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A significant work by Hans Coper (1920–1981) of monumental proportions will be offered at auction by Chiswick Auctions this spring. Widely regarded as the most important and respected studio potter of the twentieth century, Coper's work continues to command ever-increasing interest and record-breaking prices at auction.
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© Jane Coper
Born in Germany in 1920 to a prosperous family, Hans Coper's early years were disrupted by the rise of Nazism. As the son of a Jewish father, he fled Germany in 1939, arriving in London alone and with very few possessions. His early experiences in England were marked by hardship and isolation. After the war, while seeking work, he was introduced to the ceramicist Lucie Rie, who offered him employment making ceramic buttons in her Albion Mews studio.
With guidance from Heber Matthews at Woolwich Polytechnic, Coper quickly developed a skill for throwing clay. By 1948, he and Rie were producing domestic stoneware, while Coper began to explore forms inspired by ancient artefacts he encountered in museum collections.
Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Coper honed a distinctive aesthetic using a white clay known as ‘T’ material, combined with dark manganese and white slips. He applied a layered process of sanding, staining and reworking the surface until he achieved textures evocative of archaeological finds.
In 1959, Coper joined the Digswell Arts Trust in Hertfordshire, where he produced large-scale works and undertook notable commissions, including murals and acoustic tiles. In 1962, he was invited to create a series of candlesticks for Coventry Cathedral – among the most monumental pieces of his career.
Coper returned to London in 1963, living at 44 Princedale Road, West Kensington. His studio moved to Hammersmith a year later. It was during this time that he created many of his largest works, including forms that had to be fired in multiple parts and reassembled. He also produced his now-famous hourglass and disc forms.
He was a highly influential teacher at both the Camberwell School of Arts and the Royal College of Art, where he mentored a generation of emerging potters.
Coper relocated to Frome, Somerset, in 1967 with his wife Jane. He continued to exhibit widely, with shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and Hamburg’s Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, often alongside Lucie Rie.
In his lifetime, Coper’s pots sold for modest sums. By the 1980s, secondary market prices began to climb, moving from hundreds to thousands. In March 2018, a Cycladic vessel purchased in the 1970s for £250 sold at auction for £381,000, then the highest price ever achieved for a piece of modern studio pottery. In 2022, a new record was set when another vessel fetched £655,500, inclusive of buyer’s premium.
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Monumental vessel of composite form, possibly unique, early 1964, Estimate £6,000 - £10,000
Chiswick Auctions is proud to present a major Coper vessel, created in early 1964 and directly commissioned from the artist. It is referenced in the diary of the current vendor’s grandmother and has remained in the same family since its creation. The work is among the tallest pieces Coper ever made, outside the Coventry Cathedral commission, and is of a previously undocumented form.
Discovered recently in a garden flowerbed, the piece has sustained damage and is being sold in two parts, requiring restoration. Nevertheless, its rarity and scale offer a remarkable opportunity for collectors and institutions to acquire a significant work of British studio pottery.
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© Jane Coper
[i] Tony Birks, Hans Coper, Stenlake Publishing, Paperback 2013, pp.54
Email our Design & Modern Contemporary Specialists at design@chiswickauctions.co.uk or submit an online valuation for a free, no obligation assessment.