Auctioning The London Stock Exchange Clocks

Last night I was the auctioneer at the sale of these rather unusual looking clocks. From 1971 until the ‘Big Bang’ in 1986, they presided over deals worth billions and billions of pounds, as they hung in the trading room of the London Stock Exchange in Threadneedle Street until the mid-1990s. Just think for a […]

Over 50,000 View Fat Lava Film On YouTube

The number speaks for itself. The first ever film dedicated to fabulous Fat Lava ceramics has been viewed on YouTube over 55,000 times – and counting! I don’t need to tell you that this is a truly staggering amount that just goes to show how this movement is moving and shaking the world of 20thC […]

Please Help Us – Your Support Is Needed!

Calling ALL Czech Glass and Fat Lava fans – your help is needed. And all it will cost you is a few moments of your time. Last week we heard the shocking news that the King’s Lynn Arts Centre is being threatened with closure by the local government. But, if you don’t live in King’s […]

The 16th Cambridge Glass Fair

I can’t miss it, and nor should you. I’ve just got back from the Cambridge Glass Fair which was as marvellous as ever on its 16th outing. Held in the picturesque and pastoral Chilford Hall Vineyard, over 200 of the country’s great and good glass dealers gather to offer you over 300 years of collectable […]

Visiting the LAPADA Antiques Fair

Hot-footing it back from yesterday’s action packed and exhausting – yet highly enjoyable – Antiques Roadshow at Winchester Cathedral, next up on the agenda was a visit to London’s prestigious LAPADA antiques fair in Berkeley Square. Although no nightingales were singing, there was plenty to entertain, tempt and fascinate. I was joined by Judith Miller […]

Antiques Roadshow at Winchester Cathedral

I was instantly transported back to my childhood. And it made me smile. Relatively late in the day at today’s packed Antiques Roadshow, a very kind and friendly couple showed me something they had bought for their children back in the early 1970s – a Corgi Magic Roundabout Playground set. I was never lucky enough […]

West German Ceramics at Alexandra Palace

There seemed to be quite a lot of these at the excellent Alexandra Palace Antiques Fair today, and prices certainly seem to be on the up. Although £10-15 will still buy you an appealing but more common piece of Scheurich or Bay, the smart money should be put at something a bit more pricey that […]

A Broken Pontiff?

In honour of the Pope’s visit to Great Britain this week, I thought I’d post this. Browsing eBay one evening last week, I came across a rather interesting piece of studio glass. The seller had described it correctly up to the point where he or she mentioned the fact that it had a ‘broken pontiff’ […]

Monart at the Perth Museum & Art Gallery

While travelling back down to London from yesterday’s Antiques Roadshow, I was keen to stop off at the Perth Museum & Art Gallery before boarding my plane at Edinburgh. Firstly, I’m helping with an exciting event there next year and wanted to see what it looked like (more about that later!) and, secondly, I knew […]

Two Norwegian Peg Tankards

Although I didn’t film anything at yesterday’s Blair Castle Antiques Roadshow, I was lucky enough to find a great many fascinating and desirable things to look at. Amongst them were these two wooden lidded tankards, owned by a lovely old lady in a wheelchair. She and her husband had been given them as a wedding […]

Antiques Roadshow at Blair Castle

Yesterday saw me travel to my penultimate Roadshow – in Pitlochry, Scotland. After a couple of hours worth of delays on Sleazyjet due to a faulty plane, I found myself driving Judith Miller, Lennox Cato and Rupert Maas through the stunning Scottish countryside to the pretty town of Dunkeld. Our hotel (where I’m sitting typing […]

Mid-Century Modern & Mad Men

I absolutely love Mad Men, the American TV show about the life and times of Don Draper and his busy New York advertising executive colleagues during the 1960s. Everything about it, from the opening credits to the suits to the room interiors, screams the mid-century modern and Eames-influenced design of the day. And it’s incredibly […]