WriteAntiques

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.

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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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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 […]

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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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by Christopher Proudlove©
Lovers and collectors of antiques, I urge you to see Miss Potter, the movie starring Renee Zellwegger detailing the life of Beatrix Potter. Go … now … I’ll pay! It’s a beautiful film, not least for the stunning Lake District countryside in which much of it is set and, of course […]

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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©
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 […]

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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

Biscuit, the old family cat, is driving us crazy. Not only does she have the finicky eating habits of a two-year-old, but she’s also shedding her thick winter coat like fur was going out of fashion. Next time we get a cat it will be […]

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

Collectors of ancient Chinese artefacts owe everything to the death rituals of society during the period. Like the Egyptians, the Chinese held strong beliefs about the afterlife. The wealthy and privileged members of Tang society, a Golden Age which lasted from 618-907 AD, took with […]

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

Our house move to the North Wales coast has introduced us to a whole new hunting ground for weekend antiquing excursions and we braved the recent blizzards to visit a new fair at the Llandudno Junction leisure centre.
Sadly, the weather had beaten a few of […]

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

Trash, or treasure? Certainly, the weird pottery vase illustrated here is not everyone’s cup of tea, but fortunately, the family who came across it in the home of a relative who had just died were taking no chances. No one liked it but instead of […]

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

They were either muddle-headed eccentrics or else hard-nosed entrepreneurs but the art potters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries had the same aim: at a time when new techniques and advances in machine technology made mass-produced pottery a reality, they sought to maintain […]

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

Minds greater than ours have long debated whether or not the present spate of television programmes devoted to buying, selling and collecting antiques is doing the business any good, but I have to admit that they can become addictive.
Whilst not exactly required viewing chez nous, […]

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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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