WriteAntiques

Monthly auctions of “Victorian, Edwardian and later furniture and effects”, as the saleroom jargon has it, are the backbone of many auction houses. The property on offer comes from many and varied sources but the thrill is always in the chase.

[Read more →]

The ceramic term tube-lining is not unlike the process of piping decoration on to an iced cake. But the simplicity of the technique and the way it is explained, belies the enormity of the task. Moocroft’s decorators were among the most profocoent.

[Read more →]

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 […]

[Read more →]

For the uninitiated, the term mechanical music machine covers such gloriously eclectic inventions as barrel organs, Polyphons, music boxes, phonographs, pianolas, organettes and Symphonions. However, that delightful tinkling sound from a music box or Polyphon can have a ruinous effect on your bank balance, unless your pocket is particularly deep. It’s unlikely there’ll be much change out of about £1,200-£1,500 for a reasonable Swiss-made music box from the late 1800s, while a small Polyphon could be yours around £1,000.

[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 →]

Technorati Tags: Welsh love tokens , treen

SUITORS have been giving love tokens to the apples of their eyes ever since Eve persuaded Adam to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
For today’s collectors, the tradition has created a wealth of collecting opportunities ranging from precious gold posy rings to […]

[Read more →]

Technorati Tags: Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian , Art Pottery

COLLECTORS who are drawn to art pottery need not travel to South America for a  chance to own pieces from the valuable hoard of Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian pottery pictured here … dealer Alison Davey, who runs A.D.Antiques in Staffordshire has done it for you.
Click here […]

[Read more →]

Chocloate antiques are tasty

[Read more →]

Technorati Tags: Crime , Online Auctions

I have no idea whether or not  Chief Constables are readers of this column (if they’re not, they ought to be) but I have a message for each of them: do homeowners a favour and get the Bumblebee on your team of crime fighters. It’s a honey […]

[Read more →]

Technorati Tags: Portmeirion , Pottery , Book review

LIKE thousands of other schoolboys my age, I was introduced to the gloriously idiosyncratic folly that is Portmeirion by the equally bizarre ITV series The Prisoner. Not only did I want to live there, I wanted a Lotus Super Seven as driven by […]

[Read more →]