It’s often amazing what crops up on eBay.de. Earlier this month I found a rather superb Ruscha bull, in the desirable ‘Vulcano’ glaze. According to Petra & Patrick Folkersma of Outernational, Ruscha made a small number of animals in the 1960s, including an elephant which was the earliest example made. The bull was made in […]
For those of you who treat buying antiques and collectables somewhat like the stock market, here’s something you will be interested in. Today, a large Mdina ‘Fish’ vase designed by Michael Harris, and also signed by him, sold for a staggering £1,564 on eBay.de! A couple of years ago, this would have probably fetched around […]
I’ve just got back from a working and (thankfully, latterly) pleasure weekend in Berlin. The results of my Fat Lava this time hunt were rather surprising! I found one design shop in trendy Mitte where they actually had a selection of Fat Lava on display in their vintage design section. This is the first time […]
New year’s resolutions, and all that, have finally pushed me to scan and post a couple of press articles from 2006 that may interest you. They just go to show how both West German ceramics and Mdina and Isle of Wight Studio Glass are spreading, and generally becoming more notable and noteworthy subjects. Some national […]
Firstly, happy new year to one and all. The first new news of the year is that, at last, Dr Horst Makus’ landmark publication ‘Keramik der 50er Jahre’ (Ceramics of the 1950s) has been re-released. It was last published in 1998 and has become increasingly impossible to find over the last 9 years. My gap-filling […]
2025 is nearly over and it’s time to look forward to a relaxing break and then the coming year ahead. But right now, it’s time for a much-needed break, so our office will be closed from Thursday 18th December until Tuesday 6th January inclusive. Any and all enquiries or sales received between those dates will […]
Hot on the heels of the Maltese-based ‘Mdina Collectors Club’, comes an even more exciting venture out of Toronto in Canada. A number of dedicated Fat Lava enthusiasts have just founded the ‘Fat Lava Collectors’ Club’, in association with the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The small but perfectly formed group held their first meeting last […]
I’m sure many of you will have seen what you think is a West German ceramic, which then turns out to be Austrian – with the word AUSTRIA moulded on the base. I have been keeping my eye on these to try and work out who made them. Earlier this week I bought a nice […]
One of the most enjoyable, and often surprising, tasks my job entails is meeting people and discussing their collections. This can be for publication in one of our books, for valuation or – in this case – on a book signing tour. With Autumn’s cold mornings and evenings showing us Summer really was over, Judith […]
As you’ll know if you are on this site, one of my passions is West German ceramics of the 1960s & 70s. So much so, that I wrote a book about it… Well, I’ve now just ‘discovered’ Dutch ceramics, having acquired (at no great cost!) a rather appealing cube vase by Pieter Groeneveldt, and a […]
I’ve just had a fascinating telephone and email conversation with the curator of Greenway House, near Brixham in Devon, who was seeking some advice. Currently owned by the National Trust, it was the family home of Agatha Christie who is known, of course, for her crime novels. It appears that she was also a keen […]
The KING of British antiques fairs, legendary amongst collectors and dealers the world around! And I was going! Yay! If you have heard rumours about it going into decline, please dispel them immediately as the doom-laden thoughts of the terminally miserable. In my honest opinion, this event IS still worth going to, even on a […]