I thought I was going to move on from birds... but this week another bird came to tell a story... little did I know. Here I have two beautiful plates that were made by Chamberlains in Worcester some time in the 1790s. They are in the "Japan" style, which was very popular at the time and which Chamberlains used in many patterns. So it was only logical to assume that the striking bird in this pattern was a phoenix. The phoenix is an ancient mythological creature that brings reb

Did you enjoy last week's birds? I have more birds today, although from the later 19th Century: the era called the Aesthetic Movement. This beautiful set of 6 dessert plates was made by Minton in the popular "Essex birds" pattern. I live in Essex, just on the northern edge of London (today that's not called Essex anymore but until a few decades ago it was) and yes, when I go for walks in the countryside just north of me, there are lots and lots of birds. And of course I have

You may have noticed that lately I've shown a lot of Derby porcelain - no particular reason other than that they are fantastic pieces, and recently I had quite a few of them come my way from different sources! This week we have some wonderful birds painted by the famous porcelain decorator Richard Dodson. Fancy birds In the 18th Century, during the era dominated by the Rococo movement, there was a fashion for "fancy birds". These were fantastical birds, entirely invented by t

This month my column at Homes & Antiques takes us to South Wales, where for a short but glorious period British porcelain making was perfected by the illustrious William Billingsley. The two Welsh factories, Swansea and Nantgarw (pronounced nant-GAR-oo), produced some of the finest porcelain ever made - only for a few short years roughly between 1814 and 1820. The Welsh wares are so rare and coveted that I have very few in my own collection; oh how I'd love to be able to purc