A city centre with a shop selling glass on pretty much every street sounds like heaven for the glass collector. Not so, I wouldn’t give a second glance, let alone house room, to 90% of the cheap trash on offer! Apart from pieces by Moser or similar factories, and pieces sold at the swish Material […]
People keep saying to me that “everything that’s worth something has been found” and “it’s not worth looking as there are no bargains any more”. Well, it’s just not true. Only last month a superb, and rare example of a Modernist chair found for £25 sold at auction for nearly £3,000! Similar, but not quite […]
Browsing around my favourite hunting ground, Past Caring in Islington, with a TV film crew today, I stumbled upon this incredible photograph. Although it might not look like much, the rather strange piece of glass the young man is looking at is a postwar Czech masterpiece. Simply titled ‘Object’, it was designed in 1960 by […]
Last month I was delighted to be asked by BBC Homes & Antiques magazine to write an article on postwar Czech glass design, a hot collecting area also known to collectors as ‘sklo’. The magazine’s photographers have really excelled themselves, and you’ll find a lavishly illustrated seven page article packed with useful information and tips. […]
Now there’s a name you don’t hear every day. But it is one that you might hear more of in the future. Frantisek Zemek (1913-60) is arguably one of the lost great names in 20th century glass design, and was key to the development of hot-worked glass in Czechoslovakia. Starting his career as a glass […]
The ‘Hi Sklo Lo Sklo’ exhibition of postwar Czech glass design held at the King’s Lynn Arts Centre in Norfolk has now closed. Over 4,650 glass and 20th century design fans visited to view over 1,000 objects during its inaugural four week run. On average, that’s over 1,100 visitors per week, and nearly 200 visitors […]
It came around far quicker than expected, but the 12th July saw the launch of the long awaited ‘Hi Sklo Lo Sklo exhibition at the King’s Lynn Arts Centre, in King’s Lynn Norfolk. And what a weekend it was! Arriving late Friday afternoon, I my breath was taken away by the incredibly colourful display of […]
Well, it seems as if post war Czech glass design is very much flavour of the month! Could it become flavour of the year, and maybe even the next ‘big thing’, I wonder? With July seeing the launch of an important and ground-breaking exhibition and accompanying catalogue focusing on the subject, prices seem to be […]
Too often we’re all guilty of travelling for miles to out-of-the-way places in the hope of finding that bargain that nobody else could be bothered to travel that far to find. Not only is it bad for the environment, but it’s also not always the best thing to do. A visit to a retro store […]
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 […]
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