Decorative Art

Folk art (or art populaire as it is known in France) has gained an increased following over the years.

A rare early Worcester plate, c.1752, painted in Chinese famille verte style is offered by dealer Robyn Robb at 'A Collectors’ Paradise', the annual group selling show of pottery and porcelain in St James’s. Offered for £9500, it features a bird perched on a flowering prunus tree.

More of a curiosity than a clock but a decorator’s dream, a life-size caricature of a smiling Chinese man clutching a willow-pattern plate with gilt dragon hands emerged in the Ayr rooms of Thomas R Callan (17.5% buyer’s premium).

An impressive 8in (20cm) high ice pail, cover and liner made what is thought to be a record auction result for Swansea porcelain when it sold for £38,000 hammer at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on June 5.

The fine and decorative arts sale to be held by Morphy Auctions in Denver, Pennsylvania, on June 18-19 includes a selection of ceramics from the Amphora factory set up in what is now the Czech Republic.

A mixed-discipline summer estates sale to be held by Neal Auction Company in New Orleans on June 22-23 will include this pair of 70oz, silver-gilt Edwardian figural tazzae by Elkington & Co marked for Birmingham 1907 with removable glass bowls.

This silver-gilt Doncaster Cup racing trophy has hallmarks for Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp for 1767.

Nicky Gould of Gould Antiques offers a range of small items including portrait miniatures, perfume bottles and various objects of vertu from the 16th-20th centuries. She next exhibits at Olympia.

A remarkable example of 16th century cross-culture art – a feather ‘mosaic’ picture made in Mexico for Christian conquerors – has been purchased at auction by the Musée du Quai Branly.

A large Persian lustre tile dating from c.1300 sold for £95,000 at John Nicholson’s in Haslemere last month.

While British studio potters were battling to break through in the 1930s, established factories, even Moorcroft, were struggling to survive the Great Depression.

The May 22 sale at Dreweatts of Donnington Priory titled Japanese, Islamic and Indian Works of Art included a collection of Iznik and Damascus tiles from the estate of the artist Sir Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017).

A pair of large c.1760 Chelsea ovoid vases made after a drawing by English architect and furniture designer William Kent (1685-1748), is on offer at Albert Amor this month.

Ceramics are a major focus of this report on sales from Germany. The selection of highlights and unusual pieces ranges from early 19th century products of the Vienna factory via Art Nouveau creations and 1920s Soviet-era porcelain to works by famed 20th century Studio potters.

Headline stratospheric results should not put collectors off, as a London auction underlines.

Betty Klaber, together with her daughter Pamela, started their ceramics business Klaber & Klaber, in 1969, specialising in 18th century European porcelain and enamels.

Oscar Graf, the French specialist in 19th decorative art, opens a gallery in London this summer.