I adore costume jewellery pins, and I do love a good crown pin. Forget the precious metal and gemstone ones, especially with gold being at the heights that it is now. Costume jewellery designs are just as eye-catching, and the story behind them can be a ‘crowning glory’. There’s one pin in particular that always […]
I don’t usually buy blue and white transfer-printed pottery. If I did, I guess it would be to use. And that’s what it was made for – solid, workaday dinner and tea wares for ordinary homes, inspired by the ever-present fashion for Chinese blue and white porcelains. Just much less expensive, and much more resilient. […]
I’ve long been a fan of studio glass – glass made from the mid-1960s onwards when the studio glass movement finally freed the medium of glass from factories to be used by individual artists. Glass could finally become a medium for art. It’s a seriously major turning point in 20th century design, art and decorative […]
I’m a huge fan of antique prints. Yes, I know most dealers or auctioneers groan when presented with one unless it’s by an internationally known master, but I think they’re an undiscovered treasure trove. Partly because they are typically extremely affordable and allow us to own an original work by a major artist, or they […]
I’m not much of a fan of bar brooches, if I’m honest. But I know that those once-reviled Victorian silver bar brooches engraved with names have become popular once again, driven by the recent revival of girl’s names from that period. Still, not for me. At all. However, one bar brooch kept gently waving at […]
To use common parlance among the kids, “Oooh, sick!” It’s a penis bone! Quite literally, and it always catches eyes gazing over the cabinet of curiosities that is my desk. It makes muggles smile when they want a tour of my office – antiques aren’t dry, dusty and boring at all. ‘Oosik’ is the word […]
We all know that feeling, that frisson of excitement as you enter an antiques shop that you haven’t been in before. What will I find? Will I come out empty-handed, or is there treasure within? The thrill of the hunt! Walking along a London street last weekend, I popped into an antiques shop that I […]
A few weeks ago, I was helping a dear friend go through some ephemera he had collected into a folio over the years. As a thank you, he kindly gave me two small mounted Victorian prints that I had rather taken a shine to. He knows I’m a fan of antique prints – an undisputed […]
Could my flea market art find be worth thousands? Over the past few years, it’s struck me that there’s an increasingly huge number of fakes in Modern British art out there in the wild. And, yes, I use that word intentionally – fakes. Because that’s exactly what they are, as they are intended to deceive. […]
Although novelty animal figurines can be desirable and even valuable, the vast majority are of relatively low value, commonly found, and can be hard to sell even though favourites such as dogs have a legion of fans. But never dismiss them out of hand – always look closer. This strange old bird holds a great […]
Size matters! And I’d never seen one this small before. Well, this tiny, in fact. Wandering around an antiques centre in the North of England recently, I spotted this Scandinavian glass miniature bowl or pin dish made by Sweden’s celebrated glass company Orrefors. Measuring only 9cm wide and 4.5cm high, it was truly tiny and […]
Mark Hill examines a 1970s abstract painting by an as yet unknown Iranian or Persian woman artist.