WriteAntiques

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote in passing about eccentric Edwardian artist Harry B. Neilson (pictured right) – the man who painted those charming watercolours of foxes dressed as huntsmen riding foxhounds. As far as I was concerned, the artist was something of an unknown.
I said I intended to learn more about him and […]

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This story is a bit convoluted, so you’ll have to bear with me. We were visiting one of those grand, two-day collectors’ fairs, a bit like the ones you see on the telly where people buy things and then try to sell them for more than they cost. That’s not why we were there, but […]

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Hurricane Charlie batters Florida, Hong Kong reports its heaviest rainfall ever, ruinous hailstorms rattle China and we here in the North West had our share too. There’s so much weather about — I’ve never seen so much rain fall in one place for such a sustained period — I really could have done with that […]

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It wasn’t much to look out, but the little round lapel badge we found lying in the bottom of a box of knickknacks at our local collectors’ fair had a fascinating background.
About the size of an old sixpence, the badge was decorated with blue enamel, picked out of which were the initials W. L. […]

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Admirers of his work reckon that Christopher Dresser was one of the most talented designers of the High Victorian era. Others are less charitable, one art market commentator once describing a Dresser kettle as more like a model of the Russian Sputnik!
The same acid writer is about to find himself in a minority as a […]

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In these scary days of hijackings, hostage-taking and international terrorism, the words metal detecting take on an altogether different and much more sinister meaning. What follows has nothing to do with the security measures to be found at airports and left luggage depots.
No, the metal detecting that interests me is the type that keeps grown […]

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The Beatles were right. According to the song Taxman: “If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet”. So, with the deadline looming for the return of self-assessment income tax forms (September 30) just be glad this isn’t the 18th century.
In 1792, owners of houses with […]

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The poor lass stood on the doorstep like a waif and stray trying to sell us pictures from a folder under her arm.
She said her name was Miya and in perfect English – but with perhaps a Polish or Croat accent – she explained that she was from a group of young artists who were […]

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Michael Collins OBE and I have something in common, but sadly it’s not the gong he was awarded in the Queen’s Golden Jubilee birthday honours, or that he’s just published his first book.
No, it’s how he and I both started to get interested in antiques and collecting: down a hole in a Victorian rubbish dump.
For […]

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When was the zip fastener invented? Apparently, one Elias Howe came up with what he called “an automatic continuous clothing closure” in 1851. He patented the idea but it never came to market, possibly because he was too busy with his other invention: the sewing machine.
It was a further 40 years before another American, Whitcomb […]

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It might not sound very romantic, but today’s collectors of Victorian and Edwardian printed ephemera should be grateful to the manufacturers of Liebig’s “Meat Extract”, or Oxo as it was later reincarnated.
Founded in 1868, the company soon realised the importance of good marketing and promotional material and until 1975, they published an astonishing array of […]

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Like several million other collectors, we watched the Antiques Roadshow last Sunday, amazed the value of the wonderful, early but sadly anonymous longcase clock that was judged to be worth £30,000 plus.
That was enough to cause us to gasp in wonder, but to hear that the owner omitted to wind the striking chain so that […]

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I’ve always fancied owning an old county map. You know the kind of thing — olde worlde place names printed in gothic text on paper that’s turned brown with age.
Nicely framed and hanging in the dining room, such a thing amazes guests when you tell them it’s 300 years old.
But I’ve never dared to take […]

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Fate found us in Devon for a few days last week and while we were there, dodging the storms that put parts of the county under water, we spent a few happy hours in Honiton, home of lace-making.
As luck would have it, there was a textiles fair in progress in one of the public halls […]

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Standing knee deep in mud, deprived of sleep and waiting for the next whistle to go over the top are images we recognise as being part of life in the trenches, but what our fathers’ fathers endured in the Great War, we cannot imagine.
That was two generations ago. I wanted to bring to this column […]

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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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When I wrote here about collecting antiques from Scotland, I didn’t anticipate seeing a collection of glass like the examples pictured here up for auction recently in my local saleroom.
They were made in a glassworks in Perthshire and such is the universal appeal of antiques and collectables, I felt I needed no excuse to stay […]

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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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Congratulations! Now, stand back and admire your handiwork. You manoeuvred the ladder up to the loft, you scrambled around in the dust and cobwebs, you found the old suitcase containing the Christmas decorations and the tree looks fabulous.
But stop and take another look. Those baubles, knickknacks and trinkets that you remember when you were a […]

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There’s no shortage of choice: Barbie and Sindy, My Little Pony and the Brownies continue to have mass appeal for the girls, while us boys go for Thunderbirds, Spiderman and relative newcomer Bob the Builder.
All are on sale this Christmas and so it was –admittedly with a different cast of characters – since the 1820s, […]

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