Bound to Sell

Adam Partridge’s summer auction of studio ceramics on 28 July 2023 will include over 100 works by Charles Bound to be sold in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and Practical Action. Born in New York in 1939, Bound left America aged 28, spending a number of years in Africa working for a publishing company before he, in his own words, ‘arrived in Europe, middle-aged, took up clay – all else having gone adrift.’

Coming to ceramics relatively late, Bound initially studied and worked at Jacob Kramer Art College in Leeds, setting up his pottery in Yorkshire in 1984 before relocating to mid Wales in 2002. Now into his 80s, the time has come to thin out his large stock of wood-fired stoneware ceramics to raise money for two of his favourite charities.

Bound’s bold and assertive work, David Whiting wrote, is imbued ‘with something of post-war American energy and his own stridency. These are awkward objects, making no concession to conventional taste.’ Gnarled, altered, torn, cracked, slashed, pierced, distorted and reassembled are the adjectives frequently employed to describe Bound’s vigorous output. Decoration is often limited to the accretions of fly-ash or the spontaneous use of slips, glazes and applied bits of clay. The auction will feature a range of vessel types of all shapes and sizes, some large plates and several sculptural pieces.

Studio Ceramics at Adam Partridge Auctioneers & Valuers