Decorative Art

Bonhams’ mixed-owner ceramics sale on June 24-25 featured two exceptional English delftware dishes from ‘a distinguished family collection’ outside the UK.

Journalist Lucinda Bredin and her husband, author James Runcie, have developed tulip-mania. The couple, who married last year, have begun growing tulips and collecting tulipieres and vases.

Couple fascinated by worldwide development of ceramics – but with early English makers also prominent

Prices for artist-decorated Royal Worcester porcelain have been waning since the collecting peak of the previous century. However, very substantial sums are still possible for the best of the genre.

Collections from renowned individuals capture the attention with a wide and varied selection of lots

A Suffolk auction house has successfully received an exemption certificate for an early 20th century ivory figure following a complex appeals process.

A Gorham Martelé silver punch bowl made for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis sold for $120,000 (£89,700) at Freeman’s in Chicago.

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of long-standing member of the Lyon & Turnbull family Theo Burrell after a four-year battle with an aggressive brain tumour. She died peacefully on Wednesday, July 8, surrounded by her family.

Italian adventurer Vincenzo Lunardi (1759-1806) first demonstrated his hot air balloon in London on September 15, 1784.

A century on from the first Grand Prix in the UK, collectors are still competing for a share of motor-racing’s early memorabilia.

West London auction house takes second-highest result for Anglo-Indian silver thanks to tea service by a celebrated maker

South Yorkshire bottle and advertising specialist BBR Auctions set a new house record with the sale of this Prattware advertising plaque for a remarkable £45,000.

A rare 1804 album of 41 watercolours of British birds by William Weston Young (1776-1847) will be offered at Rogers Jones in Cardiff on July 27.

Made c.1880, this Wedgwood majolica model of a kingfisher is a ‘rara avis’, with only a handful known.

Lots offer elements that once featured on much larger spectacular 19th century creations

Qianlong (1735-96) period ‘Boy and chicken’ cups typically pay homage to those made in the Ming period – particularly the celebrated Chenghua (1464-87) doucai prototypes that have long been considered among the greatest Chinese porcelains.

For centuries, the Imperial Glass Factory at St Petersburg catered to Russian royalty, producing top-of-the-line glass wares that were good enough to feature in their daughters’ dowries.

The National Army Museum’s exhibition, Drawn on the Western Front, showcases a series of recent works on paper acquisitions as well as its new medals partnership with Lord Ashcroft.

Beatrix Potter was a pioneer of character merchandising. Two years after the publication of the first of her ‘little books’ she designed, fabricated and patented her own Peter Rabbit stuffed toy in 1903 – making him the first ever licensed character.*