Recording Breaking Moorcroft Vase
By Adrian Rathbone, Associate Director, Kinghams Auctioneers, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire. 22nd April 2026
A new world record has been set for the highest price achieved for a single piece of Moorcroft, beating the £31,500 achieved last summer at an auction in Wiltshire.
Cotswold Auctioneers, Kinghams, now hold the world record price achieved at auction for a single piece of Moorcroft pottery with a hammer total of £41,984.
The exceptionally rare one-hundred-year-old vase in question is one of only three known examples designed by William Moorcroft in a flambe landscape pattern, standing 38.5cm high. Dating from circa 1925, the imposing, shouldered vase was likely to have been produced for an exhibition, with another example selling at Christie's, London in 1992. The Kinghams vase, Lot 17, has resided as a showpiece in the private collection of a UK-based connoisseur.
The owner consigned it to Moreton in Marsh Auctioneers, Kinghams' British Art & Design auction on the 16th of April, overseen by specialist Michael Jeffery.
Estimated at £15,000-25,000, the vase attracted a huge amount of pre-sale interest from collectors across the globe. A bidding battle on the day of the auction ensued, with buyers bidding online and on the phone. The gavel eventually fell to a total of £41,984. The winner is an anonymous UK-based private collector.
With prices for rare pieces of Moorcroft Pottery very buoyant, Kinghams specialist Michael Jeffery is delighted to advise clients on current values of their items, from a single vase to an entire collection if they are considering selling.
