Royal Copenhagen - Juliane Marie Pattern

I picked up this set of 8 plates age at an auction ages ago, and only just got to look at them properly today and identify them. They are marked as seconds (etched line through the Marie mark) but as often happens there seems to be no reason for it.

What attracted me to them was the lovely traditional blue floral pattern and the superb embossed relief design on the china...and also because this dinnerware from RC is just so incredibly tough and long lasting

Anyway it turns out to be the Juliane Marie Pattern, number 10 - named after the founder of Royal Copenhagen, Queen Julieane Marie. Very expensive to buy as replacements I have noticed!

1950's and 60's Murano Glass

I have been picking up the odd piece of Italian Murano Glass over the past few months, whenever I see a nice heavy piece from the 1950's or 1960's - Its usually quite easy to spot even when not marked because of its heavy weight, extreme clarity and the colour combinations of that era.

To me there isn't any glass quite as crystal clear and with such jewel like colours, which looks so beautiful and different from every angle and is different in every light. It was made and exported in huge quantities in the 1950's and 1960's so there is still quite a bit of it around - although finding undamaged, large pieces is getting harder.

These are 3 pieces I have currently that I will part with eventually, but for now just want to admire them. The other good thing is in most cases they photograph so beautifully.

Arabia Ali - Brown

As I mentioned yesterday, I was the lucky bidder on both sets of the Arabia Ali Cups & Saucers I put in my Auction Watch last week - no one else was bidding on the brown ones, and the blue ones took only 2 bids to win.

ALI was designed by Raija Uosikkinen who worked for Arabia from 1968-1977 - producing some of its most memorable designs.

Here are some images of the brown Ali pattern Cup, Saucer and Plate - it's amazing how just the colour of pattern can change the whole mood and feel of a piece. The patterns of the blue and brown are identical..but the brown has an almost Moorish feel to it, while the blue looks more typically Scandinavian.

See images of the Blue Ali pattern from THIS previous post

Auction Watch 7.2012

Well the past week has just flown and I feel like I've achieved little, so I hope to be more productive this coming week...especially with blog posts - starting with this week's auction picks.

I probably wont be buying anything as I have bought so much already this year I need to sell a bit more first I think! Last week I did manage to get the Arabia cup sets - for the first time ever I can remember there was no one else bidding.

Denby Chevron "Celery"Dish - these are so rare! 

A lovely piece of Murano Glass

I see these quite often - Royal Worcester "Egg Codlers"- most of them
have never been used - they must have been a collectable item at one time -
seems a very "British" thing - "Coddling"an egg :) 

This setting is called "Mexicana"- by Mikassa - brown exterior with blue
decoration on white - very retro looking .  Not sure If I like it or not though.

Per Lutken Holmgaard vases - always lovely

  Ipsens Enke - Denmark - one I haven't heard of or seen before - looks to
be from the 1920s or 1930's

Quite a nice West German piece

Bizarre, scary and interesting all at the same time!
A Children's "Intelligence" test from the 1950's

A nice group of Shoe Lasts - but always terribly expensive for some reason

Dybdahl Finds on Pinterest

Since I joined Pinterest not so long ago, I have found it such a fantastic place for research and finding things that would otherwise take forever to find out about, if at all. I have discovered so many vintage and pottery patterns I never knew about from other peoples "pinboards"...and the effects seems to multiply.

Unlike Google the images on pinterest are put up by people, not robots - so it is much easier to search for specific images - like "Dybdahl" pottery for example. As the site grows and grows I think it will become even more useful.

These Dybahl pieces I found just by typing "Dybdahl" into pinterest, (apart from my own photos of which there are quite a few) A few are from Lauritz - the large European auction site - which for some reason doesnt show up on google (for me anyway)....Lauritz is another site which I must remember to use much more often.

The lovely bird vase which I havent seen before was pinned from eBay and the other dish from Marie's Etsy store in Canada (Marie has very similar tastes to mine - especially Denby - click through to have a look)

Click the button on the right to see all my Pinterest boards >>

Source: cgi.ebay.com via Ray on Pinterest

 

Source: lauritz.com via Ray on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Marie on Pinterest

Italian Terracotta Figurines

I was lucky enough to purchase these 2 beautifully hand made Italian terracotta figurines of choristers at auction yesterday.

They are about 30cm tall, and very finely decorated in an unmistakable Italian manner. They are quite high fired for terracotta and have beautiful glazes - one a satin white colour and the other a superb delicate pink with a pumice texture- very similar to decoration and glaze to many Bitossi pieces.

Their age and maker is a mystery to me though, and although they are mid-century in style I think they are much more recent because of the plastic monogrammed label. I can't make out the name written in the clay ...it could be anything from "Pink" to ?

Any help in identifying them much appreciated!

I

Auction Watch 6.2012

Quite an interesting collection of bits and pieces coming up this week at 2 different auctions. My favourites are the terracotta angels and the sterling silver napkin rings - both quite different but showing superb craftsmanship in both cases.

Arabia Ware always sells well, but people tend to pay a bit too much for it at auctions sometimes, so we will see.

The cotton printing blocks are lovely and I'm sure will go for a high price I think - as hand printed fabrics are so big everywhere at the moment - and things like this are hard to get.

A set of Arabia "Ali"duos in blue - always popular

Arzberg - quite an elegant and very seventies  design

Arabia Ali in the brown - I like this shape of cup in the Ali Range

There are a number of these old cotton printing blocks for auction - each has a lovely intricate design .

Rosrtrand display bowl - not mad about the design though.

T. G. Green - quite a bit of this blue and white ware
- always goes for quite a high price though - as it is very popular

Italian Terracotta Angels - beautiful looking pieces
- not sure of the maker - possibly Bitossi?

There are about 10 of these Sterling Silver Napkin
rings coming up - each one different - very decorative -
which reminds me somewhere I have 2 of these from my Grandmother

Whitefiars Glass Vase

Tupton Ware - (English) Hand painted Vase

A huge vintage electrical insulator (used on large powerlines)
Cleaned up it would make a great sculptural piece!

Hornsea Mugs by John Clappison

The posts on Hornsea pottery on this blog are hugely popular, and I get about 100 people a week coming to read the posts on Hornsea Lancaster Vitramic alone, so here is a bit more about researching Hornsea Pottery.

The Victoria & Albert Museum London have quite a collection of Hornsea Pottery available online-much with pattern names, designer names and dates - which is such a fantastic research tool. I have only been there once when in London about 20 years ago, and it is probably my favourite Museum anywhere.

When searching the V&A online for Hornsea you are best to start of just with the word "hornsea" and take it from there. Typing in "Hornsea Lancaster Vitramic" ends up with no results, but putting in "hornsea lancaster" gets a lot of results - so its a matter of experimentation to locate what you are looking for.

Even by typing in the word "mugs" into the search field a HUGE number of fascinating finds of all mug types come up from their collections from as early as the 16th Century to modern times including some really wild 1980's mugs!
 
These are just some of the designs by John Clappison for Hornsea in the V&A collection that came up by typing in "Hornsea Pottery".  The number after the name of each object is the catalogue number - and you will see in the online collection they have the exact location of every item down to what shelf it is on in the museum.....I can see a trip to London might have to happen soon (on the way to Denmark that is......)

Fish Beaker, by John Clappison 1967 C.263-1986

Cats Beaker, John Clappison 1974 C.268-1986

Train Beaker, John Clappison 1970 C.267-1986

Mug, John Clappsion 1973 C.270B-1986

Partridge Beaker John Clappison  1968-70 C.264-1986

Mug, John Clappison 1973 C.270C-1986

Royal Doulton - Art Deco "Iris"

Sometimes there are things you come across that are just blindingly beautiful, and this happened last week when I saw this tea service for auction. I don't collect or buy a lot of Royal Doulton, but I do really like some of their series from the first half of the 20th Century, in particular from the Art Deco Era.

This tea set was up for auction last week, and when I saw it - it was one of those things that I just had to have and enjoy even for a short time. It is the most perfectly preserved settings of this era I have ever come across - not a flaw or a fault in sight, and on top of that one of my most favourite Art Deco motifs - the Iris.

The hand painting on this set is exquisite, as is the use of colour and line. Each piece is like a work of art and it's fascinating to see how it all fits together - e.g. when the cup is on the plate how the shapes and design relate to each other so well.

The pattern  "Iris" V1346, by Royal Doulton was manufactured between 1937 and 1940 - officially not in the Art Deco Era - but such an archetypal art deco design. The shapes are actually very similar to Royal Copenhagen of the same period - like Fensmark and Quaking Grass.