Antique Collection

The collectors of early brass objects encounter many problems. They have to wade their way through oceans of reproductions and clever forgeries to find what they are really looking for. Many are seeking specific objects such as antique horse brasses, candlesticks or wall plaques.
Horse brasses were first produced in ancient times in many oriental countries. [...]

Strong “stone chinas” are earthenwares reinforced with ingredients such as pounded iron slag and flint, and were indeed stronger than the simple earthenwares which preceded them. These earlier pieces could only be fired to a temperature that was high enough to harden the basic material, but not to fuse it together to make it nonporous. [...]

Pottery and porcelain objects have been made for so many years, in so many cultures and in such a multitude of types that it is impossible to describe all the signs of falsification in any short essay. Generally speaking, however, the detection of a fake depends upon aberrations in manufacture, style and materials—as in any [...]

The technique of tin-glazing earthenware came to Europe with the Moorish invasions of Spain in the 8th to 12th centuries, and 15th-century Hispano-Moresque armorial lustre ware chargers are considered among the finest examples of the potter’s art. Tin glaze soon spread to Italy where it was called `maiolica’. From the late 15th century, potters in [...]

Classical Revival
Because vases were so prominently displayed in rooms, it was vital for manufacturers to keep abreast of the latest developments in architecture and style. In Britain from the 1760s that meant following the Neoclassical style of Robert Adam and his contemporaries.
It was the potter Josiah Wedgwood who was to transform and dominate the market [...]

Apart from imported Oriental pieces, vases were virtually unknown in Europe before the 17th century. Then they evolved an astonishing range of decorative forms.
Any flower arranger has been frustrated at the seemingly unsuitable shapes of vases for holding cut flowers. In fact, in the world of antiques and ceramics, that is not their main purpose. [...]