A few posts ago I wrote about my favourite thing.  This time: my least favourite. I suppose it’s fairly normal for people to have a few decorative items in their houses which they heartily dislike.  It might be an inherited ornament which you feel you have to keep for sentimental reasons; or something which you … More Not my favourite

It’s a well-known fact that if you go looking for treasure you’re unlikely to find it. Mostly you won’t find anything at all. Sometimes you’ll excitedly make a find but it turns out not to be treasure: just think of all the metal detectorists who never find anything more exciting than a ring-pull from a … More Mysteries

My dear wife Frances has for several decades been accustomed to seeing me returning home from a visit to the local charity shops or salerooms bearing a huge shapeless package and announcing, in as insouciant a manner as possible: “I seem to have made a small purchase”.  Mostly, such purchases are of the ceramic persuasion, … More A small purchase

I have passions for many different types of object. Some of my interests (e.g. drawings and engravings) haven’t developed enough (yet) to become real passions. Others (e.g. coins) engrossed me for years before my interest waned somewhat. Other collecting fads (e.g. 78 rpm shellac records and accompanying gramophones) came and went. Some collections (e.g. studio … More Turkmen Guls

I was supposed to be looking at the trains. That’s what you do on a visit to the National Railway Museum in York. And indeed I did look at them, and very wonderful they were too. After our visit we sat in the sunshine on a bench just outside the Museum and overheard a market … More Going Virol

I make no claims to expertise in any class of antiques whatever.  Not enough focus, not enough application, not sufficiently single-minded.  But I do like to think that I’m quite good at dating things.  This is not a rare skill.  Any dealer or auctioneer and most antiques buffs can do it too. Once you’ve looked … More Guess the Date

In February 2012 my local Edinburgh auctioneer announced that he was holding an out-of-town Saturday sale in Aboyne, a charming small town in Aberdeenshire.  He hired a hall in the grounds of Aboyne Castle called the Coo Cathedral, a magnificent stone-built Romanesque Revival building originally constructed as a cowshed (Google it if you don’t believe … More Staples

This is awkward.  I want to tell you the conclusion of a story, but you don’t know the story. If you have read my book Random Treasure – Antiques, Auctions and Alchemy, you’ll know quite a bit about the one object in my whole extensive collection or hoard “that I’d rescue if my house was … More My favourite thing

In my last posting I mentioned Philip Mernick, who runs a marvellous website about hunting jugs.  I had never heard his name until a couple of weeks ago, and have not yet met him, but I would very much like to meet him, because it’s clear that both Philip and his brother Harold are collectors … More Catapulted down Memory Lane

One of the many subjects about which I know virtually nothing is the subject of Hunting Jugs.  These jugs: “were very widely produced throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries. They were the most ‘special’ of the utilitarian brownwares, and were found in every home as well as in commercial establishments. The more decorative jugs and … More Hunting Jugs