LONDON.- On 18 March 2015, Sotheby's London will hold a sale of Important Ceramics by Pablo Picasso. The vases, pitchers, plates, bowls and more, showcase the modern master’s playful side. Unique as well as editioned, these ceramics made possible the artist’s dream that anyone could own a Picasso. The comprehensive group of approximately 150 works range in estimate from £800 upwards to £55,000.

Séverine Nackers, Head of Prints, Sotheby's Europe, commented: "The sale gives a great overview of the last 25 years of Picasso's life. Every kind of ceramic he produced is represented here."

While on holiday in the south of France in 1946, Picasso visited Madoura Pottery in the small town of Vallauris where the workshop’s owners, Suzanne and Georges Ramié, sat him at a bench and handed him a lump of clay. This humble gesture fired Picasso’s imagination and ignited a working relationship with the Ramiés which resulted in the production of thousands of ceramics. The years Picasso spent in the region are understood to have been among the happiest of his life; he told his biographer Pierre Daix that he felt at home at Madoura. Two women bookended the artist’s time with the workshop: his lover Françoise Gilot who gave birth to a son, Claude, during Picasso’s first year at the pottery, and Jacqueline Roque, who worked there, became Picasso’s wife and muse, and remained his partner for over 20 years until his death in 1973.

AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
Joueur de diaule
Terre de faïence platter, 1947, numbered 108/200, with the workshop numbering, with the Madoura and Edition Picasso stamps. Estimate: £5,000-8,000
• The earliest and first Picasso design to be made as an edition
• Picasso considered the shape of the long plate analogous to a head; this pipe player depicts the mythological faun

Service visage noir
The complete set, comprising one dish and 12 plates, 1948, from the edition of 100, each inscribed ‘Pour Catherine et Jean Louis’, the dish dated ‘19.2.1965’, each with the Madoura stamp, seven with the Edition Picasso stamp. Estimate: £30,000-40,000
• Created in 1948, the service drew public attention to Picasso’s activities in ceramics the following year, when the first set was presented as a wedding gift to Prince Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth
• This set is inscribed ‘Pour Catherine et Jean Louis’ and was most likely a wedding gift
• All 13 pieces are decorated with the heads of fauns

Picador
Terre de faïence bowl, 1955, from the edition of 500, inscribed ‘Edition Picasso’ and ‘Madoura’, with the Madoura stamp. Estimate £1,500-2,500
• Throughout Picasso’s career he continually evoked his Spanish heritage through the medium of art
• The bullfight was imbued with personal significance for Picasso since it symbolised his homeland to which he could not return after Franco came to power in 1939
• The form of this round bowl evokes the arena, in which a mounted picador confronts the bull

Vase aztèque aux quatre visages
Terre de faïence vase, 1957, numbered 6/100, incised ‘Edition Picasso’ and ‘Madoura’, with the Edition Picasso and Madoura stamps. Estimate £30,000-40,000
• Picasso based his design on Suzanne Ramié’s ‘Aztec’ heads, which evoked Pre-Columbian stirrup heads
• Each side of the vase is decorated with four individual faces featuring a circular mark above the nose, comparable to a Hindu caste mark

Tripode
Large terre de faïence vase, 1951, numbered 52/75, with the Edition Picasso and Madoura stamps. Estimate £55,000-65,000
• Picasso devised this design from one of the shapes Suzanne Ramié derived from an ancient Cypriot pot
• He has decorated the front and back with a depiction of Françoise Gilot, and shows her resting her head in her hands
• The pot rests on three bowls: the circular bowl at the back is painted as two breasts, the bowls at the front resemble a puff sleeve blouse

Vase deux anses hautes
Terre de faïence vase, 1953, from the edition of 400, inscribed ‘Edition Picasso’, with the Madoura and d’Après Picasso stamps. Estimate £15,000-20,000
• Subtle variations are apparent throughout the production of an edition; the decoration and colouration of this vase date it as one of the earliest examples from the edition
• The handles of the vase function as the woman’s arms

Service fruits de Provence
Terre de faïence plate, 1948, from the edition of 100, inscribed ‘Madoura’, ‘DR’ and ‘K’, with the Madoura stamp. Estimate £2,000-3,000

Service fruits de Provence
Terre de faïence plate, 1948, from the edition of 100, inscribed ‘Madoura’, ‘d’aprés Picasso’ ‘DH’ and ‘H’, with the Madoura stamp. Estimate £2,000-3,000

Visage no. 157
Terre de faïence plate, 1963, numbered 109/150, titled and inscribed ‘Edition Picasso’ and ‘Madoura’. Estimate £5,000-7,000

Visage no. 193
Terre de faïence plate, 1963, numbered 100/150, inscribed ‘Edition Picasso’ and ‘Madoura’. Estimate £5,000-7,000
• The owl interested Picasso greatly, and alongside the horse and the bull, it was a subject he returned to frequently
• The open neck at the top of this design represents the owl’s head; another neck at the end of the amphora (the body) represents the tail, while a further neck creates the stand

Colombe de la Paix
Unique terre de faïence platter, 1954, signed in green paint and dated ‘7 Juin 54’, with the Madoura stamp. Estimate £35,000-40,000
• Picasso executed 13 plates with variations on this motif for the 13th Congress of the French Communist Party. Each member of the Congress received one of the unique plates as a gift. This plate belonged to Dr. Rosan Girard, deputy for Guadeloupe.

EGIDIO COSTANTINI AND PABLO PICASSO
Capra (Goat)
Glass and coloured glass sculpture, 1954, inscribed ‘P. Picasso - E. Costantini 1954 ©/Fucina Angeli Venezia/p.a.’, an artist’s proof aside from the edition of 7 unique variants, realized by Costantini and Fucina degli Angeli, Venice. Estimate £5,000-7,000
• Edigio Costantini’s studio worked with major 20th century artists, including Braque and Chagall
• Picasso was particularly fond of goats and he kept them in his personal menagerie at Vallauris

Pichet à glace
Terre de faïence pitcher, 1952, numbered 40/50, inscribed ‘Edition Picasso’ and ‘Madoura’, with the Madoura and Edition Picasso stamps. Estimate £20,000-25,000
• This water jug features a woman’s face on the body of the pot; the spout and protruding neck are painted in such a way as to represent the woman’s hair

Dormeur
Silver platter, 1956, with the artist’s stamped signature, numbered 12/20, stamped with the silversmith’s marks, published in 1967. Estimate: £20,000-30,000
• The forms of these silver platters, also produced in gold, relate to ceramics that Picasso considered among his most successful designs

Canard pique-fleurs
Terre de faïence pitcher, 1951, numbered 26/50, inscribed ‘Edition Picasso’ and ‘Madoura’. Estimate £25,000-35,000
• With this vessel, Picasso plays with shapes so that a woman's head also represents the body of a duck, and a duck's tail is the woman's hair