Last week was spent frantically sorting out and preparing for the Saturday Sale in Glossop of West German Pottery. Saturday morning dawned and everything was ready:

Wowie Zowie owners Jenny and Goff were first in at the crack of dawn… well, not quite. But they were first in as the shop needed to be opened. A quick whizz round and they’d grabbed a gorgeous lamp, a fantastic Italian planter that we were quite partial to ourselves and some other lovely West German Pottery. I’ve said it before (and I’ll say it again!), but their shop really is the embodiment of all of my retro shop fantasies. Every time, and I do mean every single time, we go in there, we’re blown away by how fantastic it is. I love the fact that some of our stuff ends up in there.

Our neighbour, Helen, was next through the doors and I was more pleased than anything else really that she bought one of the pots! I love it when we sell something to friends and family; it’s like a little confirmation that it’s not just us and a few others who like this stuff AND that we might have a chance of making a go at this as a real business. Helen’s pot is already in her window and I like that the WGP world is spreading through Glossop. She bought an excellent 1950s Scheurich Heinz Siery piece to put her flowers in. I’ll grab a picture one day, if she’ll let me!

After that, Julian, Lisa and Chris were the next to arrive – and were amongst the last to leave! As always, lovely to see them and this time, Chris bought some pieces of pottery as well!

 Chris is holding the pieces he bought and Lisa is holding what has been christened Julian’s ‘Chef Hat’ Carstens. They bought some other lovely things as well, but I won’t give them away. Instead, you can go and visit Lisa’s blog here and take a look for yourself.

Lots of people came on the day, virtually everybody we’d invited. Unfortunately, in all of the excitement, I completely forgot to take many pictures! Richard Holland, who owns the largest Ceramano collection in the world, came along with his friend Janet, who professed herself to not actually being a collector. I think we may have changed her mind though as she left with more than Richard! Unsurprisingly, Richard bought a large Ceramano piece, along with a small Ilkra. Janet bought a few gorgeous 1950s pieces by Scheurich and Bay, including that fabulous orange Bay Contura piece that I loved; and a few of the glass solifleur vases. Steve and Lesley from Derbyshire came over – they’d already bought a few bits and bobs from Aidan’s Ebay: penguinaidan. They took one of the amazing Scheurich huuuuuuuuuge Wien pots! Those are seriously amazing pots:

 Stuart Brownrigg, who runs the most amazing West German pottery stall at Bygone Times, turned up carrying a bottle of German champagne and some delicious-looking rhubarb chutney from his wife, The Kitchen Witch. We should be having some of that for our lunch today! Stuart bought a fab Ruscha 313 with a crackle glaze and… I’ll be honest, I can’t remember what else! He was another who managed to escape the photographs! He did provide us with some information regarding pots we’d still not managed to identify. As always, it was fantastic seeing him… and as to re-use a thought, you really should get yourself up to Bygone Times to see his stall if you haven’t already. Trust me, it’s worth it.

We also met Kevin Thorpe and his wife, Joanne for the first time. Kevin is a relatively new collector, but yet someone else from the North West who has discovered the love for West German pottery. Thankfully, he was more than happy for me to take a picture:

As well as the few smaller pieces in the box, Kevin and Joanne bought two massive Scheurich vases with psychedelic flowers on the sides. I absolutely love how pleased Kevin looks in this photograph! Really lovely to meet them both, and again, very glad that we had something that they liked.

Stefan, a recently met collector was last through the doors and he was like a whirlwind too! That seemed to be the theme of the day, regardless of how long you spent. At one point, we had that many people in the front room, even I had to make a retreat to the kitchen!

More than anything, it was just such a lovely feeling to have brought so many people together who enjoy looking at and chatting about West German pottery. I was ever so excited – though this might have had as much to do with the amount of diet coke and tea I’d drunk by the end of the day! By five o’clock, the last person had left and we were left with a still very full living room, a few more pennies in the pocket and a extremely satisfying feeling of having made a little mark on the WGP world. A massive thanks to everybody who made the huge effort to come along: Jen, Goff, Helen, Julian, Lisa, Chris, Steve, Lesley, Richard, Janet, Kevin, Joanne, Stuart, Stefan and Dave (dragged along by Helen, probably!). We promise to try and make it at least an annual event.