I have some news: from November 24-27 I will have stand D27 at the Antiques for Everyone fair at Birmingham NEC. This fair is considered the best in Britain in the field of antique ceramics. It is also my personal favourite - I have been going there for many years to find treasures and meet up with friends and colleagues. I will be among 150 antique dealers - according to the Antiques Trade Gazette I am a "fresh face" 😉 - and I can't wait to meet some of you there. If you wa

This month in my column in Homes & Antiques I follow up from last month's look into the Rococo style, and move on to the next: Neoclassicism. The emergence of this style happened fast and it became a huge hit, and it is very interesting to look into what sparked it, and why, and exactly what historical, or in other words, classical styles it was inspired by... and as always, it's not all straightforward and full of surprising facts. You'll find young travellers who took a gap

Here in England it has suddenly turned to autumn. The days are shorter, the sun lower, the leaves are turning and the weather is... well - you know, we are in England! 🍁☔️😂 With the holidays coming up, it is time to think about our dinner tables. With everything going on in the world I have never enjoyed dinner parties as much as lately - it is a time to let go, to forget about the world's troubles and to fully engage with those we love. When you spend time with friends or

I am often asked about the different cultural movements that formed the backdrop of British porcelain designs. Are we talking about Rococo, Neoclassical, Rococo Revival... and where does Regency come in? What doesn't help is that these movements overlapped to some degree, and the British mixed them up in a wonderful way. So in my latest column in Homes & Antiques I am giving a little cultural update... this month it is Rococo. The Rococo movement emerged in the 18th Century a

Autumn sale - 30% off for 3 days only

While I am on my annual two-week holiday in the very remotest parts of the Greek islands of Crete and Gavdos, I will re-publish the two most popular blogs of the last year... I hope you enjoy them again! So let's talk about the elephant in the room... quite literally. I came across this wonderful tea service not long ago and was lucky enough to get it onto my shelf, and am thrilled to offer it for sale. This wonderful pattern is, indeed, called the Elephant Pattern and it was

A new column in Homes & Antiques, and this month we are visiting Ridgway in Staffordshire! Although many will know the name Ridgway, I think Job Ridgway is an unsung hero among pioneering British porcelain makers. Ridgway was a deeply religious and very talented man who grew up in poverty but quickly became a leading porcelain maker and founded a factory that would spark many other factories in the century after. Job and his sons John and William looked after their people and

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