Alla Moda ‘Flower Painter’ – Designer’s Identity Revealed!

Milvia Flower Painter

The identity of the so-called ‘Flower Painter’, who decorated a wide range of mid-century modern Italian ceramics with quirky, colourful and cool stick people, animals and other objects during the 1950s & 60s, has long been a mysterious enigma. When building Graham Cooley’s ground-breaking ‘Alla Moda’ exhibition of 2012, and when I was compiling my […]

Fat Lava As Art? A Series Of Prints

West German pottery of the 1960s & 70s, better known as Fat Lava, is a bit like Marmite. You either love it or hate it – there’s no middle ground. Although I’ve seen huge installations in art galleries and stylish illustrations produced for magazines or calendars, I haven’t seen much other ‘art’ produced with it […]

A Minton Tile and The Great Exhibition

A few years ago, I bought a Minton majolica tile (above and below) at auction that, according to the handwritten labels on the back (see below), had a rather interesting provenance to the Great Exhibition of 1851. I wrote a blog post about it appealing for more information, which you can read by clicking here. […]

Hornsea Pottery Collectors’ Weekend Event

Having missed the opportunity last year, I was delighted to be able to attend the annual Hornsea Pottery collectors’ event last week, held as part of the Hornsea Freeport‘s ‘Nostalgia’ weekend. Organised by the Hornsea Pottery Collectors & Research Society, the busy event sees exchange of information and new learnings, as well as allowing members […]

A Rare Communist & Soviet Terracotta Plaque

One of the aspects I love about my job the most is finding objects I love but don’t know anything about. It’s almost like a challenge – the piece taunts and teases me. Who am I? Where was I made? Who designed and produced me? When? What do I mean? Often looking at them periodically […]

Stuff With A Story…

The other week I had an interesting conversation over dinner with one of my Roadshow colleagues at the first Roadshow of the most recent, and 37th, season. It’s one that held great resonance for me personally, as I’m a believer in synchronicity and this isn’t the first time this subject had come up. This particular […]

Fabulous Fat Lava On Sale – Bargains Galore!

I’m sad to report that, due to serious illness, my friend the pioneering Fat Lava collector and dealer Stuart Brownrigg is having to close his amazing stand at Bygone Times in Lancashire. To that end, he will be hosting a ‘25% off everything’ sale commencing on Sunday March 9th, 2014. Both Stuart and his stand […]

New Zealand’s Te Rona Studio Pottery

As a typical Aquarian, I always favour the underdog. I love the unsung, the hated and the ignored. Wandering around the Portobello Gallery of contemporary art and crafts with my wonderful uncle and aunt on the stunningly picturesque Otago Peninsula, I spotted a couple of cabinets of vintage New Zealand studio pottery. As the banker […]

Is ‘Antiques’ The Right Word?

“Antiques. I can’t afford them and I don’t understand them.” Much has been made recently about the difficult state of the antiques market. In an increasingly fast-paced world led by interiors magazines and the pure, hard drive of commerce from high street and retail park retailers, some say antiques have fallen by the wayside. Even […]

I need help!

It’s a thorny one, this. I might not make many new friends, but dealers, auction house specialists and other ‘experts’ (if you really want to use that word) will undoubtedly nod knowingly. They may even sigh in agreement. Let me start this off by saying that, like any normal, adjusted and sociable human being, most […]

‘Flower Painter’ Mid-Century Italian Ceramics – An Update

A few months ago, I published a post about some exciting new Italian ceramics by the mysterious ‘Flower Painter’ that I had found. You can read the post by clicking here. As they sadly didn’t reveal the identity of the designer or factory, but just tantalised with more clues, I set the challenge of finding […]