Picasso ceramics for Madoura

In the late 1940s Pablo Picasso, then in his sixties, discovered a new passion, as a result of his encounter with Suzanne and Georges Ramié at the Atelier Madoura in Vallauris on the Cote d'Azur. A master artist, “The Artist" of the 20th century, Picasso was, however, relatively new to ceramics, a novice even, yet, as always during his artistic journey his hunger for new ideas and desire to master the process took over and he quickly mastered the art of hand decorated ceramics . After much experimentation with the Ramies, Picasso soon became adept in the art of glazed ceramic pottery. During the following 24 years Picasso produced thousands of different unique ceramic pieces with Madoura, vases, plates, bowls, sculptures and objects which he decorated with all manner of anthropomorphic imagery, including faces, owls, fish, bulls, beasts and many other elements from his lifelong stock of artistic imagery. Madoura replicated his unique designs using moulds to copy the form and then mimicking Picasso's delicate brushstrokes with glazes to match the originals.
The result was 633 different ceramic editions produced by the Ramié’s between 1947 and 1971. The editions were made in multiples of 25 up to 500, generally speaking the edition size today determines the rarity and ultimately the value of each piece. Many, but not all were numbered, all feature a variety painted and/or impressed marks made by the Madoura potters - The stamps include ‘Madoura plein feu’ , ‘ Empreinte originale de Picasso’ and ‘Edition Picasso’
The market for Picasso ceramics made by Madoura in the mid 20th century has grown significantly during the past decade. It has become one of the most accessible areas of collecting the great masters art and has become a lucrative investment market.
Auction houses including Christies and Sotheby’s have actively cultivated the market for Picasso’s ceramics, now regularly dedicating entire sales to these works. Prices for good examples have climbed year on year at an impressive rate, making collecting Picasso’s ceramics a sometimes expensive yet worthwhile investment. Simple wares such as ashtrays and dishes with scenes of birds or bulls made in editions of 500 fetch modest sums in the region of £2-3000 whilst intermediary pieces from editions of 200 can sell in the £15-25,000 mark. The smallest editions of 25 examples can fetch large sums into the hundred of thousands and unique pieces that were produced at Madoura but not made into editions can run into the millions.
The entire Madoura output of ceramic works by Picasso was catalogued in 1988 by Alain Ramié - ‘Picasso, Catalogue of the edited ceramic works 1947-1971’ it is the complete catalogue raisonné of Picasso's ceramic editions. Often works with dealers or at auction will cite a reference to the work “A.R.” followed by a number, this refers to the reference number in the catalogue raisonné.