Originally found in taverns, country kitchens, gardens and poorer homes, these basic but attractive chairs are now snapped up by collectors.

Amid fickle fashion, country chairs remained largely unchanged for some300 years. Best known and loved are hoop-backed Windsor chairs, which first emerged in the 18th century and were made in various regions. Other familiar styles include Mendlesham chairs, ladder-backs (or Lancashire chairs), stick-back chairs with a shaped top rail, and the equivalents on rockers. (more…)

Piety, propriety and domestic comfort were the aims of early Victorian households. They expected sober family life to ensure the first two and industry gave them goods and money enough for the third. Moral certainty was not equalled by aesthetic certainty, however, and buyers turned to the past to prove their own good taste. (more…)

When the monarchy was restored in Britain in 166o, and Charles II became king, he and his courtiers brought back a desire for the luxurious style of life they had briefly shared during their exile in the royal households of Europe, especially at the French court. Released from the pious austerity of the Commonwealth, Britain’s upper classes indulged in lavish comforts in the home, sensuous clothing, enjoyment ofthe arts, and robust entertainments at the theatre, at horseraces and at the gaming table.

With parliament and monarch in accord, a standing army established to back up their authority, and new banking, investment and insurance organisations growing to fund commerce, the nation prospered. Overseas trade grew and London was rapidly becoming the greatest port in the world, bringing in spices, tea, coffee, chocolate, pineapples, Oriental porcelain and lacquerwork, cane, tortoiseshell, ivory, rugs and Indian chintzes. (more…)

For many years tea was commonly drunk clear in the Chinese fashion and because of this and other reasons it is difficult to find a jug made earlier than the first few years of the eighteenth century. Early examples are in the pyriform shape, with a scrolled handle, sometimes positioned at a right-angle to the lip or spout. Diminutive cream jugs, standing no more than three inches high, were generally left undecorated, though others might have two rows of moulding at their waist. Both were made of a thick gauge metal and were weighty, despite their small size. In time the jug became more general, hammered up from the flat, with the cast spout and handle now opposite each other, standing upon a spreading moulded foot, and still with attractive scroll handles. (more…)

Inkstands

Inkstands (standishes) were much favoured in both sterling silver and, from about 1760, Sheffield plate. Silver examples include the treasury inkstand: a rectangular box which contained an inkpot, pounce box and wafer box — a small adhesive disk for sealing letters — with a single- or double-hinged lid and perhaps a drawer below for quills. Another type, made in both silver and Sheffield plate, consisted of a rectangular tray, standing upon four small feet, which had three sockets. In the case of the silver version, the inkpot and pounce box would fit into the outer two sockets, while the middle one would contain a small hand bell, or taperstick for sealing. (more…)

Let us suppose that you love the old porcelains and chinas of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and you want to get together, as inexpensively as possible, specimens of every kind. You want to be able, whenever you please, to see, feel and compare pieces from Caughley and Coalport, Worcester and Derby, China and Dresden, Mintons and Rockingham. In other words, hard up as you are you want to become a connoisseur of old china.

Surprising though it may seem, there’s a way of doing it, and it will cost you shillings rather than pounds. (more…)