Are you concerned about getting your five-a-day? This vase will provide any fruit you need... When I first saw this sublime Minton vase I started shouting with excitement, as it is very rare to find a vase with so many rare properties that is in such pristine condition. Although this isn't usually my taste (you will have noticed that I haven't shown many "applied flower" items), it is done so incredibly well, and painted so wonderfully beautiful, that you just can't help but

Who could ever guess that the peaceful "Grass" design of this very rare Belleek cabaret set carries a secret message from turbulent times? Belleek designs were all based on local Irish natural phenomena: the sea, shamrocks, grass, and the local river Erne full of trout and salmon. When Belleek started making porcelain, the first designers clearly made a choice not to go with the prevailing Victorian English fashion, but to make an Irish statement. Ireland had never had its ve

To eat like a gentleman, or a lady! For many centuries, you were either born into a class that could afford scrumptious meals, or not. You could perhaps dream of better food, but you wouldn't dream of changing your position in society. In the 19th Century, all this changed with the Industrial Revolution. Suddenly anyone with a clear mind and a bit of starting capital or financial backing could build themselves a business and rise up in society. Social mobility was born with t

On a cold and bleak winter's day, what's better than beating the blues with a dose of doggie love? Today I have a story about pugs - and yes it involves jumping on faces, fashion and a fair bit of history. The British potters of the 18th and 19th Century understood pet love, and they made wonderful little porcelain pets. These came of course as part of a huge collection of figures made in that era: shepherds, goats and sheep, figures representing the Seasons or various forms

Happy New Year! We start the year with a rare piece of Irish sea glory: a gorgeous cabaret set made in parian china by Belleek in the 1860s. The tiny village of Belleek is in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and the factory is literally on the border with the Irish Republic. The factory was built in the 1850s by a local land owner, his architect/designer friend and an investor from Dublin, in response to the devastating famine only a few decades earlier. Soon, the impove