WriteAntiques

the Ca Mau was engulfed by an intense fire while sailing 90 miles south of Canton on its way to the Malaysian archipelago.
The fire, burning at 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, may have started in the kitchen as cast iron cooking pots were found welded together.
The heat was so intense that it fused together some pieces of its precious cargo.
The junk lay undisturbed for more than 280 years until, in 1998, two Vietnamese fishermen snagged their nets on some of the porcelain and began to haul it from the deep.
Before the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information stepped in, the fishermen had managed to bring to the surface over 30,000 pieces.
In 2005, the Vietnamese government decided to sell a proportion of the 130,000 pieces that had been salvaged and sent 76,000 to auction at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam.
The sale over three days in January 2007 saw the Ca Mau finally unload its cargo to an eager market in the West after a gap of two centuries.

[Read more →]

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.

[Read more →]

There’s not much to be found about Velsen Polychrome Porcelain (polychroom porselein) on the Internet…..and that is too bad.

[Read more →]

Lladró products first came on to the market in 1953 and whether you love them or loathe them, there can be no escaping the fact that they have become collectors’ items in a very short space of time.

[Read more →]

Chocloate antiques are tasty

[Read more →]

We have two plates in our collection, commissioned for us by family friends and presented to my wife following the birth of each of our children. They are treasured possessions and because each is marked with their names and times and dates of their respective deliveries, they are of value only to us. Of course, [...]

[Read more →]

by Christopher Proudlove© This feature is devoted to the breathtakingly beautiful, always valuable … and sometimes quite saucy products of Royal Saxon Porcelain Factory. There, that’s fooled you already. For those who have never heard of the Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, read the German Meissen factory – one of the few firms to remain in [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]

by Christopher Proudlove© Minton master potter Louis Solon was livid. Returning home from Minton’s Staffordshire Potteries works one day, to his horror, he found that his maid had blackleaded the fireplace. No big deal, you might think. On the contrary, beneath the gunge were tiles Solon had decorated with an experimental glaze technique over which [...]

[Read more →]

by Christopher Proudlove©Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português The first time it happened was when a picture specialist at a leading auction house stood me in front of a Victorian narrative painting and explained the story depicted on its canvas. I was both inspired and dumbstruck in equal measure by the specialist’s [...]

[Read more →]

Español | Deutsche | Français | Italiano | Português by Christopher Proudlove©It was during the 17th century that Europeans first became aware of Chinese porcelain decorated in tones of blue, thanks largely to the trading and importing activities of the Dutch East India Company. Porcelain was regarded as the trappings of the exotic and the [...]

[Read more →]

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 [...]

[Read more →]