WriteAntiques

So, farewell then wonderful Wedgwood (at least in the form we know it today). You will be sorely missed … Last week, and with virtually the same words, this column mourned the passing of Woolworths.
Now another great institution is on the ropes. Venture capitalists circle over the Barlaston works, enticed by Receivers who will be the only winners in the game, while a talented workforce of Staffordshire potters nervously awaits its fate.
Founded by the great Josiah in 1759, Wedgwood once produced wares that everyone wanted to buy from Catherine the Great to people like my parents who just wanted a smart Sunday best teaset. Not any more it seems.

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Homemaker pottery was once made for the masses and sold cheaply by Wooliworths both in the U.S. and UK.

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Modelled by Dorothy Doughty (1892-1962) and manufactured by Royal Worcester. They are highly sought after by collectors, particularly those in America and with names like Mockingbird and Peach Blossom and Chickadee and Larch, that’s hardly surprising

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Technorati Tags: Ceramics , Collecting , 20th century

YOU’VE SEEN them at countless car boot sales, and you’ve been embarrassed when you’ve  asked the stallholder how much he wants for the naff set of NatWest piggy banks, the SylvaC bunnies or the preserve pots shaped like onions modelled with faces on the [...]

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If you don’t know about “bickers”, “luggies”, “spongeware” or “hookies”, read on. Before 19th century industrialisation brought mass-produced consumer goods within the reach of everyone, communities relied on artisan craftsmen for their household tools and decorative knickknacks.
Nowhere is this more pronounced than in Scotland which has a long history of traditional crafts that are highly [...]

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In this, the last in a trilogy of columns about collecting Scottish antiques, I though I’d try to discover why these two pot pigs sold recently for £34,800 – each!.
It surprised even the auctioneers, who were expecting winning bids of around £10,000, not a new world record auction price. Interestingly enough, I once watched one [...]

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I’m all for buying cheap collectibles and seeing them rise in value. That’s why last week’s column was all about Wade Whimsies. So, continuing in the same vein, this week’s missive is all about another kind of whimsical figure: the durable “stoneware” models of cute little rabbits made by a company called PenDelfin.
Love them or [...]

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It was a charming sight: two little girls standing at the end of the collectors’ fair stall while each agonised over which “antique” they would purchase to add to their respective collections.
Each child clutched a £2 coin - either pocket money or perhaps a bribe, I thought, so their parents could spend unhurried time of [...]

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What do you do when you find an antique and need to get it identified? There used to be three choices: take it to a museum, a dealer, or an auction house and ask each in turn for an opinion.
The third choice is probably the best course of action because the first might [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove©In the post preceding this I wrote about porcelain decorated with magical images made at the Minton factory by French émigré Louis Solon. But that’s only half the story. Louis had a son, Leon, born in Stoke-on-Trent, so he had china clay in his blood. Léon’s innovations earned him his own place in [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove©
Ever eager to keep these columns current, I felt compelled to find something to do with Easter. Inspiration came following a local auction sale in which this trio of pottery Bunnykins figures were offered. In the event, they were knocked down for a staggering total of £2,810. If nothing else, the sale proved [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove©Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português

As the nation recovers from the kind of hangover that happens only once a year, the Royal Society of Chemistry has come up with the answer: apparently the best treatment for the morning after is toast and honey.
I have another answer. Get hold of a [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove�Espa�ol | Deutsche | Fran�ais | Italiano | Portugu�s

We tend not to think about it but given time, antiques collectors will look back on the first few decades of the 21st Century and marvel at how life was then, probably in much the same way that we do today about the 1920s Art [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove�Espa�ol | Deutsche | Fran�ais | Italiano | Portugu�s

One of the joys of collecting is talking to other collectors, so it was a pleasure to receive an e-mail this week from someone in Bala who wanted advice about a rather smart antique pottery jug. That’s Bala, Ontario, not the lakeside village in North [...]

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Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Portuguêsby Christopher Proudlove©Remember the pantograph from your childhood? I recall using one to copy maps from atlas to geography exercise book at school.
One arm acts as a small pointer while the other holds a drawing implement such as a pencil. By moving the pointer over a [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove©
What do Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Rod Stewart, Estée Lauder boss Leonard Lauder and the Sultan of Brunei have in common? Answer: They all collect Moorcroft Pottery. And they’re not alone.
Today, Moorcroft both old and new is more collectable - and collected - than ever. The Moorcroft Collector’s Club was founded in 1987 [...]

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by Christopher Proudlove©
Judging by the plaintive tone of a recent e-mail, one reader’s New Year celebrations seemed to be in jeopardy even before December was out.
She wrote: “I wonder if you can help me. As long as I can remember, (50 years!) we have been using a blue and white dinner service, which [...]

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