchini’s equally enterprising outlet in Stratford-upon-Avon. One piece came from a very local source, Oxford Gallery, and they returned to Tim Boon when more recently he had taken over Tony Birks’ Alpha House Gallery in Sherborne. (An excerpt taken from David Whiting's introduction text for the collection. The full text can be found in the printed catalogue)