This week I am asking your help! And of course also showing you a fantastic piece of porcelain. Here you see a pair of sublimely made potpourri vases in the Rococo Revival style, made in about 1835. Potpourri vases have perforated covers and although you can of course take the covers off and use them for flowers, they were originally meant to be filled with dried and scented fruits and seeds; this is called potpourri. Georgian and Victorian homes could get quite stuffy with a

Nothing cheers me up as much as a beautifully laid table. A table laid with care, with well made dishes, glasses and cutlery, is the setting for a beautiful meal. And did you know that one of the most important hormones for our mental wellbeing, oxytocin, is generated while eating together? That's why meals are such a cornerstone of our mental health; and friendships, love and business have always happened over meals. Today I am showing you a wonderful dessert service that I

When I see Bow figures, I find them hard to resist. Often the ones I find are so banged up or badly restored that I can't really get involved in buying them... but these two beauties passed the test!⁠ Meet Arlecchino and Columbina, two figures of the Commedia dell'Arte, an Italian comical theater that inspired the English Punch & Judy. Although a whole lot more sophisticated than that... no endless fistfights but rather a musical serenade by bagpipes and hurdy gurdy.⁠ ⁠ What

It's that time of the month - my next column in Homes & Antiques has come out, and this time it is about a revolutionary man who changed the course of Staffordshire, and, in some way, probably the world: Josiah Wedgwood. I have not traded a lot of Wedgwood items in my career as a porcelain trader, but am now thinking I probably should! Not only made Wedgwood many amazing items in various forms of china, the man Josiah himself was an extraordinary person who changed a lot in t

Time for a splendid lunch in the garden...? Today we are looking at this stunning dessert service. In the early 1900s there were as many of 300 potteries in Staffordshire alone, and many are not very well known. One pottery that deserves a lot more attention than it usually gets is Machin. Machin & Co was in operation between 1812 and 1830 and made lots of pottery (earthenware) and also very high quality porcelain. As this was not a very long period and they didn't mark their

Happy Easter everyone! I've been laying low a bit while dealing with covid (thankfully the vaccine did its job so I am fine) but with the beginning of the first real spring weather here in the UK, I am springing back to work myself. And this Easter, I have some very special things to show. 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's all about collecting in this new May issue of Homes & Antiques, and of course they asked me to write about my own collection. So I thought this is the perfect moment to write about the interesting story of my grandmother, and how she inspired me to start a porcelain business (and collection of course), even without me realising it. I've written about my grandmother's collection here on this blog a few years ago, but now you can read all about it in more detail in the new

A while ago I was very lucky to come across a garniture of three Ridgway vases from about 1810-1815. They immediately caught my eye, as apart from the fact that they are of course stunning, they looked familiar. Once I had received them and I saw the remains of a collection mark on the underside of the middle one, I realised why: they had belonged to Sir Geoffrey Godden, the well respected porcelain expert who wrote dozens of books on porcelain. In fact, the middle vase is on

This week I have a very fine Derby figure for you of a "Ranelagh" dancer from the 1760s. She would originally have come with a male companion - I am still on the look out to find him. Her name comes from the Ranelagh Gardens in Chelsea, London. These were the most popular pleasure grounds. If you've watched Bridgerton on Netflix you will have seen the important role pleasure grounds played in 18th and early 19th Century society; it was where eligible ladies and gentlemen woul

The "Grand Tour" inspired tea service I showed two weeks ago was popular - and it is already on its way to a lucky buyer. Today I have another beautiful tea service that is inspired by the Etruscan treasures that became so popular in the late 18th and early 19th Century. Made by New Hall, this tea service is from about 1810 and it is made in the characteristic "hybrid paste" porcelain that New Hall produced: this was a hard-paste porcelain that had been slightly adjusted. It