Cracking Antiques is on a myth-busting mission to prove that people can add style and glamour to any type of home by investing in second-hand, vintage and antique furnishings – without breaking the bank. The prime-time series, coming to BBC Two from April 7th at 8.30pm is presented by interior designer Kathryn Rayward and antiques […]
Just imagine walking home on a wet and windswept evening balancing an umbrella and your bag precariously as you try to shelter from the elements. You just want to get home, shove the umbrella in its stand, make a warm cup of tea and dry out. Just imagine if that neglected ‘umbrella stand’ turned out […]
Very early one cold, windy and rainy morning this Autumn, I found this vase at a fair in the South of England. Against the grey day, it did rather stand out. I automatically presumed it was postwar Italian from fifty paces, so honed in to have a closer look. Whilst it looked like the type […]
Tipped off by a good friend who knows how I like to spot things I’m interested in on TV, I watched a couple of episodes of the very amusing new BBC Two comedy ‘Miranda’ last night. And sure enough, the Fat Lava vases I was promised were there. The series details the haphazard and hilarious […]
Back in January, I was delighted to come across my friend and old Sotheby’s colleague Sara Covelli and her new business Covelli Tennant. This week another one of my old friends and erstwhile colleagues at Sotheby’s, James Bridges of Martel Maides in Guernsey, hit the news. Undertaking a house contents valuation for a Channel Islands […]
I’ve just got back from the fantastic Bygone Times, in Eccleston, near Chorley in Lancashire. This really is one of my favourite places in the entire country to visit. Two truly enormous warehouses literally crammed with everything from Georgian to modern await you – with prices from as little as a pound or two. The […]
Our first stop was the capital city of Beijing, known as Peking until the Revolution in 1949. After a recouperative night’s sleep following the 9 hour flight from London, I set off mid-morning to enormous Panjiayuan antiques market in the south east of the city. Although many flea markets are overrun with tourists, particularly in […]
This month’s BBC Homes & Antiques magazine is even more than packed than ever with inspirational and practical information about collecting and living with antiques and collectables. In this month’s issue, insiders reveal their ‘trade secret’ favourite hunting grounds, be they antiques centres, specialists, auctions or junk shops. I was delighted to be asked to […]
Having seen so many prehistoric, neolithic and paleolithic designs on modern ceramics and glass, I’ve often wondered how much these were inspired and driven by the discovery of some caves. In Summer 1940, four French teenagers out walking their dog in the Dordogne discovered a cave, the walls of which were covered with prehistoric cave […]
Last weekend was spent in Berlin, visiting friends, but also indulging in more than a little hunting around the flea markets and vintage shops of this trendy city. First stop was Deco Arts in Motzstrasse, in the Schoneberg district. I had passed this shop many a time, and each time it was closed. Thankfully, this […]
July has been a busy month for me. In addition to my usual jobs, this month I enjoyed three Antiques Roadshows in nearly as many weeks. I wrote about Melrose below, and that was followed up a few days later by an event at Bletchley Park, just outside Milton Keynes. If you think you recognise […]
I’ve just got back from a charity auction held to benefit the Prince’s Trust at the Guildhall in London. Alas, I am empty handed. Eric Knowles, my friend and colleague on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, is taking part in another series of ‘Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is’ for the BBC. Here, two well-known […]