Pablo Picasso Madoura Urn, ca. 1960
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APPRAISER:
So you got this piece from your father?
GUEST:
Yes, he had an art gallery in the early to mid-'70s. And when it closed, there was inventory left, which he brought home. And he had a couple of Picasso vases, and this is one of them. He gave it to my husband and I.
APPRAISER:
This was done by Picasso through a company called Madoura. Picasso, towards the end of his life, was still painting quite a bit, but slowing down a touch when he turned 70 or so and started spending more and more time in the south of France, where he eventually retired. And he got friendly with the Ramies-- that's the name of the folks who owned the Madoura Pottery-- in Vallauris in the south of France and started doing some doodles and putting things on pottery, and then other people would copy his pieces because he did not hand-decorate.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
And he would take inspiration partly from what he was doing on his paintings, but mostly from that culture of southern French pottery. So he does masks and suns and flowers and animals and so forth. But this is an interesting design because it's also like one of the doodles that he would do when he would sign pieces that he actually did from scratch. So when he started doing these pieces at Madoura, it would have been after 1947. And then he ended up doing them until the very early '70s. In a world where so much has gone down in price, as far as decorative arts go, Picasso Madoura has been climbing.
GUEST:
Good.
APPRAISER:
Steadily, especially the last ten years. His signature will only be on pieces that are unique. This is done in an edition, it's an edition of 200.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
The Madoura pieces were done on editions that were up to 500, so this is a nice, relatively small one.
GUEST:
So are there that many of them in circulation?
APPRAISER:
Well, there may very well be, but very few of them show up. This is the first one that I have seen in person. And looking at comparables that have been sold at auction, this comes up once or twice.
GUEST:
Wow, okay.
APPRAISER:
Certain things have gone up-- not many. The Picasso name is one of them.
GUEST:
Mmhmm.
APPRAISER:
And something like this at auction now would most likely be estimated somewhere in the $12,000 to $15,000 range and may very well get more than that.
GUEST:
Cool, that's wonderful. Yeah. Super.
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