Since Graham Cooley and I launched the first ‘Fat Lava’ exhibition and bookalogue in 2006, West German pottery has gone global. We certainly weren’t the first to appreciate this quirky and often much-maligned pottery from the 1960s & 70s, but the combined event crystalised the market, which has grown and grown like Flopsy since then. […]
Uruguay. It’s hardly a place where you’d expect to find much modern design, mid-century or otherwise. Or so I thought in my naïvety. My thoughts of a Cuba-like state of elegant disrepair were blown apart pretty much as soon as we landed. A swish and well-designed airport at Punta Del Este, and an even swisher […]
Even though Buenos Aires is well known for its amazing Art Deco antique shops, I was a little surprised to stumble across this teapot nestled amongst ceramics and glass on one stand. French Art Deco is plentiful, but British Art Deco is slightly harder to find there. At first glance, it looked like an Susie […]
Taking advantage of the two long holiday weekends, the banker and I decided to blow some of our carefully amassed air miles and seek out some sun by flying to Buenos Aires and Uruguay for a Spring break. We first visited this amazing city three years ago, after hiking the Inca Trail for four days. […]
Last Saturday saw the launch of the first ever exhibition and book dedicated to Caithness Glass and the work of its co founder and first designer Domhnall ÓBroin. Over 300 pieces of glass from the Cooley Collection were beautifully displayed at Broadfield House Glass Museum, covering fifty years of world-renowned design since the company was […]
I’ve never been a prize before, let alone a first prize! Last Thursday, Judith Miller and I visited the Bath Decorative & Antiques Fair to give a personal tour of the fair to 6 of their competition winners. They also received a bottle of vintage champagne, and a free Miller’s book. One lucky couple also […]
It’s not that I’ve been lazy since the New Year (doesn’t that seem like a long time ago?!) with my blog. It’s just that my time has been completely taken up with my next book – on Caithness Glass. Although planning started over two years ago, for various reasons I wasn’t able to start it […]
A quick, but important, one here. On my trip to Novy Bor, I was taken to the Crystalex factory shop. A selection of ‘interesting’ decorative pieces and tableware was available, but the things that caught my eye were those in the photos below. The collectors amongst you will recognise the glass in the first photo […]
It’s not often that you get to meet the people behind the designs you collect, even though there’s more of a chance with postwar pieces. While I was in Novy Bor, I was lucky to meet Karel Wünsch, one of the best and most innovative postwar Czech glass designers who is globally renowned for his […]
My main reason for visiting the Czech Republic last week was to attend the opening of a major retrospective exhibition of the work of eminent Czech glass designer and maker Frantisek Vizner. I was kindly invited as the guest of the Ajeto Glassworks, whose smart and spacious museum in Novy Bor was the location of […]
It started with a question, and I never expected the answer to turn out like it did. Last week’s amazing visit to the Ajeto Glassworks in Novy Bor, Czech Republic, brought me into contact with a vibrant, charming and talented young Australian glassmaker called Jasper Dowding (above). Even though it seemed to pass in minutes, […]
Any of you Fat Lava fans who haven’t come across Kevin Graham yet are missing a major trick. Kevin has been collecting and researching West German studio and factory ceramics for well over a decade now, and runs the highly popular and successful ‘Pottery & Glass Forum‘, which is free to join. I’d encourage you […]