Bisto kids and scouting boys.

Bisto were well known for producing nursery ware and commemoration wares - in fact, most of what is written about the factory in books like Millers guides, focuses only on these lines of production (as we know, they did much more).  But the stuff they did make for children and for commemorating events like royal weddings and visits by notable people etc was well made and perhaps a cut above much of the rest.  One such example of really nice commemorative ware is this child's plate/dish illustrating the scouting movement.  It came up for auction a few years ago (i didn't buy it sadly), but i thought i'd show you the catalogue illustration.  When pieces like this come up for sale, they inevitably have numerous collectors bidding on them because they cover several collecting fields.

Beautiful pair of tits

ok, so they may not be tits, but that got your attention right?  This is a very lovely pair of Aesthetic plates by PB&S that i saw on a well known internet auction site and just had to share with you.  The colouring is very unusual, but very sophisticated and Japanese in influence.

Fairyland Lustre...by Bisto!

 Wowsers!  Another first for my Porcelainporn blog - a Bisto ware ginger jar decorated with a Fairyland lustre type of design, dated 1931.  The pattern is hand decorated and signed by the artist R Innes.  Having never seen one before, one can never be sure if this was a factory produced thing, a one off or even a blank decorated at home by an amateur.  Having seen Fairyland lustre wares by Wedgwood and similar by Royal Winton and Cartltonware, one can say that this piece was jumping on a bandwagon that was first started by the artist Daisy Makeig Jones.  I can't find any trace of this artist, Innes, but no doubt they were inspired by DMJ's work for Wedgwood.  The ginger shape is a classic one for Bisto, shape number 13 and was used over and over again with different surface designs.  In this case, this jar (being sold on ebay) has been priced a bit too highly for me and perhaps the seller is hoping it will ride the  crest of the DMJ wave.  I would personally estimate it around £100-150 at this point in time (Jan 2013) but who knows, if more of this fairyland lustre by Bisto comes to light, it could increase in value as a there will be more for collectors to build on.

Dresden Style

I recently purchased this wonderful pair of Bishop & Stonier vases.  They're wonderfully restrained in colour, using the soft green body that the factory was known for and a white porcelain.  The technique of 3D applied flower decoration like this has a long tradition - most notably in porcelain from Dresden (Germany) and Derby/Chelsea porcelain.  This is the ONLY example I have ever seen by Bishop & Stonier and I feel must be an extremely rare pair.  It may be feasible that B&S only produced the green blank vase and another artist applied the foliate decoration, but without getting my hands on the factory's archives I will never know for sure.  Nonetheless, despite a few small bits of damage (almost inevitable with this type of porcelain decoration), they remain an extremely attractive pair of vases and should hold or increase in value even though the taste for this type of ceramic has fallen away in recent years.  

Randolph Caldecott

I have a number of nursery ware pieces in my collection by Bishop & Stonier and I've often wondered who designed the images on them.  Well, after a bit of digging around I found that a couple of them use illustrations by the well known Victorian artist, Randolph Caldecott.  Apparently, Caldecott also designed for the Royal Doulton factory as well as many children's  books.  Notable images by him that were used on B&S wares depict the rhymes for Hey Diddle Diddle and A Frog He Would A Wooing Go.

http://www.heirloomsantiques.com.au/artists-some-a-41.html

http://www.antiques.co.uk/antique/Randolph-Caldecott-plates-