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SteedBowler

Published March 26, 2015 at 600 × 766 in Doing It Properly: Resizing An Antique Bowler Hat

John Steed

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ABOUT MARK HILL :

Mark is an author, publisher, TV presenter, and the leading specialist dealer in postwar Czechoslovakian glass. He has been an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow since 2007, and co-presented four primetime TV shows on antiques, collecting and interiors for BBC2, including two series of Collectaholics. Mark lectures widely and is an Arts Society (NADFAS) accredited lecturer, a member of The British Antiques Dealers’ Association, and a Freeman of the City of London.

Member of The British Antique Dealers’ Association

NEWSLETTER

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MARK'S LATEST TWEETS

Tweets by @antiquemark

MARK'S INSTAGRAM

markhillantiques

I have to echo Irita. We got in a classic car toge

I have to echo Irita. We got in a classic car together last Autumn not knowing each other at all. After laughter, teasing, competitiveness, and soooo much fun - and good buys and bad - we got back out as dear friends. Thank you, Irita, for being you and being so fab. And for an amazing Roadtrip!

If you didn’t see our Road Trip last week and want to, see it on @bbciplayer

I’ve never really been a military type. I obviou

I’ve never really been a military type. I obviously appreciate what they do, and the sacrifices they make, but it’s never been for me. Thanks to those that fought and died, I have a choice today.

I even complained so vociferously when my school put me in the CCF (Combined Cadet Force) that they immediately moved me into the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme instead. (I got to Silver!)

But I was fascinated to hear about how WWI affected both women’s fashions and the role of women in work when I visited the amazing @greatwarhuts as part of this week’s BBC Antiques Roadtrip.

Catch up on @bbciplayer

I also got to wear a Second Lieutenants uniform, which I think was a perfect fit!

When your jacket matches your car… Vintage 1970

When your jacket matches your car…

Vintage 1970s polyester, by Irvine Sellars, bought for £30 in a vintage clothes market years ago!

Irvine Sellar (1934-2017) was a fascinating and highly successful man. After starting as a market trader, he opened his first clothing shop in London in Soho in 1964. A second shop followed on Carnaby Street in 1965 - and they became part of the fabric of fashion in London’s Swinging Sixties. By 1981, his hugely successful Mates company had over 90 fashion stores across the U.K.

He then moved into property development, and saw even greater successes, developing properties all over London including, with Qatari support, The Shard!

So I won yesterday’s auction…but who finds wha

So I won yesterday’s auction…but who finds what and wins today?

Watch @antiqueroadtrip on BBC1 at 3.45pm with @iritamarriottantiques and me!

A real highlight of this week’s BBC Antiques Roa

A real highlight of this week’s BBC Antiques Roadtrip was to visit @retrovation, curated with care and love by the wonderful Dawn & Steve. It’s a real Aladdin’s Cave of treasures from across the centuries. I loved all the things I bought, and so did the bidders at the auction! I won the second auction hands down, after @iritamarriottantiques stonking win the day before, but what happens next? Who comes out on top? Tune in to today’s Antiques Road Trip on BBC1 at 15.45 to find out!

A rollicking rollercoaster of a Roadtrip ride!! Jo

A rollicking rollercoaster of a Roadtrip ride!! Join me and the inimitable and wonderful @iritamarriottantiques this coming week on BBC One for our adventures hunting, buying - and selling! Or catch up on @bbciplayer!

Are they vases? Or are they art? What do you think

Are they vases? Or are they art? What do you think?

I reveal how two bright and colourful 1960s Czech glass vases by master glass designer Pavel Hlava were made.

Follow @pantilesarcade for more videos by my friends and colleagues.

For more amazing art, antiques and 20thC design, go to scottishantiques.com or visit The Pantiles Arcade, Royal Tunbridge Wells, England.

Thank you to my wonderful boyfriend (not pictured)

Thank you to my wonderful boyfriend (not pictured) for a truly amazing birthday weekend in Prague. Glass, history, cocktails, culture, great food, dear friends…. What more could a boy want?!

Morning coffee brought to me in bed on my birthday

Morning coffee brought to me in bed on my birthday. Briglin, a tea light and a cookie from @gailsbakery. It brought a smile to my face!

“It’s a witch’s house!” said my partner, “…and it’s broken!”

I often fall a little bit in love with broken and restored old things. Especially like this.

It’s an early Victorian Staffordshire pottery pastille burner. The stench of cities and industrialised towns in the late 18thC and 19thC was often so bad that people took to burning small pleasantly fragranced pastilles to scent the air of their rooms.

The holders they were burned in began as luxurious silver or porcelain containers for the wealthy but, by the early 19thC, they were available to more people in other materials. Buildings were a typical form and, as time progressed, they also gained open windows and thus also acted as nightlights.

This large cottage ornée has a wealth of detail and is attributed to the notable Thomas Parr factory, sometime around 1830-1850. It’s not at all common, and is a notch or two above the norm.

But it’s the damage and repair that got me. This once much-loved home accessory clearly fell off someone’s mantelpiece at some point and broke into at least three pieces. Horrified by the fact that they would have to suffer foul air again, and loving it so dearly, the owner took the trouble and expense to have it restored - and to comparatively great lengths.

The restoration would have cost many times more than it’s worth, and it’s largely valueless today.

But for a fiver in a charity shop, I couldn’t leave it and its story behind. Especially as I then went next door to Pret à Manger and spent £5.15 on a cup of tea and a nut bar!

The tea and nut bar were gone in minutes, but this 180 year old battered survivor will remind me of times past for years to come. Make do and mend!

Today is the start a big new adventure! I’ve ope

Today is the start a big new adventure! I’ve opened a new shop at the amazing Pantiles Arcade in Royal Tunbridge Wells, with my friend and BBC Antiques Roadshow colleague Eric Knowles and Robert Woodmansey, his business partner from Hoard @scottish_antiques.

I’m honoured and thrilled to have been asked to join the top notch dealers here including @hickmet_fine_arts, @jeroenmarkiesartdeco, @richard_price_clocks, and others.

Expect colour, quality, fine design, expertise - and a very warm welcome.

Come and visit us!

Wassail bowl?! Wassat?! Find out here on the Ron

Wassail bowl?! Wassat?!

Find out here on the Ronati Reel for The Art & Antique Dealers’ Association of America’s ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ online event!

Scared, scary or surprised? My latest acquisition

Scared, scary or surprised? My latest acquisition and, regardless of which, I really like her. No idea about the artist yet, but there’s a (probably) 1970s label on the back for a framer in Penzance. Which may mean nothing. Work to be done. And the frame to be sorted out! But, very happy!

N.B.: After a lovely conversation with the amazing Geoffrey Key, I now know that it is not by him!

Sooo much fun being part of the Antiques Roadtrip

Sooo much fun being part of the Antiques Roadtrip group at the STV ‘Big Bash’ Christmas party with my besties Roo, Irita, Steven, Serhat, and more. So, so great to see everyone and catch up - giggles, laughs and dodgy dance moves (on my behalf!) aplenty. Thank you so much Antiques Road Trip & STV teams, I feel very fortunate and grateful. ❤️🎄

It’s only a tiny thing. It’s 3cm tall. But it

It’s only a tiny thing. It’s 3cm tall. But it means a huge amount. It’s a Daum miniature glass bowl, created around 1910. Hand blown, then sprayed with acid and so very delicately enamelled by hand with a lake-side scene.

The details are fine and exquisite. It’s badly damaged and restored, otherwise I could never afford to own such a thing. Over a century ago, I’d have needed to have been so very rich to have afforded it. It was a rich person’s plaything. It’s needless, function-less, too small for anything.

Tchotchke.

To hold it in my hand today and view its three dimensional and 360° beauty that has endured for over a century makes me smile inside and outside. Especially now, when work seems all-encompassing and life seems so tough. It’s precious and beautiful to me.

It’s the small things in life that matter. Whatever they are. This is one of mine. What’s yours?

Hang on a second-a… aren’t Sekonda watches mad

Hang on a second-a… aren’t Sekonda watches made in Japan? Or at least in the Far East? Well, yes, but their origins actually lie elsewhere.

I came across this late 1960s or early 1970s Sekonda wristwatch the other day - it was the styling that caught my eye. Huge egg-shaped ‘cushion’ cases were highly fashionable at the time, inspired by fashion which was inspired by the space race. And the bronze-brown dial just screams the period when combined with the gold-plated case. The fact that the dial shows ‘quarters’ in some lights is an added touch I like. And it’s a 17 jewel mechanical movement too, as the face indicates, so the movement isn’t dreadful quality or the ubiquitous quartz either. The face also indicates that it was ‘MADE IN USSR’. Gosh, more inspection was needed. Gently opening the case up for a surface clean revealed a trident symbol for Soviet watchmaker Poljot and other information.

Why the Soviet Union?

There’s a story here. Read it on my new blogpost - link in bio!

Two shady dealers! It’s the last day of filming

Two shady dealers! It’s the last day of filming for my Antiques Roadtrip with @iritamarriottantiques 😭 It’s been soooo much fun and a real adventure with highs, lows, gentle teasing and bickering - and laughs a go-go! Thank you so much Irita, I’m going to miss you so very much!! Until the next time! Xxxxx

Watch our terrific travels early next year on BBC One!

Instagram post 17964758857964126

Instagram post 17964758857964126

I can’t bear single use plastic cups! Watch this

I can’t bear single use plastic cups! Watch this @bbcantiquesroadshow Reel to find out my antique sustainable solution!

My third Falmouth find. Wrestlers in charcoal on p

My third Falmouth find. Wrestlers in charcoal on paper - I like the faces, the movement, the swift and almost cartoony style, and more. It almost reminds me of Keith Vaughan. But that is undoubtedly wishful thinking. There are, and have been, so many artists in Cornwall!

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