Studio pottery  Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware and cookware, and non-functional wares such as sculpture. Studio potters can be referred to as ceramic artists, ceramists, ceramicists or as an artist who uses clay as a medium. Much studio pottery is tableware or cookware, but an increasing number of studio potters produce non-functional (sometimes called decorative) or sculptural items. In Britain since the 1980s, there has been a distinct trend away from functional pottery, for example, the work of artist Grayson Perry. Some studio potters now prefer to call themselves ceramic artists, ceramists or simply artists. Studio pottery is represented by potters all over the world and has strong roots in Britain. Art pottery is a related term, used by many potteries from about the 1870s onwards, in Britain and America; it tends to cover larger workshops, where there is a designer supervising the production of skilled workers who may have input into the pieces made. The heyday of British and American art pottery was about 1880 to 1940. Since the second half of the 20th century ceramics has become more highly valued in the art world. There are now several large exhibitions worldwide, including "Collect and Origin" (formerly the Chelsea crafts fair) in London, "International Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair" (SOFA) Chicago and "International Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair "(SOFA) New York City which includes ceramics as an art form. Ceramics have realized high prices, reaching several thousands of pounds for some pieces, in auctions houses such as Bonhams and Sotheby's. Notable studios included Brannam Pottery, Castle Hedingham Ware, Martin Brothers and Sir Edmund Harry Elton. Several influences contributed to the emergence of studio pottery in the early 20th century: art pottery (for example the work of the Martin Brothers and William Moorcroft); the Arts and Crafts movement, the Bauhaus; a rediscovery of traditional artisan pottery and the excavation of large quantities of Song pottery in China. Leading trends in British studio pottery in the 20th century are represented by Bernard Leach, William Staite Murray, Dora Billington, Lucie Rie and Hans Coper.