Decorative Art

The Parcours de la Céramique has become a well-established feature of the Paris rentrée.

Cristina Ortega is a specialist in Chinese and Japanese ceramics with a gallery in the rue de Beaune. Now taking part in her eighth Parcours de la Céramique, she remains very enthusiastic about the possibilities…

So much more successful than their 18th century forebears, today’s Jacobites go from strength to strength.

Not quite perfect but always likely to exceed the £300-350 estimate, a Lalique powder bowl was one of the top sellers at Bamfords’ (19.5% buyer’s premium) August 2 sale at Derby.

Tentatively catalogued as ‘18th-19th century German, possibly Meissen’, a porcelain figure of the Quack Doctor from the Cryes of London series was the surprise tonic at Reeman Dansie’s (20% buyer’s premium) August 1 Colchester sale.

With everything buzzing at Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) ahead of the opening of the South Kensington showroom next week (see last week’s ATG No 2305), life at the west London rooms goes on providing a solid base for this ambitious expansion.

It was the 18th century Dutch silversmith John Schuppe who first popularised the silver cow creamer in Britain in the 1750s. Over the following centuries his design captured the imagination of the upper classes, who commissioned these novelty jugs in droves.

It may be pretty quiet on the auction front in Europe but Down Under the saleroom and fairs scene is in full swing.

The highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s sale of Scottish Silver & Applied Arts on August 16 was a Jacobite drinking glass with a difference.

The surprise package of Sworders’ (22% buyer’s premium) Homes and Interiors sale of August 1 was an early buff stoneware jug of a type commonly associated with the potteries of Fulham and Vauxhall.

MADAM – Regarding ATG’s coverage of the threat of closure to the Poole Pottery Studio (ATG No 2304 and antiquestradegazette.com), I feel it is imperative that some element of the production stays in Poole.

A pair of white glazed figures of musicians made by the Lowestoft factory c.1770 sold for £4000 at the July 18 sale at Keys (plus 20% buyer’s premium) of Aylsham.

The Doccia factory is perhaps best known for its hard-paste sculptures – many of them near-direct copies in porcelain of 17th and early 18th century bronzes. The key figure is the talented modeller Gaspero Bruschi, himself a Florentine sculptor.

Collectors of works by the Rhead family of potters will no doubt have September 5 already marked in their diaries.

The collection of Clarice Cliff formed by André Aerne, a voice professor at Butler University in the US who died last year, will be offered in an online sale at Christie’s this month.