Glass perches, delft racks, whatnots and canterburies are just a few of the strangely named solutions to our ancestors’ storage and display needs.

Chaucer, in the Miller’s table, written in the 14th century, refers to ‘shelves couched at his beddes head’ — probably for books — but shelving for more general uses was rare before the 16th century. By the 19th century, however, a whole variety of other storage and display solutions had appeared. (more…)

Over the last century, individual potters and decorators have produced unique, sculptural ceramics that stand apart from mass-produced pieces.

The term ‘Art Pottery‘ has been used since the second half of the 19thC century, often interchangeably with the similar ‘studio pottery‘. Both refer to one-off, individually designed and decorated pieces produced in a workshop run by a craftsman or craft group. The term also encompasses the work of artists who finished individually signed pieces in studios set up by firms such as Doulton and Minton. (more…)

It is colour and size that generally count most in pricing a dining table, and these considerations are as important today as two hundred years ago.

Antique dinning table available to a buyer today vary enormously in style, quality and price. A 17th-century refectory table in original condition is very hard to come by, for example, and may cost many thousands of pounds, whereas a Victorian reproduction can be bought for a few hundred. Small, foldaway breakfast tables, which first appeared in the early 19th century as one answer to the space restrictions of small town houses, are still extremely popular, and for similar reasons.

Before buying any antique table, you should check it carefully for alterations, as marrying a table top to a different undercarriage is fairly common. (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…)