Fat Lava goes international!

Hot on the heels of the Maltese-based 'Mdina Collectors Club', comes an even more exciting venture out of Toronto in Canada. A number of dedicated Fat Lava enthusiasts have just founded the 'Fat Lava Collectors' Club', in association with the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The small but perfectly formed group held their first meeting last week (see picture below), and I have to say that although I couldn't make it myself from London, it looked like great fun as well as educational. Membership is free, and members will receive an e-newsletter 'LavaFlow~'. What's more, there's talk of including Fat Lava in the R.O.M.'s new 20th century design gallery, AND a weekend of events at the Museum, including an illustrated talk by me, planned for the 27th-28th October 2007. I don't want to post the secretary's email address here and curse her with gallons of junk mail, so email me if you'd like to join and I'll send the address back to you.
As most of you may know, Fat Lava was exported all over the world in its day, particularly to Canada, Australia and New Zealand - I wonder what the inventive designers and decorators would have thought of the growing international interest in their work, some 30-40 years later?! Go Toronto!

Austrian vs West German Ceramics

I'm sure many of you will have seen what you think is a West German ceramic, which then turns out to be Austrian - with the word AUSTRIA moulded on the base. I have been keeping my eye on these to try and work out who made them. Earlier this week I bought a nice Carstens baluster vase, decorated with a circular variant of Carstens' 'Ankara' pattern. It's quite a complex glaze combination and pattern, so I was amazed to see that the base was in fact moulded 'AUSTRIA'. So, did an Austrian company copy this glaze, and effectively 'rip it off', or did Carstens license the pattern to another factory? I think neither, and that all (or the majority of) Austrian ceramics that look like West German ceramics were made by Carstens in Germany. It's known that Carstens had a sales office or branch in Austria (as well as Australia, Brasil and even Chile!), and it may have been easier to export their wares to certain countries if they were not marked 'Germany' - after all in 1960, the war had only ended 15 years before. Not only that, but they would also appeal to to the Austrians themselves who, surprisingly, refer to their country frequenty as 'Austria' and not always 'Östereich'. M.P. Thomas also says that between 1953 and 1959, Carstens produced ceramics under the notable Austrian name 'Goldscheider', when that company moved to Fredeslöh in Germany, where Carstens was based.
So I called my friend and fellow collector Dr Graham Cooley with my hypothesis, and he confirmed that of the Austrian vases in his collection, all were in Carstens shapes and glazes. Not only that, but I had a call from him yesterday evening when he told me that he had just found a West German type vase marked 'AUSTRIA' with a foil label bearing the name 'Keramos' followed by the wording 'Carstens Qualitat' - which means 'Carstens Quality'. So, I think this goes to prove my hypothesis that many West German type vases marked 'AUSTRIA' were in fact made by Carstens in Germany. Interesting, huh?

On the road with Judith Miller

One of the most enjoyable, and often surprising, tasks my job entails is meeting people and discussing their collections. This can be for publication in one of our books, for valuation or - in this case - on a book signing tour. With Autumn's cold mornings and evenings showing us Summer really was over, Judith and I set off up the M1 to criss-cross the country. Our destinations over the next few days included Ashbourne in Derbyshire, Heswall in the Wirral, and ended up on the Isle of Man. Virtually every time a Judith Miller book-signing occurs, so does a mini-'antiques roadshow' type of valuation event. See below for a couple of the very exciting things we came across.


















The welcoming and friendly team at The Dovedale Gallery bookshop, in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, proudly holding copies of Judith's latest books.







At the valuation event, one lucky collector brought in this truly incredible mid-19th century oil on canvas painting of the first Maori to be (wrongly) imprisoned by the British. Politically sensitive? Yes. Historically important? Most certainly. Valuable? Without a doubt. That's why a say 'lucky' collector. It's impossible to value this sort of item precisely as it is both unique and of great importance. Like everything, it's worth what someone would pay. So how much would someone pay? I'd think a six figure sum - easily.

Judith and I were also lucky enough to come across a beautiful 1930s French Boch Freres vase in Heswall. With a book on Art Deco recently published, Judith was her usual self - a mine of information. We both explained that even as recently as three or four years ago, this vase may have fetched around £100-200, however, collectors have re-appraised the company's work and Art Deco is very fashionable right now, meaning a vase like this may now fetch around £800-1,200, or more. Coincidentally, Judith had recently seen a very similar example for sale at David Rago in New Jersey, USA, which was estimated at around $2,000. Nice find!
All the bookshops we visited had long queues of people eager to know more about their treasured heirlooms or recent finds. The one thing we always like to point out is that something does not need to be valuable to be interesting. So, never fear if you would like to bring something along to one of our events - whatever it is that you have. There's a story in everything, and we'd love to meet you! For more information on future events, keep an eye on the Events page of my website.

Going Dutch

As you'll know if you are on this site, one of my passions is West German ceramics of the 1960s & 70s. So much so, that I wrote a book about it... Well, I've now just 'discovered' Dutch ceramics, having acquired (at no great cost!) a rather appealing cube vase by Pieter Groeneveldt, and a Scheurich look-a-like by Van Woerden, with a rather good grey-blue glaze. I know next to nothing about either company right now, but I'm researching them both and in doing that, I have found an amazing variety of incredibly appealing Dutch pottery. I get the impression that many of the studio and smaller factories were hit when the likes of Scheurich, Ruscha et al from Germany flooded the Netherlands with their production, but some seem to have survived - albeit producing smaller amount of items. Nevertheless, these seem to have lost none of their charm, appeal and feel for (sometimes adventurous) Modern design. They're also a lot less expensive than many of their counterparts in other parts of the world. Although I doubt they'll ever reach the heady heights of Hans Coper and Lucie Rie, this is market to keep an eye on, me thinks.

Agatha Christie

I've just had a fascinating telephone and email conversation with the curator of Greenway House, near Brixham in Devon, who was seeking some advice. Currently owned by the National Trust, it was the family home of Agatha Christie who is known, of course, for her crime novels. It appears that she was also a keen collector, amassing collections of silver, Tunbridgeware, Mauchlineware and art. Amongst the objects on display is also a collection of British and Scandinavian studio glass - including a number of items from Mdina Glass! It's difficult to say whether the 'Mistress of Mystery' herself collected the Mdina pieces (she died in 1973), as her son and daughter also added to the collections started by their mother. Perhaps Hercule Poirot could be called upon to investigate?
If you're ever in the area, why not drop in and have a look? It's certainly made me renew my (embarrassingly) lapsed National Trust membership. Find out more about Brixham House here.

Newark Antiques & Collectables Fair

The KING of British antiques fairs, legendary amongst collectors and dealers the world around! And I was going! Yay! If you have heard rumours about it going into decline, please dispel them immediately as the doom-laden thoughts of the terminally miserable. In my honest opinion, this event IS still worth going to, even on a Saturday after two days worth of trade buyers have rootled through. See www.dmgantiquefairs.com for details of when this mega-event is held.
I have a strict policy now (undoubtedly the Banker would approve), of taking out a small sum of cash and leaving my credit cards and cheque books at home. This way I have to limit my purchases, due in part to the strictly limited space at Hill Towers and also the restricted nature of my finances. It also means I have to scour the entire fair for the very best bargains. And they're still there - this fair still yielded some great pieces. As a personal tip for the future, I'd pay attention to the designs produced by the numerous glass factories working under the Sklo Union banner in Czechozlovakia from the 1960s-80s. Super stuff, and undoubtedly underpriced. I've been amassing a growing collection for years. I came away with five fab vases in designs that I don't already have and paid, oooh, let me tot it up....a whole £32. Sure, most of the pieces you'll see are in clear, colourless glass, but look out for the coloured examples as they can only be described as jewel-like. The designs are so strong that even the colourless pieces have immense, almost Modernist, appeal. Well, I like them anyway. The quality is superb and beats much Whitefriars hands down in terms of variety and price. See the excellent www.sklounion.com for more information and pictures.
No Fat Lava though! Boo. As my trusty Editor on the Collectables Price Guide would say "Well, it's your own fault!". Mdina made an appearance as ever, as did the odd diminuitive piece of Isle of Wight Studio Glass, but nothing of great interest that would cause the heart to flutter. So maybe what I hear on the grapevine is true - everyone is stocking up and holding on to pieces by these two glass studios until my next book comes out in late September. Exciting in a way, but a tad frustrating for die-hard collectors like me - I still have to feed my addiction guys! Save those pennies as I feel that if this is true, we're going to see some shockingly good pieces emerge at the Cambridge Glass Fair, the book's launch event! This in turn will cause the contents of living rooms around the country to be turned out offering yet more treasures.
After an exhausting speed walk and shopping trip around the entire fair (twice!), I joined Judith for one of her events held on the day - a shopping trip for the winner of the Collectables Price Guide 2005 cover competition to win £500 to spend with Judith at a fair. Louise, the winner, was truly delightful and had a wide range of different collecting interests, which always makes things easier. We came away with a number of brass fronted Salter scales, a superb 19thC pine tool chest and a 19thC pine collectors' cabinet with great patina, and a jelly mould or two -- and a very happy Louise! It was a little like ticking things off a Tesco's shopping list - there truly is something for everybody at such an event. It also just goes to confirm one thing I always say about us lot, we're a jolly nice bunch really. All in all, the day was a real pleasure as well as a great success all round, and I have to admit to being a little sad when travelling back to the Big Smoke with Judith on the fast train. The next event held by the organisers that I can go to is at Ardingly in September and I for one am going....see you there.