Le Clip! C’est Chic! Le Clip Swiss Quartz Watches

Le Clip Watch

I couldn’t resist this tiny, but oh-so evocative, 1980s relic when I chanced across it in Past Caring, one of my favourite London vintage shops. This small plastic Le Clip quartz watch was meant to be clipped onto the lapel of your jacket, your jacket pocket, or even your tie or shirt. The circular grey […]

Sam Herman – An Early Work – Vase No.73

Sam Herman Glass Vase

BBC antiques and design expert Mark Hill looks at the work of the internationally renowned pioneer studio glass artist Sam Herman in light of a recent discovery.

Totally Random ‘Folk Art’ Collage Picture

Folk Art Collage Picture

As regular readers of my blog will know, I buy a lot of pictures and prints. I began buying them at school, when I was 15, and they’re all still surrounding me, spread around our home. And I honestly like all of them as much today as I did when I bought them. Whether or […]

Amazing Prints – Whitefriars School in Italy, 1963

One of my favourite places to browse on a Sunday afternoon is Oxfam Books. What people turn off their bookshelves and out of their homes is endlessly fascinating for me. It’s always the pamphlets and booklets that I am drawn to first, from exhibition catalogues to more esoteric publications. A few years ago, I found […]

The House of The World’s Cultures, Berlin – An Etching

Visiting the ‘OstBerlin‘ exhibition in the Museum Ephraim-Palais in Berlin last weekend, I was impressed by the quality and quantity of period paintings, drawings and prints of the developing East German part of the city, dating from the 1950s-80s. So, when I stumbled across an etching of a notable West German building from the same […]

Modigliani, Marevna & A Student’s Promise

Marevna Modigliani Varvogli

I didn’t want to die at 36, but to a young art history student living away from home for the first time, Amedeo Modigliani’s life (1884-1920) seemed dramatic, charismatic, exciting and bohemian. I loved (and still love) his art and set myself a challenge of one day owning something directly connected to it and him […]

An Original 1960s Hille ‘Hillestak’ Furniture Catalogue

1960s Hille furniture catalogue

When I was pulling together my ‘Design At Home’ 20th century design auction for Dawson’s Auctioneers earlier this year, a vendor contacted me wishing to sell a group of British postwar furniture owned by his uncle, who had sadly recently died. His uncle had bought all the pieces brand new in 1961, and had looked […]

Bruton Antiques Fair & Mary Wondrausch Pottery

Bruton Decorative Antiques Fair

The third Bruton Decorative Antiques Fair will be held from the 19th to 21st October 2018, near the beautiful and deeply trendy Somerset town of Bruton. I’ve been attending since it began in 2016, having been a fan of its big sister, the Bath Decorative Antiques Fair, which was first held in 1989! At the […]