Random Treasure

This is a cautionary tale. It starts with a fox, who has been a regular visitor to our garden in recent weeks. It causes no trouble, and I have no desire to hunt it or kill it or destroy it. In this respect my feelings towards it are entirely unlike the emotions which I experience in relation to a second Fox which has just come into my life, along with a Badger, a Mole, a Squirrel and a Rabbit. No, there isn’t a Toad as well. We’re not in Wind in the Willows or Toad of Toad Hall territory. Neither, sadly, are we in the Hundred Acre Wood with Christopher Robin, Pooh and Piglet. Instead, we’re in my local auction room where, last Saturday, I accidentally bought an object of unparalleled hideousness. … More Stuffed

One day last week the door of the summer house was left open and a garden bird got in amongst my pots. I was able to take his photograph as he rested momentarily on the top rim of a large stoneware jug. Cute, eh? Seeing a real live bird perched on a jug prompted me to look through my collection for some other examples of birds on pots…
… More Birds on Pots

Meet Marguerite. Or perhaps you know her as Gretchen. She was modelled by the sculptor Sarah Terry in 1868 and manufactured by W T Copeland and Sons, owners of the Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent. She’s made in parian, a bright white ceramic material. But Marguerite doesn’t look like a parian figure. Instead, she looks like she’s made of patinated bronze. I wonder why? … More Meet Marguerite

Usually a book is just a book, but sometimes it is a rare and special object in itself, regardless of the meaning or significance of the words inside it. It might be old, or rare, or a first edition, or with special provenance, or a fine binding, or any combination of the above. Here are two very special books for your inspection. Both are editions of the Book of Common Prayer, one from 1760 and one from 1850. Both are exceptional examples of quality and innovation in printing and design, important landmarks in the development of the printed book. Which book – or perhaps I should say which artefact – do you like better? … More The Book as Artefact

Ten thousand years from now, interstellar archaeologists are exploring Old Earth for scant remains of early human civilisations. In the ruins of a primitive computer server facility they find a single memory card which has survived the ravages of time. It contains the Random Treasure blog. They begin to read. It’s the Great Lockdown of 2020 and the blogger’s got the blues … … More Blue and White Blues

I’ve brought home this teacup made by Lucie Rie. Wow! It must immediately be placed in the central position in my collection. Make a space there, Bernard Leach, Alan Wallwork, Emmanuel Cooper, Richard Batterham, Alan Caiger-Smith, Janet Leach, Lisa Hammond! Clear the middle of the best shelf! Lucie is incoming! But here, of course, is the problem. My example of her rare and treasured output is nothing but a teacup without a saucer. It’s monochrome, matt black glaze outside, glossy grey-white tin glaze within, plain and featureless. It is so unpretentious and minimalist that you can barely see it. Put it in the middle of a shelf and it disappears. It’s a black hole… … More An Anomalous Pot – Episode 2: Lucie Rie

Have you ever heard of a studio potter called Carolina M Valvona? No, I hadn’t heard of her either, until a large quantity of her pottery turned up in my local saleroom. There must have been more than a hundred pieces, and they were sold over the course of at least three weekly sales. … More An Anomalous Pot – Episode 1

A few weeks ago, two Italian maiolica salts appeared in my local auction room. You know what’s coming. Yes, of course I had to buy them. … More Salt

This object is a squat lekythos. Or that’s what it was until it lost its neck and its handle. It was made in Athens around 400 BC, and it was bought recently at auction for just 54 pence. … More Squat Lekythos: 54 pence

Here’s a Strange Coincidence. I was looking online at a painting by Johan Zoffany that I hadn’t seen before. The very next day I saw the same picture again in a TV programme. What were the chances and who’s in the picture? … More A Strange Coincidence