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INTRODUCTION
A year before his death in 1923, Robert Wallace Martin was taken to an auction of a private collection of Martin Brothers pottery. His anthropomorphic bird jars had been highly regarded from the time he first introduced the idiosyncratic models in 1880 and they sold for substantial prices at the small shop on Brownlow Street. Yet the enthusiastic appetite for his pieces in the saleroom that day and the sums paid astonished Wallace. Over the following decades, collectors and consoisseurs have continued to seek out his work and its audience has grown and widened. This centenary exhibition is an opportunity to appreciate the ceramics of Robert Wallace Martin and a tribute to his unique genius.
1922
1939
Sotheby’s sells the collection of Francis Henry Crittall
Frederick Nettlefold’s collection is catalogued by Charles Beard as part of his book, A Short History of the Firm of R.W. Martin and Brothers of Southall.
1942 – Walker’s Galleries, New Bond Street holds an exhibition of 51 lots from the collection of the late Frank Knight.
1978
Peter Wilson auctioneers sell a private collection of 22 lots with its own catalogue.
1978 – Sotheby’s Belgravia holds a single ownder auction of Roy Aitken’s collection of 230 lots.
1978
1980
1982
1995
2001
2005
2008
2015
Richard Dennis holds a seminal exhibition of 719 pieces at Sotheby’s Belgravia and publishes The Martin Brothers Potters by Malcolm Haslam.
Woolley & Wallis includes an important 34 lot private collection as part of a sale.
The New York based JordanVolpe Gallery holds Boobies, Boojums & Snarks, establishing a strong American following for the pottery.
Gallery 532, David Rago and Philip Chasen launch The Martin Brothers, an exhibition of 97 lots in New York.
Two legendary Harriman Judd British Art Pottery auctions at Sotheby’s, New York include a million dollar collection of Martin Brothers pottery.
Woolley & Wallis holds an important sale and exhibition dedicated to the works of the Martin Brothers at their Salisbury sale rooms. Further auctions are held in 2006 and 2007.
The Fantasies in Clay exhbition is held at Blackwell House on Lake Windermere.
Woolley & Wallis sells the private collection of gourd vases collected by Sidney Greenslade, a significant patron of the brothers.
2015 – Phillips sell a private collection Wonderous Beasts, Feathered Fantasies R W Martin & Bros, in New York.
2019
Woolley & Wallis sells two prestigious collections (the Daryl Fromm Collection of gourd vases and grotesques and George Twyman’s wide ranging archive covering all aspects of production).
Two views of the 1978 exhibition held by Richard Dennis at Sotheby’s.
