Ceramics

There are signs that last year’s publication of ‘The Della Robbia Pottery’ by Peter Hyland has given a lift to the market for the distinctive wares produced in Birkenhead by Harold Rathbone and Conrad Dressler between 1894-1906.

A massive Coalport Feldspar porcelain jug painted with a study of Earl Spencer’s Durham Ox in a parkland setting has been bought by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Knocking others off their perch, Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis improved upon their own auction record for Martin Brothers with the £75,000 sale of this bird jar to Gloucestershire British art pottery dealers AD Antiques.

The year 1737 was something of an annus horribilis for George II.

Coming to the Pembrokeshire Antiques Fair organised by Towy Fairs at Picton Castle, near Haverfordwest next weekend (June 7-8) are some 50 pieces of richly-glazed Ewenny pottery.

A trial model of a champion dog led the way among a group of Beswick figures sold at a recent auction in Stoke-on-Trent.

A very hefty price for a Baroque work of art emerged recently at the Drouot auction centre.

A massive cache of British Arts and Crafts metalware and ceramics stored in a bank for over 25 years will be sold by Bonhams through their forthcoming decorative arts auctions.

New York has hosted three key events in the modern commercial history of the Martin Brothers.

Eighty lots from a local estate ensured a flying start to Mallams’ recent sale in Oxford and provided an insight into the taste and interests of a collector buying 60 years ago.

A Derby porcelain plaque and two Japanese plates have been returned by Surrey Police to two stately homes after they were recognised from an alert in Antiques Trade Gazette

Estimated at £8000-12,000, this rare pair of Meissen figures of red squirrels, c.1750, modelled by J.J.Kändler, took £45,000 at Bellmans auctions of Wisborough Green, near Billingshurst.

Among the sales in the first hour of the ‘BADA Antiques & Fine Art Fair’ was this 5in (13cm) high Martin Brothers grotesque demon jar and cover.

This 13in (33cm) Macintyre & Co Florian ware vase dated to 1898 and designed by William Moorcroft is going under the hammer at Catherine Southon’s sale in Surrey.

Auctioneers Bellmans will include a pair of Meissen squirrels, modelled by J.J.Kändler and dated to c.1750 in their forthcoming sale.

This Worcester mug c.1754-55 proved the highlight of the Raymond Dennis collection of early English porcelain sold by Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury.

Estimated at just £200-300, a set of four early 20th century Chinese famille rose porcelain plaques depicting the four seasons in mountainous settings were bought by a phone bidder from Shanghai for £420,000 at Charterhouse of Sherborne in Dorset.

More than 1000 lots are on offer at Chorley’s two-day sale on February 20-21 at Prinknash Abbey Park, Gloucestershire.

The prize consignment of paintings, sketches, ceramics and ephemera produced by key members of the Rhead family of potters, offered by Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter on January 22-23, comprised 117 lots in all.

It was the most important consignment of work by the Rhead family to come onto the market in years. But would the respect in which the remarkable dynasty of potters are held translate into remarkable prices?