Bone China Teacup or an Earthenware Mug?

This is something that crossed my mind months ago and I wrote a post but cannot find it anywhere and it doesn’t appear to have been published. So here we go,  my granny used to say, “everything has its place” and I think this applies in this case.

How many of you whether working in the garden, shed, greenhouse or garage, have always replied “ooh yes please” if being asked if you want a cup of tea. How many times does the said cup of tea get delivered and gratefully accepted in an earthenware mug? Well of course it does because you are working and really you just wanted a drink but there is just something comforting about a cup of tea. Earthenware mugs are robust items and sometimes actually bounce off hard objects in any of the four places mentioned. Typically the type of mug we are talking about may be a souvenir, something that was given but certainly not one from a set of six or eight.  

An earthenware mug (authors collection)

However, there is nothing nicer than sitting down to afternoon tea or even just a cake with a cup of tea in a bone china cup and saucer, served from a bone china teapot. This is the whole point, it is about being able to relax because you shouldn’t rush a cup of tea. Also there is something inherently wrong about working in the garden or the garage workshop and having a cup of tea in a bone china cup. Partly because it is likely to fall over or worse, break and then the china tea set becomes a mixture of odd cups and saucers, which appears to be the fashion these days but I digress. 

The thing is that ever since afternoon tea was introduced by Anna, 7^th Duchess of Bedford in about 1840, people have always sat and had afternoon tea as a mid point between lunch and dinner. It is said the Duchess has dinner at 8PM and this made it a very long time between meals. Fashions change and some people used to laugh and snigger about afternoon tea and then put on the affected voice “oh I say afternoon tea, how very quaint”. When they meant how very old fashioned. Strange really that afternoon tea is now regarded as very “vintage”, to book afternoon tea with finger sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, jam and a selection of small cakes. It is not just in London at Harrods or Claridges, The Ritz or The Savoy either. Many provincial cafes and restaurants offer equally good afternoon tea packages. The better ones do offer bone china cups, saucers, side plates, together with cake forks  and linen napkins to enable you to relive the grandeur of yesteryear. At the end of the day, it is not about being posh or just wanting something to eat. it is about being able to relax in nice surroundings with friends or loved ones and to take time to enjoy a cup of tea made properly with loose leaf tea in bone china tea ware.

Table in preparation for afternoon tea, Royal Albert Old Country Roses (authors collection)

So just one thought to leave you with, even if you don’t have all the trimmings with your cup tea, just remember: “A cup of tea without a biscuit is a missed opportunity!”

Specialist subject second-user books

Hello Again.

In a previous post I made reference to visiting your local charity shop as a source of literature connected with your specialist subject or favourite part of your collecting hobby. This is where most of my books have come from and will continue to do so. Charity shops as I had said do amazing work for their charities and are staffed by volunteers, apart from the paid managers but that is not for this post.

Rare Finds

I count myself very lucky when I find in a charity bookshop a “specialist book” which is linked directly to the author/publisher. I have two books in this category, the first is book entitled “British Pottery and Porcelain written by Henry Sandon, who lives local to me. The book was published by in December 1969 and is in excellent condition and inside the cover was the publishers letter dated 1^st January 1970 to the Bristol Evening Post newspaper asking if they “hope you will find suitable for review”.

 

The second book of this ilk, is entitled “Fifty Years of Royal Commemorative China 1887 – 1937” by M.H.Davey and D.J.Mannion. This book is in paperback and published in 1988, what makes mine so special apart from the subject is the fact the book is signed by Malcolm Davey. Whilst looking for information on the author, strangely enough the first entry on the internet led me to Amazon and the used and new books for this title. The used prices range anything from £37 - £150, which is pretty amazing for a book which cost me £1.50 and I am not looking to sell. Unfortunately I have been unable to find anything on either author at this time.

 

Another of my special books is “Handbooks of Marks and Monograms on Pottery & Porcelain” by William Chaffers. The book is in hardback and with some very minor water damage to the cover, however what makes this special is that it was originally published in 1874, with further prints in 1889 and 1892, with a new edition being printed in 1898. The book I have therefore is 117 years old and therefore classed as an antique in its own right. The book is inscribed on the cover page as “E H Platt, Jan 1898”.

Reference books cover to cover

What draws us to these or any other books? Well, in terms of reference books it is the search for knowledge. These days the current and possibly last generation will tell you that everything is available on the internet. To some extent they are correct but is that what it is all about, I don’t think so. In a lot of cases, mine included I spend much of my working day on a computer and I don’t necessarily want to do it when I get home, even though sometimes I do. It is the ability to see a mark on a piece of porcelain and want to find it one of the reference books just to prove yourself right. Likewise you see a cup shape or handle and instinctively be able to recognise the manufacturer, if not the pattern.

Some reference books are written as very heavy texts and you cannot take in everything you read, if you were to read the book cover to cover. It is the ability to skim read and fly back and forth through the book, so that you know roughly where to look for the information you need.  

There are also novels some are fiction, some are non fiction. The books I am thinking of and have been in my collection are the trilogy of books by Max Hardcastle, who left his job to start his antique shop high in the Yorkshire dales. The books are well worth reading and also contain some very fine nuggets of information on items in either auctions or the trade. Others include the two books written by Philip Serrell, a local auctioneer in Malvern, Worcestershire. Philip is also a regular on a wide range of antique related TV programmes. The books he wrote concern is early days learning the trade in Worcestershire and whilst amusing also contain interesting facts about the antique trade.

Finally Jonathan Gash, author of the Lovejoy novels, pure fiction about a lovable rogue of an antiques dealer but again containing interesting facts about antiques. Mostly these books are what I call holiday books, you buy them from the discounted book stores to take on holiday and when you have read them you either leave them in the hotel for someone else, or take them down the charity shop on your next turfing out session. This is the best form of recycling and sometimes you will benefit from someone else’s charitable donation.

 

Local Auctions - Provincial and Original

Many of us that love to visit auctions and please bear in mind, I am speaking from experiences in the UK, do so to the local or provincial (as some people would say) auction houses. As much as some of us would love to visit and possibly buy at a Sotheby’s, Cristie’s or Bonham’s auction anything that starts with a bid of £100,000 is probably out of our price range. When you see a painting sell for £46M you think that’s heading for somebody’s bank vault, rather than being displayed on the wall in the lounge.

The Vincent van Gogh painting The Allee Of Alyscamps sold for nearly £46 million (Sotheby's/AP)

So armed with your pre-printed copy of the catalogue (or not, if the auction house hasn’t got an on-line presence, which means you have to buy one for a couple of quid), it’s off to the auction houses viewing day you go.

Viewing Day

I love viewing day almost as much as the actual auction and very much for the same reason, People watching and also their antics. The auction house will in the main secure all the valuable items in cabinets and have staff who will happily get items out for you to look at. Furniture is also safeguarded from damage before the auction by putting small squares of carpet on the tops if for example chairs are placed on top. There are also china and porcelain items on tables or on bookcases and then you get down to the boxes of miscellaneous.  So with the auction trying to ensure that everything they are selling for someone else (hold that thought for a moment), why do people (potential buyers) think it right and proper to rummage and yes I mean rummage through items without any care or thought for others property. I know my mother used to say “you look with eyes not your fingers” and a lot of the time, if you are going to be spending money you need to make sure you are happy you know what you are buying. However, this does not make it right for a viewer (and I have seen this done), to pick something up and put it back none to carefully causing either minor damage or in the case I saw, broken in two and then act as if nothing happened. When I go on viewing day and decide to have a punt on something, if possible always  go early on auction day and make sure the item remains undamaged.

The people watching thing is just great, they try not to look as if they are interested or make some disparaging remark about it and when move away and watch the, they go straight back to the item and pore all over it. You then get the viewers who want to tell everyone the full extent of their knowledge , which in some cases is not a lot. There are also people you know, (acquaintances you have made) who spot you immediately you arrive and tell you to look at “lot so and so”, which immediately, if you happen to be me makes you think what else is there that I might miss if I go straight for the item.

There is normally a lot to see at viewing and even when it comes to the auction day and it comes up as the lot, I have been known to say to myself, where was that hiding? I never saw that. Many an impulse buy has fallen prey to that scenario. Anyway, you have seen what you like and it’s off home to check out a couple of items you have seen but don’t know too much about on the internet before the big day.

Auctioneer – Salesman or Showman?

Before anyone gets politically correct on me, yes I know there are a lot of lady auctioneers but salesperson or showperson just doesn’t sit right on a heading. Come to think of it adding saleswoman or showwoman to the end of the would make it too long anyway. Back to the auction day. The auctioneer is salesman, showman, public speaker, master of all he surveys and if he says it’s Tuesday, It’s Tuesday, irrespective of what day of the week it is. Most of them start with a quip or two and become their own warmup act. He lays out the rules of which there are not usually many, have you got your bidding number, keep the talking down to a minimum, that sort of thing. I have yet to see any auctioneer hold their arms out and demonstrate that the emergency exits are here, here and here but you get the idea.

Be honest how do you sell something you actually give house room to. Like the 1984 Sun newspaper page three calendar. For those who from outside the UK. The SUN newspaper is a tabloid paper and page three was the nubile young thing bare chested, with the comment that she wanted to save the world or animals or some such thing. Well believe it or not it sold for £10, the start was £10 and dropped to £5 and with a bit of banter from the auctioneer and the male participants in the room it finally made it back to £10.

On the other hand there are auctions where you think they are being held in a funeral home. Nobody moves, nobody wants to bid a lot and the auctioneer really does have to work his or her socks off. I was at one auction where the auctioneer to a drink of water, called his porter all the way from the back of the room, down to the front and the said “hold your hands out”, what for replied the porter, “Well I thought if we joined hands we could contact this lot and failing that there must be people on the other side who want to buy this stuff”.  

I said about people watching, one auction I went to fairly regularly was attended by a stamp dealer formerly from London but now retired locally. Lovely guy and knew more than I ever will, he had apparently had a shop in London but had retired and stamps were his passion. He knew that I liked Bone China and that I had bought some of the Royal Doulton figurines. He said, Nice collection of figurines in the cupboard. Yes I said saw those yesterday, there is not a lot of market for them though. He said you won’t get a look in. Why not? There’s a guy that comes all the way from a town some distance a way catches three buses to get here and he will take the lot. Can’t miss him, shuffles, comes with an oilcloth bag and sits at the front, if he can get a seat. These items would sell about an hour to an hour and half into the auction. Sure enough fifty minutes later in he comes, shuffles his way through the crowd, brown oil cloth bag and makes for the only seat on the end of a row third one back.

Of the figurines, there was only really one I wanted and could make money at it. Up to the point of this lot he had scooped them all with little or no resistance to speak of. This lot came up and the stamp dealer started the bidding, which I thought was strange, so I chimed in before Shuffly got a look in and then the stamp dealer gave up, only for it to be taken up by Shuffly himself. I kept on but got to a point where it was principle rather than price. I got the price I knew I could sell it for and when Shuffly put in one more bid, I thought let him have it.

At the end of the day

I just love local auctions, they range from white goods, toys, through the whole gamut of items to some very fine jewellery and the odd proper antique. Without them, people would have nowhere to empty their garages to or if like me you empty your garage one month and fill back up with different stuff the next. It is a never ending circle.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing it. If you have any auction stories you would like to share, please leave me a comment with your auction experience.

New Year - More Blog Posts!

I started writing my blog last year on antiques and collectables and have had a modicum of success (in my head at least) but these things are not really tangible. You can’t say the blog I wrote on such and such a date actually provided me with any sales from either my facebook page, Etsy Account or even Ebay. My blog is not written for any other reason than to communicate. There are a number of reasons for writing a blog, probably because you like writing and the novel inside you just won’t come out, to make people aware of your existence but principally to communicate. So this year I have decided I need to do more on my blog. So here goes!

Any writer whether writing a blog, newsletter or book, needs to obtain feedback from the reading public otherwise there is no point to the writing. Something in the words has to say, I knew that, well I never, in terms of antiques and collectables it generally comes down to memories, such as mother or Granny had one of those, or when we went to Sunday tea, it was always on Granny’s sideboard and when she died she left it to me and now it is on my sideboard. So let me ask just one thing, if you feel you can’t or are unlikely to leave feedback on this blog post, stop right now and save yourself some time. If you are willing and I hope you are because you have continued reading, I look forward to receiving your comments on this or any of my other blog posts.

My interest in antiques and collectables started with bone china, really it started with my wife collecting bone china and us running out of space which then started me into selling the pieces she no longer wanted. This then led to visiting antique markets to see what prices could be attained, to then going to auction to look at the other side of the coin. The rest as they say is history.

If you are interested in antiques and this is your first venture in to this fascinating area, then I urge you to visit the charity book shops and buy your books there. There are two reasons (and obviously you still have to buy with care) The first is you can always find something useful, just stay away from the millers antiques guides from days gone buy and I will tell you why in a minute. The second is that the majority of charity shops do remarkable work in generating revenue for the respective charities and are staffed mainly by volunteers. So as I said earlier buy with care, if you go to a mainstream second hand book shop and see a hardback tome at say £15 when the retail price new is £20 you wouldn’t necessarily buy it, so don’t do it at the charity shop. Also the Miller antique guides from days gone by, I have seen dealers wheel out one of these guides to demonstrate the price he was asking was reasonable, the book was dated ten years earlier. As we all know fads go up and down all the time and the prices were probably correct at the time of printing but that is all. If you are happy to use them to check what the item is and refer to the supporting narrative, that’s fine but please do not use it as a bible for pricing.

Another aspect of antique collecting is that everyday is a school day, I use this almost as a mantra. The reason I say this is because typically you will buy because you like the look of it, not necessarily because you can make money out of it. Not every antique/collectable seller will bother to find out about something they are selling. So this is where your research comes in and again we are back to the books and more over today, the internet and plethora of antique oriented Facebook groups.
If you are prepared to ask (politely) there will always be someone willing to share their knowledge. What grates on me are the people who join the Facebook groups and constantly show a photo and all they ask is “How Much?” Moving on however, if you collect more than you sell, then it is likely that you will be more interested and in some respects more selective.
I have been known to buy a box of what my daughter lovingly refers to as “tat” only because there was one or maybe two items that have caught my eye. Then you get them home, I take out what I bought it for and my wife has washed something she has seen only to say “ooh! That’s nice and it ends up in the cabinet.

If you do decide to sell items there are a variety of outlets for these ranging from Car boot sales (UK), Flea markets (USA) to owning your antique shop and that takes capital. A lot of people have made successful businesses out Ebay, Etsy, Vintage markets , stalls or space in an antiques mall and Facebook pages. The easier outlets are those where you actually interact with customers, the more difficult are the internet based outlets. The difference is that with the on line outlets, it does take time to photograph, crop and watermark your images. Then to measure, weigh and write the descriptions ready for listing.
When you have sold your item you have to ensure the item is safely and securely packaged for transit to the customer. Once it leaves you, it is out of your control, so time spent in packing is well spent. If you decide to sell at vintage fairs you will find that each has rules, typically that your table must be covered down to the floor such that any boxes are hidden from view. Some will detail how much display space you can have and what is expected. The best way to look at your table is “would I stop and look at this table”. Don’t make it too cluttered or with too many spaces either. Also be careful about how you lay it out because visitors to the vintage fair may not treat your items as you would treat them and may be careless around your table. Make sure that nothing could get knocked over easily.

Whatever your interest in antiques, collecting or selling, you are doing it because you want to. When it stops being a pleasure it is time to stop.

In the next blog I will be looking at auction houses. Provincial ones that is, not the Christies and Sotheby’s of this world. The local and provincial ones are typically where we will all spend our time.

Thanks for reading!