Between the Metropolitan Railway, whose line ran north-west out of London through Wembley, Pinner and Chorleywood to Amersham, created the concept of Metro- land as an ideal place for city workers to live, outside the spread of London but conveniently linked to it by train. Given the vogue for fresh air and sunlight, outdoor sports and hiking, it was an inviting prospect which speculative builders helped to fulfil with a rash of tidy suburban homes in the revived ‘Queen Anne’ style. (more…)

A few years after the turn of the eighteenth century the spoon eventually developed into the utensil which we use today. By 1720 its stem had become gracefully curved and terminated in a flat, rounded end which turned forward or upward and upon which it was rested on the table, so that the back of the bowl was uppermost in the French way. This Hanoverian rat-tail spoon continued in fashion for a few more years, the rat-tail gradually disappearing to be replaced by small droplets, either one or two, at the back of the bowl, or the increasingly fashionable scallop-shell, typical of the rococo period. The stem evolved into a flatter form, terminating by the 1760s in a curve which turned in the opposite direction to its predecessor, ie backward instead of forward, so that the spoon could be placed on the table with the interior of its bowl showing,as is still the custom in England and elsewhere today. This is termed the `Old English’ pattern and has been the basic form for spoons ever since. (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…)

Talking about drinking out of saucers reminds me that just occasionally you come across small flat oval or oblong dishes: these are spoon trays, used for holding the spoon while you went through that operation. They are usually very expensive, so unless you have a great stroke of luck you may have to reserve this piece for later on, when you sell some of your duplicates.

Also very pricey nowadays are the large handsome jugs, either cylindrical or barrel shaped, some of them decorated with reliefs and perhaps with a mask. Here you may have to put up with a chipped or cracked specimen. I would not worry a bit about that provided it is cheap enough : you will be surprised how little it notices when you have got it in that cabinet. But do not expect it to appreciate in value. (more…)

If you have an old dresser full of odds and ends, why notmake a clean sweep of it? Why not give yourself the pleasure of “dressing” it with a real collection? To my mind, the best possible decoration for a dresser is the ware which was once made especially for it, that is, Staffordshire printed earthenware.

As you will see, it covers all those old plates with printed designs on them, from the famous Willow Pattern and other “Chinese” designs to views in town and country. Some people call it “Staffordshire Blue” but this can be misleading as it also came in such colours as pink, green, black, brown, grey etc.

At this point you may say that since you have not a large dresser, the rest of this chapter will not interest you very much. But why not buy yourself a dresser? There are a surprising number of them still about, and they are are not nearly as expensive as you might think. (more…)