Lowestoft Porcelain Factory

Lowestoft porcelain specialist and Suffolk auctioneer Russell Sprake is marking 50 years in the auction business this month with perhaps his finest ever sale.

The auction of British ceramics at Bonhams on May 18 was the first at New Bond Street for six months and it was a big ensemble made up of the usual range of single-owner collections mingled with material from various vendors.

Latest results now prompt a rethink in London on English porcelain as East Anglian enthusiasts take pride in collecting local factory’s output.

The highlight of the Lowestoft porcelain sale conducted by enthusiast Russell H. Sprake at The Beaconsfield Club, Lowestoft on the evening of October 27 was this rare blue and white birth tablet.

Top Right: it may be badly damaged but this 4 1/2in (10.5cm) high Lowestoft blue and white teapot and cover is an exceptionally rare and documentary piece.

PART of the large consignment of 18th century English porcelain from a local, mid-Wales private vendor, this 18th century underglaze blue painted Lowestoft cider mug, offered as the final lot in Brightwells’ Ceramics and Glass sale in Leominster on July 21, proved to be the star of the sale.

THE market’s mood for the earliest English porcelain was in evidence at the April 27 sale held by Brettells (12% buyer’s premium) of Newport. The Shropshire firm offered a 16-lot private collection of mainly Worcester wares.

The Margaret Cadman Collection - Preview: The short supply of good quality period ceramics (indeed of all antiques) compared to the golden era of past collecting is a constant lament these days and one often wonders just what has happened to all of them? For several thousand pieces the answer is that they have been squirrelled away for decades in a large Victorian house on the South Coast.

Mention rare animals to a Lowestoft resident and you are likely to be directed to Suffolk’s only wildlife park on the outskirts of town, where African lions and ring-tailed lemurs roam the saltmarshes.