The Anthony Shaw Collection, one of Britain's most important private collections of modern studio ceramics, and housed in London, will be opening it's third display - 'FRIEND'S CHOICE' - a group chosen from the collection by ANITA BESSON, from 9 November 2005 to 31 March 2006.

A major holding of over 600 works by some fifty artists, acquired by the couturier Anthony Shaw over thirty years, the collection passed in to the hands of a trust in 2002. It is displayed in the domestic setting of Shaw's one-time West London home, internally little changed since his family bought the house in the 1950s. The collection includes a comprehensive range of functional work, but mainly focuses on the sculptural developments in British clay since Shaw began to acquire in 1973, and highlights in particular the contribution of Ewen Henderson, Gordon Baldwin and Gillian Lowndes.

There are also important holdings of ceramics by, for example, Sara Radstone, Ian Godfrey, Eileen Nisbet and Jim Malone and paintings and sculpture by Bryan Illsley. Other artists include Lucie Rie, Elizabeth Fritsch, Joanna Constantinidis and Val Barry. The work will be shown alongside numerous textiles and pictures by, among others, Keith Vaughan, Peter Lanyon, Bernard Meadows and Bill Mills.

The Anthony Shaw Collection will be exhibited in rotation, with around two thematic displays a year. In addition to making new acquisitions, work from the collection will be lent to exhibitions. Longer term loans to specific sites will also be considered. Work in cataloguing the collection is already nearing completion, and there are plans to build up an archive which can be consulted in the future. Funding for these continuing projects is now being eagerly sought.