Love and obsession: how leading UK ceramics collection ended up in London council flat

Michael Evans filled every available space with a treasure trove of British, French and Japanese works. Now they’re up for auction

Until recently, one of the best British postwar ceramics collections was to be found on a council estate in east London. “It was a bit like walking into a reliquary,” says the ceramicist Annie Turner, a regular visitor to the two-bed flat. “You’d go into a pretty brutal-looking 1970s building and up a dull concrete stairwell and think, ‘Am I in the right place?’. Then you opened this door, and it was like entering another world.”

Behind that very ordinary front door was a treasure trove. Mostly British, French or Japanese, around 1,200 ceramic works clustered on shelves, grouped on tables and desks, and even used as planters on the tiny balcony. Among the objects were key pieces by Lucie Rie and Edmund de Waal, and contemporary works by Turner herself, and Sara Flynn – two award-winning artists whose prices have recently risen sharply.

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The Maldives resort loved by David Beckham and Gordon Ramsay

It's easy to see why...

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What is a mortgage in principle? Nottingham Estate Agents

There are a number of hoops to jump through in the process of securing a mortgage and getting an agreement in principle is one of the most important. Here, independent mortgage broker John Charcol explains everything you need to know. What is a mortgage in principle? A mortgage in principle, also known as an Agreement in […]

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Country diary: our soil seethes with history | Country diary

Welburn and Crambeck, North Yorkshire: As I pick out the stones and weeds, I think about the life you can see and the life you can’t

I’m not really up for the graft of garden maintenance. Aside from planting a few fruit trees, herbs and pollinator plants, our custodianship is better described as “ungardening”. We’ve welcomed back herb robert and red campion, dandelion and bugle, and the place heaves with birds, rabbits and voles. But in a lockdown-induced fit of horticultural zeal, I recently begged two big old raised beds from our kindly farmer neighbour. After we’d heaved them into position, a digger rumbled down the lane and deposited a half-tonne of local topsoil in one deft dump. That is my kind of gardening.

Farmer John warned that I’d have to pick out the stones and weeds, and after shovelling in most of our compost heap I set to – raking with my hands, crushing lumps, rubbing in blobs of clay and manure like butter into scone mix. But no recipe can replicate soil. After three student summers in a “mud-pie” geomechanics laboratory, I can still grade silt from sand by touch, and sort angular gravel from sub-rounded cobble at a glance.

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Country diary: our soil seethes with history | Country diary

Welburn and Crambeck, North Yorkshire: As I pick out the stones and weeds, I think about the life you can see and the life you can’t

I’m not really up for the graft of garden maintenance. Aside from planting a few fruit trees, herbs and pollinator plants, our custodianship is better described as “ungardening”. We’ve welcomed back herb robert and red campion, dandelion and bugle, and the place heaves with birds, rabbits and voles. But in a lockdown-induced fit of horticultural zeal, I recently begged two big old raised beds from our kindly farmer neighbour. After we’d heaved them into position, a digger rumbled down the lane and deposited a half-tonne of local topsoil in one deft dump. That is my kind of gardening.

Farmer John warned that I’d have to pick out the stones and weeds, and after shovelling in most of our compost heap I set to – raking with my hands, crushing lumps, rubbing in blobs of clay and manure like butter into scone mix. But no recipe can replicate soil. After three student summers in a “mud-pie” geomechanics laboratory, I can still grade silt from sand by touch, and sort angular gravel from sub-rounded cobble at a glance.

Continue reading...

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Tree change manuals: five books to make you a better gardener, cook and recycler

Thinking of getting closer to nature? These books will give you the sound practical advice you need

How often have you heard the expression “… is the great equaliser”? As in, “music is the great equaliser”, “education is the great equaliser”, and the ultimate – “death is the great equaliser”.

The point being that what exactly is “an equaliser” will depend entirely on the experience and personal opinion of the person you are talking to.

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Tree change manuals: five books to make you a better gardener, cook and recycler

Thinking of getting closer to nature? These books will give you the sound practical advice you need

How often have you heard the expression “… is the great equaliser”? As in, “music is the great equaliser”, “education is the great equaliser”, and the ultimate – “death is the great equaliser”.

The point being that what exactly is “an equaliser” will depend entirely on the experience and personal opinion of the person you are talking to.

Continue reading...

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