Ceramics

This set of three tubeline tiles featuring polychrome birds in a grassland setting, is one of the many pieces on offer at The Cotswolds Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair at Westonbirt School.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Vincennes, Sèvres and Meissen are among the stars of a Paris and London auction spotlight.

Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) main summer sale of European ceramics took place at its Bond Street rooms on July 5. On offer were 245 lots which raised a hammer total of just under £600,000, with a 62% take-up.

The Meissen model of Count Bruhl’s Tailor was a major attraction at Hampshire auction house Jacobs & Hunt (26% buyer’s premium).

From the same source which provided Sotheby’s success with a fine collection of Scottish Colourist works (ATG No 2347), a large late 19th version of the Medici Vase led the two-day Glasgow sale at Great Western Auctions (23% buyer’s premium).

In what can be a doleful time for Doulton, encouraging words about the factory’s output from auctioneer Geoff Shepherd at ceramics specialist Kingham & Orme (22% buyer’s premium).

Several of the events taking place during this London summer season have put the emphasis on growth or diversification as organisers look to the future. But for porcelain dealer Brian Haughton, whose pair of porcelain events returns this month, the key is keeping specialised and drawing inspiration from the past.

Among the highlights Brian Haughton offers in 'A Collectors’ Paradise' is this Meissen group of a Danish pug dog with her two puppies, modelled c.1745 by JJ Kaendler (1706-75) and painted black, brown and white.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

After a continuous 30-year period of trading, and a stockbook tally of around 10,000 pieces, Paris dealer in European ceramics Christophe Perlès has decided to take a break for a couple of years.

Hard-paste figures of Russian ethnic characters and workers have appeared at English auctions on a number of occasions in recent years (ATGs passim), generally to keen interest from the Motherland and eastern Europe.

With an increase in exhibitor numbers, the second outing for the reborn Kensington Ceramics and Glass Fair is on Saturday, June 30, at Kensington Town Hall in London.

It was only a matter of time before a treasure from the hot new British ceramics market emerged out of nowhere and onto the rostrum in the long tradition of boom areas.

Bought in a French flea market as a set, seven 19th century salt-glazed fish-shaped spirit flasks were entered into Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne as separate items, each estimated at £80-120.

This Bow porcelain figure of Polyhymnia, the Greek mythological muse of sacred poetry, hymn, dance and eloquence, is among the pieces on offer at this summer’s 'Ceramics Mayfair'.

MADAM – I note the report on the sale of a porcelain plaque decorated with a portrait of the Empress Josephine on page 13 of ATG No 2343.

ATG's selection of ceramics offered in London this summer.

Catalogued simply as ‘a pair of English soft-paste porcelain models of parrots’, these rare 18th century figures by Bow sold at Thomas Watson in Darlington, County Durham, for £16,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) on May 15.