Bob is, unfortunately no longer with us. I'd say "at peace", but homey was already the mellowest person imaginable (unless he got together with Fred Rogers and tore it up when he was off the set).
People can make a living at pottery. Normally it's a modest but fulfilling lifestyle, but occasionally it's lucrative. You're right that it's a case where you need to think about an hourly wage and charge an amount that might make you squeamish and embarassed to start. Short change yourself, and you make nothing and train the market to expect cheap prices for handmade craft. The furniture is probably even worse in that case, as I've seen what my buddy John Brooks charges for a coffee table (
http://jbfinefurniture.com/) ... worth the price, but more than I can afford.
I know potters that are great artists and terrible business people (they sometimes lament that it was not stressed in school as much), some that have found a way to tap into good marketing methods, and some that happily churn out a handmade production line- with a few one offs on the side. Sometimes the person that can bang out 100 beanpots in a day becomes a good one-off studio artist because they have a fluid movement and really don't have to think about throwing- they clay just sort of leaps into the shape they want. Jeff Brown is like that- I was in his studio when they filmed him throwing a huge pot for an online commercial for a pottery doohickey maker... holy crap (see it at
www.jeffbrownpottery.com ) He slowed down the process so they could catch it better- that big bottle to his left took about 5 mnutes to throw.
The production pieces are usually bread and butter though, and high-end art pieces is not something easy to start in. The stuff I make right now is all one-off, not high-end, but more niche market because of the nasty wood and soda effect. It could command a slight bump in price because of the firing method and associated losses (it's risky), but it's harder to sell. Plus- I'm still well on the learning curve, so my prices would be lower. Blue pottery always sells better.
What's funny is that when you think about a famous artist- a Renoir for example- everyone knows them whether they acheived financial success or not. A famous potter, however, is generally only known to the pottery world and their good customers. If I mentioned Leach or Hamada- a potter would immediately have an opinion one way or another on these giants. They'd all recognize Michael Cardew's legacy, though I think he scraped along in money terms.
My basement studio is getting filled, and this should pay for itself, so I will probably start an Etsy.com page to sell some off.