Ceramics

Obituaries for a portrait miniatures expert and a renowned Sevres expert.

Coming to the Two Cs two-day Worcestershire Antiques Fair at the Chateau Impney Hotel are ceramics dealers offering porcelain pieces, including Derby, from the 17th to 20th centuries.

Among the best performers at the Olive collection of early British ceramics, metalwork, furniture and treen sold at Bonhams on January 31 was this large English delftware tankard.

A rare blue-printed plate featuring the legendary cricketer WG Grace (1848-1915) is among the highlights at the Chester Antiques Fair.

The best meat platters have weathered the dip in fortunes of Staffordshire pearlware. The Durham Ox series remains a favourite pattern and there was no shortage of northern private bidders when two c.1820 examples were offered at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) Leyburn sale on January 12.

This late 19th century cameo glass vase by the highly collectable Stourbridge maker Stevens & Williams was the outstanding offering among the 195 lots at Michael J Bowman’s (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale at Chudleigh on January 19.

The precise function of the series of English tin-glazed earthenware seated cat jugs common to the 1650s-70s is unknown but, as many are dated and initialled, they may have been given as marriage or betrothal gifts.

Dated c.1930, this Lenci figure of a girl in fashionable culottes, below, was estimated at £200-300 at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) but appears to have been spotted as one of the rarer products of the Turin factory.

Building a collection can be the work of a lifetime. Selling is often a much quicker affair. But dealer Haydn Hansell of Juno Antiques is being far from hasty when it comes to the fine assortment of mostly 18th century porcelain he offers this year.

In the first of a new occasional series of collector interviews ATG talks to barrister, author and illustrator, Frank Hinks QC.

The British Art Pottery sales at Woolley & Wallis have posted some remarkable sums for single William De Morgan tiles.

Norfolk auction house Keys has marked the end of its 65th year in business by gaining independence from its estate agency parent company.

The drive by, among others, the Royal Academy and the National Gallery to promote women’s importance in art would have required little effort had campaigners looked at the world of modern ceramics.

Among the first women potters recognised by the public as individual designers worthy of collecting were Hannah Barlow (1851-1916) and her sister Florence. The first women artists at Doulton’s Lambeth factory, they joined in 1871 and 1873 respectively.

A late 19th century Meissen figure group offered at Leslie Hindman in Chicago features in ATG's selection of auction highlights in the US this winter.

A previously unrecorded teabowl and saucer attributed to a pioneering American porcelain factory is expected to bring a six-figure sum when offered for sale in Salisbury next month.

Serendipity had it that three early pieces of European pottery and glass – two of them dated – were offered for sale across a trio of English regional auctions in a matter of days in December.