1891

Peter Rose vividly describes the occasion on which he purchased this Martin Brothers 'wally-bird' against stiff competition from the legendary collectors Allen Harriman and Edward Judd in ‘A pioneering Californian collection of English Studio and Art Pottery’, The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society 1850 - the Present, 2000, vol. 24, pp. 98-109. My personal involvement with the Harriman Judd Collection began in the late 1970s when their core collection was being assembled...Most of the crowd were strangers eyeing each other warily and with scarcely concealed rivalry. In that bustling crowd I observed two Americans noisily making sure that they would be first in the queue to enter the gallery. I soon discovered that this rather assertive couple were called Allen Harriman and Edward Judd, whom I had heard about as voracious collectors but had never met. The doors opened and the motley crowd charged in to be confronted by a challenging array of Martin Brothers Birds and pots, the largest collection of Martin Brothers pottery ever assembled... But the buyers had reckoned without the two Americans who immediately set up a buying ring between them. One stationed himself immediately in front of the desk clerk, blocking any other potential purchaser, while the other loudly called out the numbers of chosen pieces as he rapidly swept his eyes along the shelves of birds and pots... Eventually, with almost a third of the exhibition sold to them, they relaxed their monopoly and allowed me to secure one of the few remaining birds for my collection... (an extract from P. Rose, Op. cit.). Peter Rose would go on to become good friends with the couple and was instrumental in the cataloguing of their unparalleled collection.

For illustrations of other examples of related lidded 'wallybird' jars see, M. Haslam, The Martin Brothers Potters, London, 1978, pp. 112-113, fig. XVI, and C. R. Beard, A Catalogue of the Collection of Martinware Formed by Mr. Frederick John Nettleford (...), London, 1936, pp. 204-207, plates 57 and 58.