BBR Auctions

Among the most desirable of all ‘Prattware’ transfer printed wares are the series of very rare and highly decorative exhibition-style advertising plaques produced for firms such as Crosse & Blackwell and Huntley & Palmers.

The most eagerly contested lot in a recent sale at Potteries Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) was a Doulton stoneware Isobath inkwell.

Bottles with fatal content had to be specially designed and coloured to avoid a nasty accident

By their nature, rare bottles can emerge for sale in some unlikely places

Victorian and Edwardian pottery butcher’s slabs made to display lard, butter and margarine are relatively frequent visitors to UK salerooms.

Novelty biscuit tin toys delivered a number of tasty sale successes for South Yorkshire auction house BBR (15% buyer’s premium).

International stallholders are among those all set for a renowned bottle and advertising fair and auction

In January this year three photos of a salt glaze stoneware jar appeared on the Facebook feed of the Oxfordshire Antique Bottle Collecting Club.

It was, said the catalogue, “a once in a lifetime opportunity to acquire a top end sign in such remarkable condition”.

Among the very rarest bottles to appear for sale in recent months was a miniature shaft and globe in dark aqua glass, c.1650, sold in South Yorkshire.

Advertising and antique bottle supremo Alan Blakeman of BBR Auctions discovered this massive 18½in (45cm) diameter pot lid back in the early 1980s.

A spectacular cache of sealed 17th century bottles unearthed by workmen in Worcestershire will come to auction this year.

Alan Blakeman, lifelong rock climber and founder of niche business BBR Auctions in Elsecar, near Barnsley, had a good 2017.