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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s lovely to see that the revived antiques department at historic London department store Liberty is still going strong. The atmospheric top floor is an idyllic place to spend an hour browsing, as I did today during my lunch break. Founded in 1875, the company has always maintained a very strong link with the decorative […]
The Antiques Roadshow was filmed at the British Museum yesterday – just around the corner from our office at Miller’s Towers. Although neither Judith Miller nor I were scheduled to attend that particular Roadshow, our colleague Katy had always wanted to see what goes on during a typical day, and how they were filmed. So […]
We nearly decided not to go, but I’m so glad we did go. With two Gettys on offer, the Museum and the Villa, the Museum seemed like the best bet. And although it was marvellous to see the Rembrandts and the French decorative arts and furniture, we weren’t quite prepared for quite how wonderful the […]
I spent my Summer holiday this year on a very American type of vacation – a road trip. Starting and finishing in Los Angeles, we took in San Francisco, the Napa Valley, Yosemite, Death Valley, Palm Springs, and much, much more. Although it was strictly a holiday, how could a diehard collector like me miss […]
I spent my Summer holiday this year on a very American type of vacation – a road trip. Starting and finishing in Los Angeles, we took in San Francisco, the Napa Valley, Yosemite, Death Valley, Palm Springs, and much, much more. Although it was strictly a holiday, how could a diehard collector like me miss […]
Since picking up this striking poster a few years ago, I’ve been a follower and admirer of the 1980s & 90s work of contemporary French poster designer Gérard Courboulieux, who works under the pseudonym of Razzia. I was delighted to be asked by BBC Homes & Antiques magazine to write a short article on him, […]
Steven Moore, my good friend and Antiques Roadshow colleague called me yesterday. He is Senior Specialist at Newcastle’s Anderson & Garland auction house, and had spotted something in their general auction today that he thought might interest me. And indeed it did – very much. Regular readers of my blog or Collect It magazine will […]
You see something new and unusual once, and it sticks in your mind. By the time you see it a third time, you’re thinking that there’s something more going here than a chance encounter. I’ve collected etchings since I was a geeky schoolboy, when I used to visit a couple of dealers in Guildford’s town […]