# Mary Potter artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/mary-potter/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T17:05:19.417Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1900-04-09
- Nationality: English, British
- Movements: English school
- Common media: Painting

## Portrait

![Mary Potter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Mary_Potter%2C_Painter.jpg)
Mary Potter (painter) · see-source-page
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Potter_(painter)

## About Mary Potter

Mary Potter (1900–1981) was an English painter associated in authority records with the English school. Public identity files also connect her with the names Marian Attenborough and Mary Attenborough, helping distinguish her from other people who share the name Mary Potter. Her documented subjects include landscapes and still lifes, while the available museum and authority records consistently identify painting as her principal practice. A 1981 Serpentine Gallery retrospective surveyed paintings dated from 1922 to 1980, indicating a career that extended across much of the twentieth century. Potter is also described in general reference material as working with a restrained range of subtle colors, though individual works require direct examination before stylistic conclusions are drawn. Collectors are most likely to encounter her through paintings offered under her married name, particularly landscape or still-life compositions. Stable records at Tate, Getty ULAN, VIAF, Wikidata, and IdRef provide useful anchors for matching her identity across museum, library, and auction data.

## Common works and media

The strongest source evidence identifies paintings as Mary Potter's principal work type, especially landscapes and still lifes. A documented retrospective covered paintings made between 1922 and 1980. The collected material does not establish recurring print editions, sculpture, ceramics, drawings, or posters, so works in those categories require additional medium-specific and attribution research.

## Market and appraisal context

Mary Potter's auction context is centered on paintings, with landscapes and still lifes representing the best-supported subject categories in the collected sources. An appraisal should first confirm that a work belongs to the English painter born in 1900, because the name is not unique and authority records also preserve her Attenborough name variants. Useful comparison begins with public auction lots of a similar work type, subject, and date. The source pack documents painting activity spanning 1922–1980, but it does not provide item-level evidence about dimensions, signatures, condition, provenance, sale dates, or realized prices. Those details should therefore be checked in the specific work and its comparable sale records rather than inferred from the artist-level profile.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from museum and authority records with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/02759064X
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mary-potter-1795
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95834139/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16749866
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500024764
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/02759064X
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/mary-potter/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Potter_(painter)