The Boehm porcelain studio’s expansion into the UK widened even further during the 1980s. They already had a porcelain studio in Malvern, England, but Helen Boehm wanted to take advantage of a new trend: figurines that combined porcelain with bronze elements. In 1982 she learned of a jewelry foundry in Wales named Ammonite Art Ltd…
Among the several ‘porcelain mysteries’ on my personal Sherlock Holmes list is a series of stunning fine porcelain eggs made in the 1990s by a studio I’d never heard of: Worcestershire Fine Arts and Ceramics. These were brought to my attention earlier this year by a gentleman who purchased them at a local auction house…
Earlier this year I wrote about a pair of Wagner-signed cabinet plates bearing an unusual mark: a rose or berry, with a Silesia stamp beneath. As illustrated in that post, I was unable to match the mark with a porcelain manufactory and concluded with a request that if any other items with the same mark…
Dorothy Doughty is best known for her amazing porcelain bird sculptures of American and British birds, but Royal Worcester also issued limited edition plates and plaques based upon the two sculpture ranges. The first series of plates (called “dessert plates”in the UK but would have been marketed as “decorative plates” in the USA) began in…
To tweak a phrase: I love a good porcelain mystery. 🙂 Recently a reader contacted me with a query about a pair of Wagner-signed Royal Vienna cabinet plates, and the ensuing investigation has become so intriguing and informative that I’d like to share it here. It’s still ongoing, and so perhaps other readers may be…
Although my vicious allergy prevents me from owning – or even being around – a real cat, I’m a sucker for fine representations of them (as you may have guessed from my Favorite Cat Memes posts.) Combine that with my interest in art porcelain, and the question naturally arises: Who created the most perfect porcelain…
The realistic depiction of birds and flowers in fine art porcelain began in the early 1930s with the work of Dorothy Doughty. The idea originated with Alex Dickens, a publisher who had worked with the Royal Worcester porcelain factory to produce a series of decorative plates based on Audubon’s Birds of America. Dickens’ new proposal…
As a former collector I often can’t help wincing when I see a porcelain sculpture selling on ebay for a fraction of what its retail price was when originally made. After all, that was a few decades ago and isn’t art supposed to appreciate in value over time? The economy has changed, of course –…
The Chatsworth Lady 