It's official... I've been made a #bossbabe! If you want to find out what that means and read about me and how my business is my passion, read my interview in House of Coco, the super-cool magazine for Millennials... click on the image below. And pssst... it's going to be holidays soon. If you need a special gift but worry that it won't arrive in time, why not give a gift voucher? You can find one here. As usual, you can see all my porcelain treasures in my shop, and because

The holidays are coming up fast - and if you don't know what exactly to give, or you don't trust the mail...

[click the < arrows > to slide] London has been coming to terms with a hateful act in the last number of hours, so we need some love! This is a beautiful little figure of mother love, made by the Bow factory in about 1765. The Bow Porcelain Factory, just down the river of my stock room in East London, was one of the first potteries in Britain to make soft paste porcelain, and most probably the very first to use bone ash, which later got perfected by Josiah Spode to what is no

[click the < arrows > to slide] This week I have another gorgeous dessert service: a Spode "Imperial" dessert service with the famous Frog pattern. But before we get onto the frog, why "Imperial"? In the very early 19th Century, there was a real fever for developing new types of china. Josiah Spode developed the first stable recipe for bone china shortly before 1800, and soon there were several varieties of "stone china", a more rocky, very strong and cheaper material that wa

[click the < arrows > to slide] This beautiful set of plates made by Bloor Derby can tell us a rich family history. The famous Crown Derby factory, owned and made great by William Duysbury in the 18th Century, had been struggling ever since the founder had died. William's son suffered from ill health and died young, leaving behind his wife Elisabeth and a 10-year old son, who developed no interest in the company. A clever employee, the brilliant Irish miniature painter Michae

[click the < arrows > to slide!] You may have noticed that lately I started to show more Chinese Export items, which have never been part of my collection before. Are you curious why? The reason is very personal, and I will tell you today. After the war, there was little money in The Netherlands - in fact there was no money, no food and no clothes. But there were many Chinese and Japanese antiques, and Canadian and American soldiers fell in love with those while they were stu

[click the < arrows > to slide!] I have a special weakness for beautiful sets of plates... Not long ago I had a beautiful dessert service made by Ridgway with stunning botanical paintings, and it was sold within hours. So I felt very lucky to come across the stunning Coalport service with similarly amazing flowers - and again it was sold within hours! But because it is so beautiful, I will still show you its beauty. I am saying dessert service - but actually I should say "par

[click the < arrows > to slide!] I am sometimes asked: what is the difference between "tooled" gilt and "raised" gilt? And what about "chased" gilt? The simple answer is: they are all the same. Perhaps a professional gilder will disagree, but then I'd love to hear in detail what the difference is, as I have not been able to find out myself! Today we have a stunning piece of art: a vase in the Persian Revival style with a tooled/chased/raised gilt image of a very English spoon

[click the < arrows > to slide!] It is autumn here, and all colours are changing fast... on my desk is a vase with beautiful chrysanthemums and the last of the hydrangeas in my garden. Today I am showing a dessert service by Minton, decorated with superb chrysanthemums and raised gilt. This service was made in 1894 to the highest specifications. The plates are simple and made of very white, beautifully smooth bone china. But the decoration! The chrysanthemums were painted by

[click the < arrows > to slide!] Today is the first Saturday of October, and where I live it is getting cold now. Mornings are dark, and we are all cozying up in the evening to hide from the wind and the rain. It is the beginning of a season of cozy dinners, and I will bring out a dinner or dessert service each Saturday in the coming period. I've also heard some sighs at the price of some of these... well yes, I have quite a few in my collection that I personally would not be