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 […]
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 […]
This weekend saw the Banker and I taking shameless advantage of the cheap flight fad and enjoying a short weekend break in Stockholm. As ever, was looking forward to trawling around the design shops and antiques and collectables centres in the capital of one of the countries that has contributed the most to 20th century […]
As you will have seen from other parts of my website, the Fat Lava Exhibition was opened at the King’s Lynn Art Centre in Norfolk, England on July 15th. Since its launch unprecedented numbers of visitors have attended, each emitting a shocked gasp as they enter the vibrant ceramic filled gallery. Okay, I may be […]
Don’t you just hate it when someone is clearly over-charging for postage and packing? Sure, I know that it takes precious time to pack, and uses up materials that costs money (have you seen the price of bubblewrap and strong envelopes these days?!) but when something is small AND light in weight and apparently costs […]
Is it just me or does anyone else think that most British studio pottery is both enormously under-priced and under-appreciated? Okay, Troika may have gone stratospheric and is only just about reaching a plateau, but there are a whole host of other names whose prices are still too low in my opinion. I’m thinking Briglin, […]