Ceramics

THIS 17in (43cm) oval serving dish, seen at Chiswick Auctions latest sale, is from a breakfast service ordered by George III from Flight Barr and Barr of Worcester in 1805.

Politically correct it is not, but the ‘Negro Cricketer’ pattern, produced for just one year in 1907, certainly ranks among the rarest and most desirable of Royal Doulton series wares.

It was Moorcroft’s take on flambé glazes that produced the highest price at Bonhams’ latest Ceramic Design sale.

KNUTSFORD, Cheshire auctioneers Frank Marshall sold this remarkable pair of Chelsea Blue Triangle period sauceboats c.1745-49 for a house record £41,000 on September 8.

THIS rare Meissen figure group modelled by J.J. Kandler, titled The Stormy Lovers sold for £26,000 at Paul Beighton's latest sale.

POLICE are on the look out for two people following the theft of a pair of 19th century Coalport vases from an antiques centre in Shropshire.

THE so-called Frog Service made by Wedgwood for Catherine the Great was one of the most prestigious creations by the Staffordshire entrepreneur and one that helped forge his international reputation.

HAUGHTON Fairs are to move their venerable International Ceramics Fair & Seminar from its long-time home at the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly to the Mall Galleries on Carlton House Terrace, SW1.

THE English Ceramic Circle’s annual loan exhibition marks the launch of a major research project to record dated and documentary English pottery and porcelain on their website.

JUST when you thought it was safe to go back into the softening Martinware market, along comes a £26,000 spoon-warmer.

WHEN a market softens, it is often best to return to first principles – the core values of condition, market freshness and pricing that can be overlooked when an area of collecting really ‘takes off’.

ELIZABETH Craven was no shrinking violet, even when judged by the freer moral standards of 18th century England.

THERE was high drama at the Mackworth Hotel, Derbyshire on April 15 when a creamware teapot and cover carrying a telling political message sold for £69,000.

DEMAND for Martin Brothers pottery may have tapered off slightly but it still provided three of the top prices at Bonhams’ recent Ceramic Design sale.

NO-ONE seemed to be in doubt about the quality of Sevi Guatelli’s Clarice Cliff collection.

When an impressive Wedgwood Fairyland lustre vase featured on the latest edition of The Antiques Roadshow, valuer Stephen Moore (of Anderson & Garland, Newcastle) wanted to suggest it could bring £10,000-15,000.

Melting bidders' hearts in a snow-covered Dorchester, this rare Doulton figure of a little girl cradling a doll proved the star attraction at Duke's sale on February 5-6.

Readers are being urged to be aware of a new batch of counterfeit Troika wares that are being offered for sale on eBay.

The evocatively named Pickleherring factory is one of the earliest known locations where English delftware was produced.

This monumental 19th century Russian gilt-bronze mounted porcelain vase, created by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg, is thought to have been included in the wedding dowry of a daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.