Good Golli Miss Molly

Every time i've been into a Waterstones bookstore recently, it has been with the hope of seeing that a new Millers guide to Ceramics has been published - the last was in 2006 so a new one is over due. They are edited by the highly respected and qualified John Sandon (of Antiques roadshow fame - son of Henry). As yet, there is still no updated guide so I have had to content myself with buying other antique-y type books such as the Antiques Roadshow price guide, but sadly, Bishop & Stonier (and the other factory partnerships) hardly ever get a mention; when they do, it's usually just one small paragraph which always seems to focus on their 20th century nurserywares. Obviously, there is a huge collecting market for nursery ware and any self-respecting collector in this field would, i'm sure, have at least one Bisto piece in their collection. Recently I was contacted by someone who had found a Bisto nursery mug with an illustration from Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwog by Florence Bertha Upton (i had previously shown on this blog a teapot with illustrations of the same story). Sadly, the condition of his mug wasn't great, but the theme is very collectible - if a little non-PC nowadays (just ask Carol Thatcher!). Although nurseryware isn't my passion, i too have one piece in my collection and i thought i'd show you some other examples.

Little Red Riding Hood - one of my favourite nursery stories - see my other blog for my own art work based on this tale.

A Zebra alphabet plate illustrating the letter "Z" - i would dearly love to see the whole set, presuming they did one for every letter.

This is the house that Jack built....