When we think about times past, we often think people didn't have much colour - perhaps because pictures are black and white, and many paintings we have seen are so dirty that colours don't come through clearly. But the fact is that particularly in the Regency era there was an explosion of colour.⁠ These stunning Bloor Derby vases show that. They are from between 1800 and 1825, but given the style, probably from around 1815 or 1820. They are decorated in the French style with

It is summer here and we are finally having some freedom again, so I am enjoying the rare opportunity to go places. I have been visiting several galleries that have been closed for most of the past year and half. This week it was the Wallace Collection at Hertford House in London. A beautiful grand house that hosts one of the world's best collections of Baroque and Rococo art. Four generations of the Lords Hertford and their final heir Richard Wallace, have been collecting th

When in the late 18th and early 19th Century excavations in Southern Italy, Greece and Turkey started to reveal the long forgotten ancient history of the Etruscans, Romans and Greeks, this was very inspiring to people in Northern Europe. After many centuries of dominance of the Christian Church, this was a whole new world opening up. Here was a world full of gods and goddesses who were full of life, flawed, and passionate (and much of the time up to no good!) like humans. Peo

Last month I wrote in Homes & Antiques about the Chelsea factory, and this month I am moving across London to Bow, its sister factory that was so different, yet so interlinked. It is also closer to home, as my stockroom is just a few miles up the river from Bow - if I lean out of my window I can see the site where all these beautiful items were produced more than 250 years ago! The Bow factory brought some very important innovations to British porcelain, and unlike Chelsea, w