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Ravenna Mosaics

Published March 11, 2026 at 1438 × 933 in Miniature Marvel – An Orrefors Ravenna by Sven Palmqvist

Ravenna Mosaics

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ABOUT MARK HILL :

Mark is an author, publisher, TV presenter, and the leading specialist dealer in postwar Czechoslovakian glass. He has been an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow since 2007, and co-presented four primetime TV shows on antiques, collecting and interiors for BBC2, including two series of Collectaholics. Mark lectures widely and is an Arts Society (NADFAS) accredited lecturer, a member of The British Antiques Dealers’ Association, and a Freeman of the City of London.

Member of The British Antique Dealers’ Association

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MARK'S LATEST TWEETS

Mark Hill @antiquemark ·

20 Jul

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Thank you ❤️

If you wish, donations to @racingdementia

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Mark Hill @antiquemark ·

11 Jul

Eclectica III Auction with rare Michael Harris glass and more! - https://mailchi.mp/markhillpublishing/newshop-8334867

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Mark Hill @antiquemark ·

22 Jun

Delighted and excited to be at next Sunday’s @premierfairs fair in Penshurst, Kent, organised by @richardburtonshaw.

Come and find me - say hi, have a chat or consign to @markhillauctions. Bring your treasures and buy more here! Curves, colours and cool!

Looking forward to…

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MARK'S INSTAGRAM

markhillantiques

Delighted and excited to be at next Sunday’s @prem

Delighted and excited to be at next Sunday’s @premierfairs fair on Sunday 29th June in Penshurst, Kent, organised by @richardburtonshaw.

Come and find me - say hi, have a chat or consign to @markhillauctions. Bring your treasures and buy more here! Curves, colours and cool!

Looking forward to seeing you there 🤩

This little fellow perches on a desk lens on my de

This little fellow perches on a desk lens on my desk @markhillauctions. You all know who he is!

I bought him recently - he’s made from painted lead, dressed as a fireman, and has a very ‘ratty’ face and snout, all showing he’s earlier in date. Being loose, rather than attached, he’s also the piece from a toy that most often got lost!

I presume that he once sat on a lead or tinplate fire engine. ‘The Fire Fighters’ was released in June 1930, and it was followed by ‘Mickey’s Fire Brigade’ in 1935. I’m sure both animated shorts spurred a whole wealth of Disneyana, as we call it today. And he must have been a part of a toy from that period.

Now all I need is to find Horace Horsecollar, Minnie and the other animal firefighters! But I’ve got more chance of finding out what fire engine toy he once sat on.

As I said at the start, loose popular characters like Mickey usually lost their steeds, and then got lost. This Mickey was kept safely and even retains his original paint.

So if you have the right fire engine without a Mickey fireman, let me know!

I think I found the world’s most boring postcard.

I think I found the world’s most boring postcard. It’s maybe on a par with those from Martin Parr!

A suburban semi, glowering gloomily out at us. Badly shot too. And the message on the back (with a hint of desperation?) inviting the recipient:

“Dear Mr Wood
with all good wishes
pleased to see you at any time at
‘Tarifa’
72 Southsea Road
Leigh on Sea”

I guess the un-named sender was very proud of his (then) newly, or nearly newly, built home back in late December 1928.

The house still stands today (swipe for a Google Maps image) and looks much fresher, much less menacing, and much more inviting.

I wonder if Mr Wood ever visited?! Maybe for a sweet sherry or two?

(P.S.; I didn’t pay £1 for this marvel!)

I love Star Wars, and I love a mystery. My first r

I love Star Wars, and I love a mystery. My first real memory of the excitement of going to watch a new Star Wars film was ‘Return Of The Jedi’ in 1983, when I was 8 years old.

Even though the Ewoks left me cold (😂), I loved the film, especially the high speed Speeder Bike chase on Endor and the Biker Scouts and their AT-ST ‘Scout Walker’.

So one lot in my friend @alexjenkins_20thcenturylots next auction with my auction house caught my eye - an aged Biker Scout uniform.

There’s no provenance or paperwork to go with it, but the vendor picked it up years ago. It certainly has age, and lots of the features and forms match the 1983 originals.

But did it feature in the film (undoubtedly as a background Scout) or was it made from the original moulds for promotional purposes after the film had been launched? Or is it something else?

LucasFilm are notoriously possessive about original props and costumes, although some did escape. Is this one of them? Originals can fetch tens, and even hundreds, of thousands of pounds…

The challenge is set…with a presale estimate of £500-600, it’s too tempting to miss out on.

Use the Force. Decide for yourself. Bid and browse this and the entire sale at markhillauctions.com

Over the moon to be back out on the road filming @

Over the moon to be back out on the road filming @bbcantiquesroadshow! So great to see dear friends and colleagues, including catching up with @tracymartincollectables after well over a decade @shuttleworthtrust!

Check out the BBC website to see where we’re going to be next! Submit your stories online or bring your treasures and tales on the day 🤩

As for me, see you all at Hill of Tarvit in Fife, Scotland!

Just bought this for a tenner. Yes, it’s badly cra

Just bought this for a tenner. Yes, it’s badly cracked. Yes, it’s totally out of my areas of expertise and thus my comfort zone. So, why?

Because I want to learn Kintsugi! It’s something I’ve always found so resonant and powerful, and I need to do something about it. After spotting this in the window of @yijuantiques closing down sale, my first target was acquired!!

If anyone knows of any GOOD teachers or courses in London that allow for meaningful time and proper tutoring with an experienced expert, please DM me!!

Here we go!

A true ‘Marmite piece’! Love it, or loathe it. I

A true ‘Marmite piece’! Love it, or loathe it.

I can’t resist textile art when I can afford it. It all started way back when I worked in Sotheby’s Collectors Department with the lovely Sara, now one half of the amazing @covellitennant. Something hooked me, and stitched me firmly in.

I’ve always felt the whole area is hugely under-rated and I also love the more academic side to it as regards it being craft or art, and the fact that it has traditionally been seen as a woman’s or girl’s work or hobby - for example in terms of samplers and embroideries. There’s lots to uncover and explore there. And much of it says a lot about what we have considered as art that is worthy of public display and financial and academic value… But all that is thankfully slowly changing.

Some may think it looks like a dog’s dinner, but they may also think differently if it was executed in oil or acrylic, or mixed media. Wacky, quirky, bonkers - yes. And definitely worth a tenner.

I like it.

I have no idea who made it, as the signature is hard to read. It may be an amateur hobbyist. But I find that interesting too.

It was made to hang on its own without a frame and looks great that way. I will enjoy it gracing my walls with the rest of my collection.

Last night my partner was invited by @intesasanpao

Last night my partner was invited by @intesasanpaolo to a private view of the superb ‘Siena’ exhibition on early Renaissance Sienese art @nationalgallery.

Luckily the ticket included a ‘plus one’ - me!

It’s truly a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to see so much work together, some pieces have never left their original locations in Italy. Artists include Duccio, and my favourite Simone Martini.

The works are staggering in their number, age, scale and influence on Western art - this was the birth of painting as we know it today.

But I always look closely, as it’s also the plethora of often ignored details that make me smile or make my heart skip a beat.

Being able to spend time looking properly, without the crowds, was a true luxury. And, of course, I had to have a moment with one of my favourites in the main gallery, Turner’s sublime ‘Rain, Steam & Speed’, one of the earliest depictions of the unstoppable march of technological progress that we still experience today.

Thank you Jutta @intesasanpaolo (and my partner!) for a wonderful evening!

Since I wrote and published ‘Alla Moda’, my book o

Since I wrote and published ‘Alla Moda’, my book on midcentury modern Italian ceramics, in 2012, interest in the area has mushroomed.

One of my favourite designers and ceramicists included the book is Guido Gambone, who was arguably one of the innovators and forerunners of the period. Like so many who came after him, his work perfectly combined the modern with the ancient - a dichotomy of modern art and Italy’s centuries long history in ceramics.

One of my favourite pieces in my ‘Eclectica II’ auction tomorrow, on 24th April 2025, is a rare ‘Night Rider’ oval charger by Guido Gambone. The influence from Picasso is clear, and the gloopy, almost waxy, thick glaze and the colour palette hark back to ancient ceramics. There are also echoes of Prehistoric cave paintings about it too.

But what a lot of people ignore with Gambone is his dates - and that’s significant. Most people think of say his work dates from the 60s or 70s. Or even 80s! Not so - he died in 1969!

This work is illustrative of that - his donkey mark (see the third image) dates this piece to his time at his La Tirrena pottery in Florence in the early to mid 1950s.

Early indeed!

This shows he really was an innovator, a forerunner - and highly progressive.

This impressive piece is Lot 19 in my ‘Eclectica II’ auction @markhillauctions tomorrow, 24th April 2025, with an estimate of £400-600.

Find out more at markhillauctions.com

One of the most wonder-ful parts of my job is lite

One of the most wonder-ful parts of my job is literally holding a part of history in my hands. Of course, everything I handle in my job fits into history somewhere, but some pieces are more important than others. And this one is a cracker!

If you think about maritime disasters, the tragic name Titanic of course features large. But there were (sadly) others - and some had happier endings.

Last month, I was fascinated to examine a unique letter from, and signed by, Otto Von Bismarck to Captain Frederick William Hamilton Murrell of the SS Missouri.

In the letter, Bismarck congratulates and thanks Murrell for his bravery and heroism in saving over 700 crew and passengers on the stricken SS Danmark in April 1889.

The Danish passenger ship had run into trouble in turbulent high seas and had began to sink after the propeller shaft snapped and punctured a hole in the hull.

An attempt to tow the Danmark to land had to be abandoned and the Missouri’s crew had to bring the Danmark’s passengers and crew onto their cargo ship. Their cargo was thrown overboard and the crew worked for over 12 hours under the leadership of Murrell to ensure that “…every soul was saved.”

Their bravery and sacrifices meant that all passengers and crew made it to Philadelphia to begin new lives as emigrés.

This important, unique piece of history, consigned by a descendant of Murrell, is Lot 359 in my auction @markhillauctions tomorrow, on 24th April 2025, with an estimate of £2,000-3,000.

Find out more at markhillauctions.com

I’m a massive fan of folk art and there are few gr

I’m a massive fan of folk art and there are few greater names in English Folk Art pictures than George Smart, the ‘Tailor of Frant’.

His quirky fabric and leather collage pictures became famous in Regency England after a couple were purchased by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Sussex, in 1820. Smart’s name grew and his ‘Smart’s Emporium’ in the village of Frant, just south of Royal Tunbridge Wells, became a popular tourist destination after it was mentioned in many guidebooks to the area.

One of his most frequently depicted, and most loved, characters was the 93 year old ‘Old Bright The Postman’. On 24th April 2025, I’m delighted to be selling what is believed to the earliest representation of Old Bright as Lot 367 in my Eclectica II auction @markhillauctions.

Smart’s work was included in the Tate Gallery’s landmark ‘British Folk Art’ exhibition in 2014, and can be found in many museum collections. It is thought that fewer than 100 examples of his work survive today, making it an appealing rarity.

I’ll be excited to see what it fetches against an estimate of £1,000-1,500. Find out more at markhillauctions.com

Smudgy early 20thC painting as a new acquisition f

Smudgy early 20thC painting as a new acquisition from auction today. But I like it. It’s dynamic!

Leave me be! 😆

It’s signed in the bottom left corner, but I can’t read it from the photographs. I love researching chance-found mysteries like this.

Back later with anything I find out, if there is anything to find out!!

My haul today from one of my very favourite fairs

My haul today from one of my very favourite fairs in the UK. @adamsantiquesfairs legendary ‘Horti’ never fails to deliver. And today was packed, meaning I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Up first is a Regency pocket magnifier, c1820-40, probably a ‘quizzer’. I already have collectionette of these, which I use every day in my job(s), but this one has an unusually super thick - so strong - lens. £60 paid.

Next up is an Arts & Crafts enamelled silver pendant. I know it’s no Charles Horner or Murrle Bennett, or anything near that in terms of quality. But it’s on a .925 silver chain, so I was happy with £20. Especially as I liked the enamel which has more tones in it than the photo shows.

Finally, an early Sampson Mordan pencil, with a scarce mark that dates from the mid-1830s until the mid 1840s. Watch yellow metal Mordans with these marks as they often have a solid gold external sleeve. £XX 😝 paid.

The next fair is on 13th April and I can’t wait!

Day trip to Whitstable. Sunny but bracing walks, s

Day trip to Whitstable. Sunny but bracing walks, sensational seafood, and an antiques shop or three. And an Art Nouveau white metal tie pin to add to my collection from the lovely, super friendly @memories_and_moonbeams. Super day!

Size matters! And I’d never seen one this small be

Size matters! And I’d never seen one this small before.

Orrefors’ legendary Ravenna range is immediately recognisable from the geometric, grid-like formation of small decorated squares on a blue (sometimes red) body. Typical of mid-century modern Scandinavian design, the forms are rounded and organic.

It was designed in 1948 by the talented designer Sven Palmqvist (1906-84), and was named after the mosaics in the Italian city of Ravenna created by Roman, Ostrogoth and Byzantine artists.

The production process is deceptively complex. A colourless glass slab was covered with a layer of coloured glass and annealed. Once cold, it was covered with a layer of bitumen resist in a geometric pattern that recalled mosaics. The slab was then sandblasted creating square or rectangular ‘pockets’ and grooves, which were then filled with coloured glass powder. The slab was then reheated, cased with colourless glass and formed into its final shape. This combination of hot and cold working techniques is highly unusual and the visual effects are stunning. Although the range was produced from 1948-89, each and every single piece was unique.

I spotted this in a large antiques centre and couldn’t resist - not only because of the price, but also because of the small size - a mere 8.5cm square, and 5.5cm highest. I’ve never seen a miniature Ravenna before!

All the work involved led to a hefty price tag for the range (back then, and today) so why go to all that effort to make something in miniature that would still have to have a comparatively high price tag? I can’t believe many of these miniatures sold.

The range is highly-prized, with normal sized examples selling for anything from £400-£3,500 or so today.

Ravenna is fully signed on the base - a piece can be dated to a period or year from the serial number. My miniature is numbered 5584, showing it was made in 1973 - making it a little older than me.

I could never afford a standard sized piece of Ravenna, so I was delighted to part with £38 (no, I didn’t negotiate!) to add it to my collection.

Here they are! The Antiques Roadshow dates for thi

Here they are! The Antiques Roadshow dates for this year!

I hope to see you and your treasures at one of them!!

Kindness. When I was at prep school, the only awar

Kindness. When I was at prep school, the only award I ever won, not being very sporty, was the Cup of Kindness. Two years in a row, in fact! Wandering around an ephemera fair last year, I picked up this charming and typically sentimental (even ever so slightly morbid!) Victorian lithograph in a small frame.

It sits next to my desk @markhillauctions to remind me that even in times of stress, anxiety or worry, kindness counts. Being kind can make the difference between making and breaking someone’s day, especially your own. Giving is receiving.

I think the world needs a whole lot more kindness right now to combat the increasing levels of intolerance, hate and viciousness we’re witnessing. Let’s all do our best to do our bit, however small it may seem.

Thank you @mrjoneswatches, for replacing the batte

Thank you @mrjoneswatches, for replacing the battery in my much-loved (and much-admired) ‘The Last Laugh’ wristwatch FREE OF CHARGE!

An amazing, polite and smiley service - and a rarity in this day and age.

I also browsed their current range and the limited range of trial designs, which are only available in their shop. All their watches are automatic now, but are no less inventive, wonderful and witty in design. Thank you again!

This is Malcolm. I don’t know what Malcolm is, whe

This is Malcolm. I don’t know what Malcolm is, where Malcolm came from, or when Malcolm was made. Or who made him or why.

For the past 5-10 years, I’ve only been buying things (typically curiosities) for myself that I don’t know anything about. Buying things I intend to sell in my shop is very different. Well, most of the time.

I’ve worked with antiques, vintage and collectable things professionally and personally for nearly 30 years, and the hunger to learn is still there. It’s one of the best things about the business I work in.

I don’t want to buy things I know about for myself. I want to buy things I don’t know anything about so I can go on a journey and learn something.

I’m ’paying’ for the journey and learning. If the thing I bought is worth more than I paid, then that’s a bonus.

I bought Malcolm because of the wear, the fact he is carved from stone, and the primitive form. And the shiny patches. And because I know F-all about him.

Is he Pacific Islands? Is he Easter Island (😂) ? Is he African? Is he from South America? I don’t know yet, and finding out is all the fun.

But he made me smile, and he challenged me. So Malcolm came home with me. I’ll let you know when I know. Probably.

Well, the auctions have decided!! But there’s stil

Well, the auctions have decided!! But there’s still two days to go!

Find out who’s in the lead (if you don’t know already!) and what’s in the bag (😂) at 16.00 on @bbcone or catch up on @bbciplayer

We had a rockin’ Road Trip and fabulous fun for sure, as always with the ultra glamorous @rooirvine

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