The image
Faces, owls, goats, fish and bulls — the motifs of Vallauris — are what collectors compete for. A wanted image from a large edition regularly outsells a plain one from a small edition.
Pablo Picasso · Print value
Picasso Madoura Ceramics Value
Edition pottery from Vallauris: about $2,000 for a common plate, tens of thousands for a wanted face or owl.
Editions made at Madoura, 1947–1971About $2,000 to $60,000 at auctionCatalogued by Alain Ramié
The short answer
Picasso Madoura ceramics are editions, and in 2025–26 they sold at auction for anything from about $2,000 to over $50,000. Plates from editions of 400–450 made roughly $2,000–4,300; wanted designs made far more — a Visage plate from an edition of 150 sold for $38,100 and Visage (A.R. 288), from an edition of 500, for $57,150. The image and condition decide the price more than the edition size does.
Figures reviewed September 2026
Picasso began working at Suzanne and Georges Ramié's Madoura pottery in Vallauris in 1946, and from 1947 the workshop produced editions of his designs — plates, dishes, pitchers, vases and tiles — in stated numbers until 1971. More than six hundred designs are catalogued by Alain Ramié, and each carries an A.R. number that anyone pricing one will ask for.
They are the most liquid part of the Picasso market because there are many of them and they are unmistakably his. That also makes the spread wide. Christie's 150-lot Picasso ceramics sale in London in May 2025 made £2.82 million — an average under £19,000 a lot — but individual results ran from a few thousand to over £50,000.
Image outweighs edition size. Faces, owls, goats and bulls are chased; plain decorative motifs are not. In 2025 an owl from an edition of 200 made £10,710 against an estimate of £1,500–2,500, while in December a bull's-profile plate from an edition of 450 sold for $2,000 against a $2,500 estimate.
Condition is priced hard. Chips, cracks and restoration — detectable under ultraviolet light — take a large share off, and a piece with worn or incomplete marks is harder to sell. The marks themselves are the first check, and the authentication page sets out how they should look.
The figuresPablo Picasso Madoura Ceramics on the secondary market
What Picasso Madoura Ceramics fetch at auction
| Piece | Edition | Result | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visage (A.R. 288) | 500 | $57,150 (estimate $6,000–8,000) | 2025 |
| Visage au nez noir (A.R. 609) | 200 | £56,700 (estimate £30,000–50,000) | 2025 |
| Visage no. 101 (A.R. 475), plate | 150 | $38,100 (estimate $4,000–6,000) | 2025 |
| Personnages no. 28 (A.R. 463), plate | 150 | $33,020 (estimate $5,000–7,000) | 2025 |
| Petite chouette (A.R. 83) | 200 | £10,710 (estimate £1,500–2,500) | 2025 |
| Visage de femme, plate (1953) | 400 | $4,289 | January 2026 |
| Profil de taureau, plate (1956) | 450 | $2,000 (estimate $2,500) | December 2025 |
Recent auction results, reviewed September 2026. They show the spread rather than a typical price: most common designs sit near the bottom of this table.
What moves the price
What decides where a piece lands
Specific to the Madoura Ceramics. The Pablo Picasso page covers what moves the maker's pieces in general.
The form
Pitchers, vases and sculptural pieces generally sell above flat plates of similar imagery, and large-format dishes above small ones.
The marks
Genuine pieces carry stamps such as Madoura Plein Feu and Edition Picasso, or Empreinte originale de Picasso, impressed before glazing so they sit under the glaze. Worn, partial or surface-applied marks cost money or end the sale.
Restoration
Any repair, however skilful, is priced in once found, and a specialist will look for it under ultraviolet light before bidding.
Questions we are asked
- How much are Picasso Madoura ceramics worth?
- At auction in 2025–26, common plates from large editions sold for about $2,000–5,000 and sought-after designs for $10,000–60,000. The image, the form and the condition set the figure more than the edition size.
- How can I tell if a Picasso Madoura ceramic is real?
- Check the marks on the base: genuine Madoura stamps are impressed into the clay before glazing and firing, so they sit under the glaze. Then match the design, size and edition to its entry in Alain Ramié's catalogue.
- What does Empreinte originale de Picasso mean?
- It marks a piece pressed from a mould taken from an original Picasso made, so the relief is his; Edition Picasso marks pieces made and decorated in the workshop to his design. Both are authorised editions, and the design matters more to the price than which stamp a piece carries.
- Are Picasso ceramics going up in value?
- Results at the end of 2025 and into 2026 were strong, with high sell-through at the major houses and many lots selling well above estimate. Prices still vary widely by design and condition, so a strong market does not lift every piece equally.
Where the figures come from · reviewed September 2026
- Masterworks — Picasso ceramics surge in value, results from late 2025 into 2026
- Guy Hepner — Pablo Picasso prints, the complete collector's guide (June 2026)
- Barnebys — Picasso ceramics realised prices
Indicative ranges for honest condition, never an appraisal or a quotation. The house buys, sells and values nothing; a specialist who can see the piece is the only one who can price it.
More on Pablo Picasso
Lovenhall ArtRead the print itself
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