Ceramics

The English porcelain specialist Simon Spero opens his 37th catalogued exhibition this week in his Kensington shop.

A record sale total, the trade in buying mood and traditional furniture selling well – all further evidence that 2017 so far is proving rather less catastrophic than some had forecast.

A ground-breaking Mayfair exhibition takes a rare focus on first examples of the maiolica technique.

Alexandra Alfandary specialises in Meissen ware and other European porcelain, with a particular concentration on 19th century Meissen. She is a regular exhibitor at fairs and is a member of BADA and LAPADA. Her shop is in Portobello Road.

A rare version of one of the most popular of Beswick farm figures, a shire horse in a piebald gloss finish, pulled its weight at The Auction Centre (16% buyer’s premium) in Runcorn on March 18.

Inspired by an exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of Raphael’s birth in 1883, Alexander III (1845-94) commissioned a porcelain dinner service for use in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoe Selo, writes Roland Arkell.

Presumably the recipient, one Charles Salter of ‘Edinborough’, was pleased to receive to this 18th century green-glazed creamware presentation teapot in 1791.

A fairly early example of a traditional way of insulting Britain’s enemies up to and including the Second World War, this early 19th century twin-handled chamber pot was rated at £2200 by bidders at Lockdales (18% buyer’s premium) at Ipswich.

This unusual Staffordshire figure of Billy Walters, c.1820, by Enoch Wood was among the pieces sold at the recent Chelsea Antiques, Art & Design Fair (March 15-19).

The £810,000 wucai fish at Fellows’ (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Birmingham on February 27 (ATG No 2282) overshadowed everything else on offer but there were a number of other areas of interest among the 1250 lots.

Estimated at £1500-2000, this rare English delft dish sold for £20,000 (plus 22.5% buyer’s premium) at Cheffins in Cambridge on March 8.

This 7 x 4in (18 x 11cm) enamel plaque in a silvered frame (right) by Francis Arthur Edwardes is the work of the Duchess of Sutherland Cripples Guild – the metalware workshop set up to aid and educate the children of the Potteries.