Artist Grayson Perry is searching for the pots he sold for “modest sums” and even gave away at the beginning of his career.
The cross-dressing potter, 58, has made his name as one of Britain’s best-known and most well-loved artists since scooping the Turner Prize in 2003.
But he has lost trace of many of the works he made during evening classes more than 20 years ago and is hunting them down for a new exhibition.
The Holburne Museum in Bath is asking anyone with a pot or plate created between 1983 and 1994 to get in touch.
The show will “shine a light on Perry’s experimentation in ceramics and exploration of the medium’s potential”.
Perry said: “When I started out making ceramics at evening classes, part of the reason I enjoyed it was that I could make artworks relatively quickly.
“In my first decade of exhibiting I would often show over 60 or 70 works, made over the course of a few months. I sold these works for modest sums and often gave away what was left.
“I was terrible at admin and photography so kept very little record of these early pieces.
“Most of these works were exhibited in London, though I also had shows in this period in Paris, New York and San Antonio, Texas.
“I was very excited when the Holburne Museum in Bath proposed a show of my ceramics from the 80s and early 90s as it would also be an opportunity to find and record the beginnings of my career.
“My record-keeping hasn’t improved much – I recently moved house and found five pots in the loft which had been unseen since the 80s and a dozen plates from the early 90s in a cupboard under a sink.”
A number of Perry’s works may have changed hands or been passed down to the next generation.
Chris Stephens, director of the Holburne Museum, which has a collection of historic ceramics from English and French porcelain to Chinese and Japanese ware, said: “We are thrilled to be working with such an innovative and influential artist as Grayson Perry in this unique way, calling on the public to effectively help us ‘crowdsource’ an exhibition.”
Perry’s ceramics have a potter’s mark which the gallery will use to check that they are genuine.
The museum can be contacted at curator@holburne.org with the email subject Grayson Perry Lost Works.
