Tuesday, July 21, 2009

bag a bargain

I have been sent notification of an upcoming auction (Sat 25th July) at Lloyd Cameron's in Warrington: Lloyd Cameron and Partners Antiques Auction Sat 25 July Lot 66 - White Star Line / Titanic - a print depicting the SS Titanic signed personally by Millvina Dean who was the last survivor of the Titanic disaster and, at just nine weeks old, was the youngest individual to come through the sinking alive, and a blue and white dish with White Star Line logo, the backstamp Stonier & Co Lt, Liverpool, Bisto England with impressed marks
The lot is only estimated at £60-80 which seems like a real "come and buy me" estimate; i blogged a while ago about a Bisto White Star line dish that sold for around £300 on ebay, so to my mind there's plenty of room to push the upper limit of this estimate.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Tureens

Tureens act as both a key functional and aesthetic centre piece to a dinner service. They vary tremendously in shape, volume, decoration and the type of clay used to make them. Ironstone is heavy and durable, perfect for utilitarian/domestic wares which had a lot of use. Earthenware is not so durable and is more porous - particularly if left unglazed. The pieces in a collection that are stained from use with liquids, are invariably earthenware bodies which have been effected by the contents stored in them. For this reason, the best tureens are ironstone or bone china - although bone china doesn't always stand up to the rigours of big ladles and lots of hot heavy veg so is more prone to chips and cracks.
an Art Deco period BISTO example.
a simple and elegant example with a gilded greek key border motif and foliate finial.
a blue and white pattern called Saxony
the classic Willow pattern is still very popular with collectors
french style chinoisirie
Edwardian tastes favoured small sprigs of flowers around the border and more muted colours than the Victorians before them. To today's tastes, it can appear a bit boring and bland and may be found in a many a grandma's kitchen cupboard.
where form and surface decoration just don't match - the combination of geometric patterns and more fluid nouveau body shapes is really unsatisfactory here.
if you can find a tureen with its original ladle in an undamaged state, then you're VERY lucky. Even better is if you find the stand/dish to go with it too!
honfleur pattern
very simple - perhaps even meant for use in a hotel or on board a cruise liner?
ironstone examples, including a tealeaf pattern design - very widely collected in the USA
sunflower design
a very rare shape of a tureen on a pedestal base - presumably so that it was more easily accessible on a crowded dinner table.
khan pattern in flow blue - this example shows how the tureen shaped blends into other familiar forms, for example the casserole dish.

Going Green

the P.B&S factory brought out a green body clay type of ware which was often used with such successful marriage of colour and design as shown in all of these examples. Roses and songbirds were a popular theme and chocolate-boxy compositions like the one below are typical of the late Victorian period.

Truly WOW

found this will surfing - a truly WOW fantastic pedestal dish. it almost looks like some kind of leaf perched on three stalks of asparagus. very baroque and very OTT.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

first class veg

Newly added to the Powell & Bishop (P&B) part of my collection is this great vegetable dish. It was sold with the label, "missing lid - as seen", but I wonder if there ever was one? certainly, there appears to be no wear to the glaze around the rim, there is also no ledge for a typical lid to rest on, and with a lid it would be a very substantially sized piece of table ware - more of a tureen. My thought was that it was a vegetable serving dish but i'm not sure if there was such a thing, without a lid? Anyhoo, it's in a pattern called Trentham which leaves and butterflies and a little dragonfly under one handle. Below is a close up a handle - dotted with gilding and in a half heart shape. Gorgeous.

About Me

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Sometimes, life doesn't turn out the way you expected. And sometimes, it is exactly as it was 'meant' to be. I believe that life is a both a learning experience and an obstacle course to be climbed and clambered over in the most creative way possible! In doing so, you'll get to where you should be even if it's not where you'd imagined.