Antique Collecting
I’ve been told that some people find it interesting to know how one becomes interested in collecting antiques. This is how it happened to me.
I really started collecting when I was about 15 years old. My mother liked messing about with little plants and flower pots. To dig out the compost and earth, I noticed that she was using several silver tablespoons. I asked her if she should be using them and she said, “Why not? We have boxes of them”. So, I bought her a miniature gardening set and she gave me a box of silver. She was happy, I was happy!
LONDON 1818 ANTIQUE SILVER SPOON
http://www.specialistauctions.com/auctiondetails.php?id=1047510
Researching some of the silver, I found that it had been made for my family nearly 200 years before. I was hooked! When I learned to drive I started going further from my home, to find little articles at pocket money prices. Just on the Surrey side of Windsor there used to be a shop specialising in really good 18th century porcelain. They also had a wide selection of slightly damaged pieces and over several months I bought several dozen pieces. These formed the basis of a wonderful reference collection and were an invaluable learning aid. I think that one of the best pieces of advice that I was given (and for me to pass on to you) is to take every opportunity that you can to handle antiques, to get the feel of them. Just looking at them in a glass case in a museum isn’t enough, you need to handle them – carefully!!
Fast forward a few years. I worked in the Diplomatic Service for some years, still madly collecting porcelain. I must have had over 200 pieces, along with silver, pictures and anything else that took my fancy. Eventually I moved to a large Georgian house in a country town famous for its antique shops. Then I decided to give up “real” work and turn half of the ground floor into a shop and that was that. After a few “incidents” with the planning people, far too boring to recount, my porcelain business opened. To my surprise and pleasure I took nearly £5,000 on the first day of trading. This was in the 1980s when not making a profit would have been difficult. These days I just deal privately – mostly I just collect and write about antiques.
So what do I collect? Primarily of course porcelain. My main interest is early Derby, mostly pre 1840. I’m not sure how many pieces I have, as not everything is on display all the time. I particularly like cobalt blue pieces, and it looks especially good with rich gilding. I’m putting together a dinner service (for display only) of cobalt Derby with flower reserves. I perhaps find about one piece a month in the pattern I’m collecting. It was made between about 1810 and 1835. It’s interesting to compare the quality of the pieces in such a short span of time. The later pieces have a tendency to be well potted and have a glaze that has crazed and discoloured. The earlier pieces are often, but not always, better made, with a higher quality glaze. Why is this? The answer is that the management of the porcelain works was less observant in the later period, so quality control seems not to have been a high priority. An imperfection that can be found on early porcelain is firing cracks – small splits that happen in the kiln. If these are insignificant the piece wouldn’t be wasted. Look out for oddly placed leaves or insects – they can often cover a small flaw or imperfection.
ROYAL WORCESTER DINNER PLATE
http://www.specialistauctions.com/auctiondetails.php?id=1087269
I really started collecting when I was about 15 years old. My mother liked messing about with little plants and flower pots. To dig out the compost and earth, I noticed that she was using several silver tablespoons. I asked her if she should be using them and she said, “Why not? We have boxes of them”. So, I bought her a miniature gardening set and she gave me a box of silver. She was happy, I was happy!
LONDON 1818 ANTIQUE SILVER SPOON
http://www.specialistauctions.com/auctiondetails.php?id=1047510
Researching some of the silver, I found that it had been made for my family nearly 200 years before. I was hooked! When I learned to drive I started going further from my home, to find little articles at pocket money prices. Just on the Surrey side of Windsor there used to be a shop specialising in really good 18th century porcelain. They also had a wide selection of slightly damaged pieces and over several months I bought several dozen pieces. These formed the basis of a wonderful reference collection and were an invaluable learning aid. I think that one of the best pieces of advice that I was given (and for me to pass on to you) is to take every opportunity that you can to handle antiques, to get the feel of them. Just looking at them in a glass case in a museum isn’t enough, you need to handle them – carefully!!
Fast forward a few years. I worked in the Diplomatic Service for some years, still madly collecting porcelain. I must have had over 200 pieces, along with silver, pictures and anything else that took my fancy. Eventually I moved to a large Georgian house in a country town famous for its antique shops. Then I decided to give up “real” work and turn half of the ground floor into a shop and that was that. After a few “incidents” with the planning people, far too boring to recount, my porcelain business opened. To my surprise and pleasure I took nearly £5,000 on the first day of trading. This was in the 1980s when not making a profit would have been difficult. These days I just deal privately – mostly I just collect and write about antiques.
So what do I collect? Primarily of course porcelain. My main interest is early Derby, mostly pre 1840. I’m not sure how many pieces I have, as not everything is on display all the time. I particularly like cobalt blue pieces, and it looks especially good with rich gilding. I’m putting together a dinner service (for display only) of cobalt Derby with flower reserves. I perhaps find about one piece a month in the pattern I’m collecting. It was made between about 1810 and 1835. It’s interesting to compare the quality of the pieces in such a short span of time. The later pieces have a tendency to be well potted and have a glaze that has crazed and discoloured. The earlier pieces are often, but not always, better made, with a higher quality glaze. Why is this? The answer is that the management of the porcelain works was less observant in the later period, so quality control seems not to have been a high priority. An imperfection that can be found on early porcelain is firing cracks – small splits that happen in the kiln. If these are insignificant the piece wouldn’t be wasted. Look out for oddly placed leaves or insects – they can often cover a small flaw or imperfection.
ROYAL WORCESTER DINNER PLATE
http://www.specialistauctions.com/auctiondetails.php?id=1087269
Labels: Antiques
posted by infomegamedia | Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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