Here are some thoughts on what I think are particularly collectable in the fields of ceramics, glass and metalware (stainless steel) made during these two important decades for popular modernist design.  This style is beginning to get a name: Retro. All of these types of  wares can be found on eBay. 

Some of these are obvious, well known and already highly sought after and have seen prices rocket in the last 10 years (Troika, Whitefriars).  Interestingly, others have seen prices drop quite a lot from a high point in about 2003 as increased availability via eBay has made them appear commonplace (eg Poole, Midwinter) and others are still little known and cheap to buy (ie 1950s US designers have not yet caught on as much there as UK ones have here).  In this collecting field, we are currently about where Art Deco collecting was in the late 70s/early 80s in term of interest.  The level of interest, therefore, is likely to rise in future. I will add to this list as I research this area further.

NB. I have not included work by some of  the leading studio potters (ie Leach, Rie, Coper). Their pieces costs four and five figure sums and are really part of the art rather than the collectables market.  The prices of things mentioned here are in a wide range - from about £5 to £1500.  There is something for everyone.

 

Some Significant 1950s retro collectables to look out for

Ceramics

1. Freeform Shapes

Poole (Alfred Read Designs)

(A Poole Freeform vase - 1955-59)

Beswick (Colin Melbourne designs; Alfred Hallam Zebra striped wares; roof tops)

Royal Norfolk (Alan Compton designs)

Burleigh

Hornsea

Pilkington/Royal Lancastrian (Mitzi Cunliffe Designs)

Petrus Regout, Maastricht (Wim Visser designs)

(A Wim Visser vase c1954)

Rosenthal (Beathe Kuhn designs)

Cmielow (great freeform vases and teasets from Poland)

(A pair of Cmielow vases and a dish)

 

2. Tableware

Midwinter (Terence Conran, Jessie Tait - many designs)

Ridgway (Homemaker; Parisienne; Barbeque) Sometimes incorrectly spelt `Ridgeway' - searches on both spellings will turn up items.

Alfred Meakin (Jivers/ Rock n Roll  range; Montmartre; new look/woman walking poodles range; Parisienne; Gay Nineties; London Town plus other 50s designs)

(An Alfred Meakin `Montmartre' Plate)

Beswick (Dancing Days; Circus; Ballet; Green Fingers)

Also: Barker Brothers; Swinnertons; Broadhurst

Rorstrand (ie Picknic range)

(A Rorstrand Picknic Tray - 1950s)

Eva Zeisel (Hall - Hallcraft range; Red Wing both USA + other makers)

Russell Wright (Steubenville - USA)

Raymond Loewy (Rosenthal, Continental China + other makers)

 

3. Pattern/ surface decoration

Tibor Reich (Denby Tigo range)

Glyn Colledge (Denby Cheviot range - I find his other designs rather traditional)

Various types of `Zebra' / Zebrette striped vases (Midwinter, Beswick, Lancaster and Sandland + others)

Jessie Tait (Vases for Midwinter)

Rye Pottery

 

4. Studio Pottery

Scandinavian studio pottery (e.g Ipsen, Bang, Saxbo, Palshus, Berndt Friberg; Tobo; Gunnar Nylund; Carl-Harry Stalhane - these can all cost serious money)

(A Gunnar Nylund vase for Rorstrand)

Gustavsberg (Stig Lindberg)

Italian Studio ceramics (eg Guido Gambone etc - top end prices but in the same league as Picasso's ceramics of this era - ie they pretty much define the era in terms of innovation and style).  Much cheaper stylish pieces - Raymor/Bitossi. 

 

Glass

Scandinavian - many designer names including Hald; Lindstrand; Nyman, Franck; Sarpaneva; Ohrstrom; Hopea; Palmqvist; Wirkkala; (expensive studio pieces though their tableware glass ranges by factories such as Orrefors, Kosta Boda, Iittala and Nuutajarvi-Notsojo can be good value. Pieces by Flygsfors are still very affordable too)

(two Orchid vases by Timo Sarpaneva - 1955)

The Italians made some great glass in the 50s too but individual studio pieces sell for megabucks.  Some Murano glass can be quite affordable.

 

Metalware

Old Hall (Camden range - Robert Welch)

 

Some Significant 1960s retro collectables:

Ceramics

Poole Studio (most are unsigned but Robert Jefferson and especially Tony Morris are the big names)

(A Poole Studio Charger - 1964-66)

Poole Delphis (especially designed by Margaret Anderson, Carol Holden, Jean Millership, Angela Wyburg and Betty Banten - Carol Cutler too though most of her pieces were made in the 1970s)

Troika (Personally I'm not a fan of the rough textured pieces made in the 1970s at Newlyn but there are some good early pieces made at St Ives and look out for the whiteware pieces - undervalued at the moment but classic 60s op art)

(A Troika Coffee Pot - 1968)

Alan Caiger-Smith (Aldermaston Pottery)

Portmeirion (ie totem coffee pots)

Iden Pottery (Rye)

Eric Leaper Pottery (St Ives)

Hornsea (some great 60s vases - these are cheap at the moment)

Royal Copenhagen - Fajance

Arabia (very expensive studio pottery but much cheaper tablewares)

Heinrich Fuchs - Op Art vases for Hutschenreuther (West Germany)

Rosenthal Studio Linie (West Germany)

Theo Baumann ( for Arzberg and Rosenthal - more 1970s than 1960s but superb designs all the same)

 

Glass

Whitefriars (Geoffry Baxter ie the now famous Drunken Bricklayer vase plus various other textured shapes - see Tapio Wirkkala for a key influence on Baxter)

Kosta Boda (Mona Morales-Schildt; Vicke Lindstrand) 

(A Vicke Lindstrand vase, Kosta Boda - 1960s)

Benny Motzfeldt (almost anti-design)

Holmegaard

Murano (eg Carlo Moretti)

 

Metalware

Stelton (Cylinda range by Arne Jacobsen)

David Mellor

 

General UK market trends for all the types of wares on this page

Most ordinary 1950s/60s retro wares saw a peak in prices on eBay in 2002/3 and they have dropped in price by up to 50% since then due to increased supply and a levelling off of demand because of general economic conditions. I think supply is still increasing for most things as eBay becomes a more established way of selling.  Certainly it is much easier to find what you want on eBay now than it was in 2000.  Rare studio pieces, rare patterns, and rare shapes in all types of wares continue to rise in price and some designers are becoming more popular and their pieces more sought after (i.e. Beswick freeform `zebra' vases). 

In general, now is a very good time to buy retro (either as a collector or dealer) from low starting price/ no-reserve auctions but it is probably best to avoid those `buy-it-now' auctions where traders are still trying to sell at high 2002 prices.  In my experience these are either dealers who bought at the top of the market and who can't now sell at fairs/shops and are trying to off-load their over-priced stock on eBay, or are collectors selling surplus items who bought when prices were high, who assume that prices always go up, and who don't understand the current market.  Fashions and tastes do change and prices do go down as well as up.  Buying for investment in collectables is classed by economists as a high risk and should be treated as such. 

A likely trend is that collectors will become more specialised as time goes on.  Rather than collecting, say, Troika or Poole delphis in general, they might collect particular types of wares or pieces by particular designers within these groups.  Over time this will probably lead to greater price variation within a class of wares than we have seen so far.  Also when some things become very expensive (i.e Troika) new collectors will probably avoid these and turn their attention to something else that is more affordable.

At the cheaper end of the market (say under £30) there can be considerable price volatility.  A fairly standard 1950s plate, for instance, with a common design, can sell for £25+ one week and £8 the next.  The high prices tend to occur when 2 people get involved in a bidding war with each other and push the price up to an artificially high level (this usually involves people who are new to eBay or new to collecting this particular type of item).  Next week that does not happen and prices appear to fall.  It is a good idea to keep a record over time of prices achieved for items you are interested in so you can see what the average is and whether prices are going up or down. 

Sometimes sellers will see an item sell high and will be tempted to advertise a similar item soon after with a starting price at what the previous item achieved.  There is no guarantee that it will make that price next time around or that that is what it is really worth on the open market. It is worth doing your own research so that you can decide what you think is a fair price to pay for what you want.

In the long term...

The 1950s and 1960s were a time of new beginnings after the Second World War and were a period of social change, optimism and hope in the future.  These social aspirations were reflected strongly in the design of the time.  The best designs of this period (simple, organic and freeform in shape and bold and brighly coloured in pattern) are as distinctive, novel and indicative for their time as Art Nouveau is for the 1890s/1900s and Art Deco is for the 1920s/30s.  In time, what is increasingly being known (somewhat ironically) as the `Retro' style will be seen as just as important and just as collectable as these earlier styles. 

In the 1980s the 50s and 60s were totally out of fashion and most people just laughed at what they saw as the `kitsch trash' of that time.  Some still do but since then a small number of dedicated researchers/collectors with a knowledge of the merits of the design of this era have begun to collect.  This number has grown over the last 10 years and, in time, this easy to understand style is likely to develop a broad appeal as people develop an `eye' for its qualities.  When I have been at antique fairs I have noticed that many people over 50 do not understand the merits of this stuff at all (possibly because they associate it with their childhoods and with a less prosperous time they have left behind) whereas their teenage kids can see it straight away.  Using past examples we can see that this process of the style of a period becoming fully established in the collectors' market usually takes about 60 years to complete (Art Nouveau was out of fashion until the 1960s and Art Deco until the 1980s). That means we probably have about another 10 years before Retro really takes off in a big way in the collectors' market and items start to become really expensive.

There are already a steady stream of books (see Lesley Jackson in particular) and web sites (such as retroselect dot com) being published on wares from this era that make it more visible and increase our knowledge of the subject.  In the future we can expect to see important museum exhibitions on Retro being staged (with illustrated catalogues), top auction houses will take an interest (they already are at the top end of the market), and eBay will continue to play an important part in making these wares visible and available.  As a consequence, collectors will become increasingly knowledgeable about this style and its wares - knowing which are the best, the rarest and most iconic items to collect.  No longer seen as `kitsch trash' this style will attain a status of respectability. 

 

Some useful keywords to put into searches if you are looking to do a general trawl on eBay for modern designs from this period:

freeform, contemporary, streamline, new look, retro, modernist, danish modern, scandinavian, eames, panton, shabby chic, kitsch, atomic, funky, psychadelic as well as 1950s, 1960s, 50s, 60s etc (with and without apostrophes!) 

I hope you find this guide of some use.