Ceramics

Ceramics are among the most frequently collected antiques. Items made from earthernware (pottery) or porcelain (hard or soft paste) can serve functional roles such as tablewares, serving implements, vases and jugs or as ornaments, especially figures.

They usually have some form of decoration, either painted or transfer-printed, that is covered in transparent or coloured glaze. Ceramics are often catalogued by the name of their manufacturer or factory such as Meissen, Worcester, Doulton, Wedgwood and Sèvres.


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Hit the Deck for Orientalism

18 January 2021

This Mamluk-style pottery basin decorated with a band of kufic script is in fact the creation of ‘father of art pottery’ Frenchman Theodore Deck (1823-91).

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Souvenir suitable for a Jacobite

18 January 2021

These Jacobite roundels carry the portraits of Charles Edward Stuart (1720-88) and his brother Henry Benedict Stuart (1725-1807).

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Meissen hoopoe offered in Virginia

18 January 2021

The 650-lot auction at Quinn’s Auction Galleries in Falls Church, Virginia, on January 30 features items from several local properties.

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Police alerted to missing collection of porcelain from Wiltshire auction house

16 January 2021

A Wiltshire auction house has alerted the trade to a missing collection of porcelain.

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Toasting a toby jug auction record as Admiral Rodney jug brings buoyant demand

11 January 2021

Bonhams has set a new record for a toby jug with this c.1785 Admiral Lord Rodney jug.

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Pick of the week: Take tea with the queen – at a twelfth the normal size

11 January 2021

A copy of the Royal Doulton dinner service commissioned in 1922 for Queen Mary’s doll’s house sold for a top-estimate £30,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) as part of the Thomas Goode auction at Sotheby’s.

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Strong selling rate as market responds to abundant Wedgwood offerings

11 January 2021

A vast quantity of Wedgwood was on offer in a pair of decorative arts auctions held in Massachusetts at the end of last year.

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Ceramics and glassware: taking the market for toby jugs at face value

11 January 2021

A London auction offering ceramics fans a treat thanks to single-owner collections and a mixed array leads a look at the market as a whole

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Amphora pottery brings a touch of Bohemian Art Nouveau to Denver

11 January 2021

Amphora was the name given to the distinctive Continental pottery produced between the last decade of the 19th and the first of the 20th century in the central European Turn-Teplitz area of Bohemia by the RSt&K (Riessner Stellmaker and Kessel) factory.

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Alchin and Kenber collections of Worcester porcelain up to Scratch Cross

11 January 2021

Bonhams has a long tradition of single-owner sales devoted to noted collections of early English porcelain.

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Polito’s Menagerie doubles up at Edinburgh auction

11 January 2021

A recent sale at Franklin Browns (18% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on included one of the most ambitious and most desirable of all early 19th century Staffordshire figure groups: the 'Polito’s Menagerie of the wonderful burds and beasts from most parts of the world'.

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Picasso and Hugo partnership platters appear in first UK show

11 January 2021

Though prolific in many mediums, Pablo Picasso created silver platters in only 24 designs throughout his entire career, creating an even smaller number of pieces in gold.

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Mug makes the case for abolition

11 January 2021

A collection of English pottery offered by Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield included this early 19th century copper lustre and transfer printed ‘anti-slavery’ mug.

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Soviets on the rise: Bolshevik propaganda plate bring demand at UK auctions

11 January 2021

When the Bolshevik government took control of the Imperial Porcelain Factory following the October Revolution of 1917, large quantities of glazed but unpainted white hard-paste porcelain plates, cups and saucers remained at the site.

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Enter the dragon – collection of Welsh ceramics sold in Cardiff includes choice entries

11 January 2021

The Welsh Sale at Rogers Jones (22% buyer’s premium) in Cardiff included a large section of Welsh ceramics from a west Wales estate.

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Meissen porcelain goes into battle

11 January 2021

The rules of kriegsspiel (war game), popular at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, were partly based on the much older game of chess. Typically, kriegsspiel was played across three boards, with players only knowing the position of their own pieces and an umpire officiating.

Theodore Deck pottery

Orientalist basin, mahogany bookcases, Arts and Crafts oak chest – five auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes

08 January 2021

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights this week includes a rare Orientalist basin by the French ‘father of art pottery’ and a pair of mahogany bookcases that went 16 times over estimate.

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ATG letter: The Morris label is from later date

04 January 2021

MADAM – Re: your article on the William De Morgan ‘Frightened Bird’ dish sold for £27,000 at Martel Maides (Pick of the Week, ATG No 2471).

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Waistel Cooper in his own world

04 January 2021

Once dismissed as a mere Hans Coper follower, the studio potter is now in rising demand

Anti-slavery jug

Anti-slavery jug leads our pick of five auction highlights sold this month

27 December 2020

ATG’s latest selection of items that caught bidders’ eyes includes an early 19th century ‘anti-slavery’ jug that made over 20-times estimate in Macclesfield.

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