The spirited writer/socialite/artist Fleur Cowles, who died in 2009 at the venerable age of 101, designed several sculptures for Connoisseur of Malvern as well as for several other noted British firms such as Denby and Border Fine Arts. An American (a Brooklynite, her name was actually Florence Friedman) by birth, she combined her experience as…
One of the lesser-known design genres from Connoisseur of Malvern was their human studies. Both Richard Sefton and Robert Russell created incredibly realistic porcelain portraits based on dance, literature, and international cultures. Bugaku stands 20” tall on his cherry wood base and was a limited edition of 25 issued in 1983, designed by Richard Sefton.…
There really is only one name associated with the equine sculptures by Connoisseur of Malvern, and that is Richard Sefton. In particular his horse-and-rider sculptures truly capture the essence of the partnership between rider and steed. Originally an architect and builder, Mr. Sefton became a sculptor in the mid-1970s and launched a successful artistic career…
Although we’ve already examined many of the felines and birds that were produced so beautifully by Connoisseur, there are yet more animals to explore. They range in habitat from the wilds of Africa, to the ice floes of the Arctic, to a cozy corner of a typical home. They are arranged here in chronological order…
Although designer Christopher Ashenden is perhaps most well-known for his Connoisseur of Malvern bird sculptures, he created quite a number of wonderfully detailed felines and other animals as well. Almost all of them were limited editions. Even though some of the limited-edition examples shown below do not have wood bases, most originally did come with…
Compared to the quantity of known (to me) open-edition floral studies, the same category when it comes to the birds is much smaller: To date, I have found only twenty, and six of those are part of a single retailer-exclusive series sold only at Neiman-Marcus stores in the USA. There may, of course, be a…
Few Connoisseur of Malvern designs have such a convoluted life history as their cowboy astride a bucking bronco. There are six known iterations of the Connoisseur piece but only one of those was created by the original Connoisseur of Malvern studio owned by Diane and Terry Lewis. #1: The Original by Connoisseur of Malvern (1993)…
Here is a veritable aviary of limited-edition porcelain bird studies by Connoisseur of Malvern. Most were sculpted by Christopher Ashenden, although there are a few exceptions. The only limited editions not included here are the ones previously shown in my overview of their Raptors, Parrots and Water Birds. I have sorted these by introduction/issue year…
The Chatsworth Lady 