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Although not marked as such, this vase has all the hallmarks of the firm Scheurich Keramik which started production in 1954, rather later than most of its competitors, but soon became the largest producer of commercial art pottery in Germany. Their pieces rarely carried the factory name but usually the model number followed by the height in centimetres with ‘W.Germany’ below, as here. Model ‘517’ can be found in a variety of different glazes but the pattern and colourings here, more muted than some of Sheurich’s work and with a matt finish, are particularly pleasing and complement the elegant form most successfully. Dating is to the 1960s.

These pieces represent something of a puzzle. Seen the right way round (with the handle on the right) they are plain and the decoration only reveals itself on the reverse. This suggests a playful intent to conceal which, when combined with the subject matter, suggests something a bit ‘naughty’ which could confirm the second interpretation of what the seated man is holding! The paste, and general style of the pieces, looks continental and a German origin might be a good guess, but no more than that. The blue glazed jug has an impressed mark to the base ‘186 [plus an unidentifiable number]’ which might be the date but is more likely the pattern number; a dating of around 1900 for both seems reasonable - certainly there is an ‘old’ look to the pieces. There are one or two similar examples but little in the way of firm information. One for a collector to puzzle out!

The Noritake compnay was set up by the Morimura family at Noritake near Nagoya in the early twentieth century. Called at first 'Nippon Toki Kaisha Ltd' on its founding in 1904, the business soon changed its name to 'Noritake' and began the manufacture of porcelains for the domestic and export markets. The mark seen here is interesting. It comprises a 'Komaru' symbol, crowned with "Noritake" and with the mark 'Made In Japan'. The centre symbol said to be taken from the Japanese character "Komaru", meaning "overcoming difficulties". According to the Noritake company tradition this mark was designed when contact with the different culture of the west early in the 20th century caused problems of adaptation. It is also known as the 'tree crest mark' which is the clan crest of the Morimura family. This mark is said to have been registered in London for the UK market by 1908. The curled up ends of the Komaru symbol seen here distinguish this mark from later versions and allow a dating of this piece to the early twentieth century.

Noritake porcelain became synonymous with finely potted tea and breakfast services made in great quantities for export. These vases are a rather more unusual production and show the factory capable of producing high quality pieces with decorative potential.

While a close relation to the traditional Victorian ‘Staffordshire Dog’, these figures were actually made by the English firm Beswick in the twentieth century. Founded in 1894 by James Beswick and his sons, the company became known for its output of figurines, eventually securing the rights to producing characters from the novels of Beatrix Potter and the films of Walt Disney. It was sold to Royal Doulton in 1969 who continued production until 2002, selling the pottery premises in 2003 and the rights to the name in 2004 when they were bought by Dartington Crystal who still manufacture pieces carrying the Beswick name. These spaniel figures appear to date from the 1960s and were made in at least two sizes. Most have painted decoration but the plain white finish here is really the most pleasing of all producing a pair of decorative items with timeless appeal.

Although not marked as such, this vase has all the hallmarks of the firm Scheurich Keramik which started production in 1954, rather later than most of its competitors, but soon became the largest producer of commercial art pottery in Germany. Their pieces rarely carried the factory name but usually the model number followed by the height in centimetres with ‘W-Germany’ below, as here. Model ‘517’ can be found in a variety of different glazes but the colourings here with the contrast between browns and cream are particularly successful. Dating is to the 1960s.

The factory mark, a shallow dish superimposed over the letter 'H' inside a circle, is that of the East German pottery VEB Haldensleben. VEB stands for 'Volkseigener Betrieb', meaning a people-owned enterprise and used in relationship to the state owned workplaces in the GDR. Haldensleben is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany and a ceramics factory was created there in 1945 with the nationalization of the Carstens Uffrecht plant that followed the division of Germany at the end of WWII. Halsdenleben focused primarily on the manufacture of vases. Its output tended to be of superior quality and employed more restrained glazes than those used by its West German counterparts. Upon the reunifucation of Germany in 1990, the factory was returned to its original owners, the Carstens family. The pattern number here is found on other pieces with the same shape but the abstract decoration used is quite individual and evocative of 1950s and early 1960s designs.

While not stamped with a maker's mark, vases of this type are attributed to the West German Ceramics factory Marei which produced pieces from 1949 to 2016. Marei was the commonly used abbreviation for the firm's name which was Majolikafabrik Rheinbach Jean Fuss and Sohn. The pieces are distinguished by the use of a reddish clay but this was sometimes more brown or dark brown depending on the suppliers used. Marks are usually impressed into the base although these are often just pattern numbers, as here. Many pieces are unmarked and some are stamped 'MADE IN GERMANY' or 'W.GERMANY'. The pattern number here is '7104'and is found on similar pieces with the same shape but different decoration. This vase was probably made in the 1970s and is typical of the striking designs the firm produced.

Inverurie is a town in Scotland where Pictish carved stones are found in the graveyard dating from the 7th Century. The Picts were a tribe of peoples living in the East and North of Scotland. Little is known of their origins but they were called 'Picts' by the Romans because of their painted and tattooed bodies. The Inverurie horse is the inspiration for this brooch. The actual design of the three horses was created by George Bain (1881-1968) the Scottish artist and teacher, famous for chronicling Celtic Art.

St Justin of Cornwall is well known for the production of 'craft' pieces in a variety of forms and materials. This piece probably dates to the 1980s and certainly cannot be found in their current catalogue.

Lancaster & Sons Ltd were manufacturers of earthenware at the Dresden works, Tinkersclough, in the Shelton area of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England. The firm was founded in 1899 under the name ‘Lancaster and Barker’ was renamed ‘Lancaster & Sons Ltd’ in the early 1900s and continued production until 1944. In the 1920s they produced various pieces with rural landscape scenes of which this is an example. Some see reminiscences of the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement here but the mark found on the bottom clearly dates the piece to the 1920s. The yellow lustre glaze is interesting and free from the crazing sometimes found.

Thomas Webb began his glass career in 1829, when he became a partner in the Wordsley Glassworks. Various career changes followed and in 1859 he was joined by his sons Thomas Wilkes Webb and Charles Webb and began trading as Thomas Webb & Sons based in Stourbridge. The firm was run by various family members until mergers started to occur in the early twentieth century and Sven Fogelberg, previously from Swedish glassworks Kosta, became manager in 1932. Production continued with more mergers in the 1960s and 1970s until the firm closed in 1990. This vase was made by Thomas Webb during the 1950s as part of their 'Gay Glass' range in a design called 'Old English Bull's Eye' and has the typical 'Webb England' mark to the base.

Wade Ceramics Ltd was a manufacturer of porcelain and earthenware, headquartered in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Founded in 1867, it was run by various members of the Wade family until the death of George Anthony Wade in 1987 after which there was a succession of management buyouts. Despite substantial investment in 2009, the firm eventually went into administration in 2022. Wade produced a wide variety of ceramics, including the well known Wade Whimsies animal figurines.

Many of their pieces were designed to act as small containers for flowers and trinkets and this piece is a particularly amusing example of the type. Two colour ranges exist, one as here and one with much darker tones which is held to be later. Dating here, then, is most likely to the 1950s/1960s when the Wade production lines were in full swing and enjoying considerable popularity.

These bone and lacquer plaques were produced in great quantities by Japanese artists in the late nineteenth century for export to the West and became a familiar feature of the European drawing room. The medium was easily subject to damage and loss, especially in respect of the bone inlay, and while this example has some slight damage this is confined to a crack in the lacquer ground of the panel itself and some chipping to the extremities of the panel. The decoration of the figures remains intact (the surround seems to have been cut away in some places to give added definition to the composition) and allows appreciation of the skill with which they were carved, presenting a genre scene of great charm.

The firm Bretby was the result of an amalgamation between Henry Tooth and William Ault who formed a partnership in 1883. Both had previously worked at the Linthorpe pottery established by Christopher Dresser in 1879 and retained a comnnection with the celebrated designer even after striking out on their own. Success came early and the firm won a gold award in the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1884, patenting their trademark with its sunburst design above the name Bretby in the same year. Ault left the partnership in 1887 to set up his own business under his own name but Henry Tooth continued to oversee production until his death in 1918, the business then remaining under the control of the Tooth family until it was sold in 1933. Production continued, though, well into the twentieth century until the firm closed around in the late 1990s.

This piece is typical of their earlier work with a nod to both the art nouveau style and Dresser himself, particularly in the shape of the handles. ‘Hammered’ decoration was typical of the Arts and Crafts movement popular at the time and the applied floral decoration has some parallels with Japanese pieces again much in vogue at that period. Similar pieces are known with the same shape and pattern number (1742) which seems itself also to indicate an early twentieth century dating, but the applied decoration seen here is unusual.

Reproductions were soon produced, one of the earliest being a bookplate, number 110, in the 1898 publication ‘Les Maîtres de l'affiche’ edited by Jules Chéret, which played a considerable part in promoting the poster as a work of art. Most of the copies produced are smaller and of variable print quality but this version is very true to the original and is not a current reprint. It employs a printing technique known as ‘giclée’, a French term meaning ‘sprayed’, referring to the operation of a printer which uses small spraying devices that can match colours and apply ink with precision, producing high quality reproductions of original art (see images 4 and 6). When viewed out of the frame, which is doubtless later, its age and the accuracy of the colours can be clearly seen suggesting a much earlier dating than most of the versions on offer (few of which are full size) probably to the mid twentieth century. One of Lautrec’s most famous images can be enjoyed, then, to the full in a contemporary domestic setting.

[The telephone number on the address label at the reverse, employing the exchange code for Cowes, Isle of Wight (0983) implies that the frame was made around the time of or before ‘PhONEday’ in April 1995.]

'Crackleware' glazed pieces, usually with 'bronzed’ bands, were a staple output of the Chinese potteries from the mid nineteenth century onwards and were produced in a wide variety of mainly vase shape forms, both in polychrome and blue and white and intended as decorative pieces for the Victorian rooms of the West. As with other ceramic types, the quality deteriorated and this piece is typical of the late productions with a more modest level of craftsmanship but still retaining a naif charm. As with many ginger jars, this one lacks its original domed cover which would have been decorated to match.

The Charles Sadek Import Company was founded in 1936 by the father and son Charles and Norman Sadek and began by importing decorative items from Japan later broadening their range to a wider variety of suppliers including China. These pieces were sold under the ‘Andrea by Sadek’ brand, named after Norman's daughter Andrea. The business continued to a third generation until it was taken over by Fitz & Floyd in 2015.

This box, then, is a typical example of their range of wares, good quality decorative items marketed at an affordable price. The quality of these boxes can vary and this piece seems to be an above average example.

The firm which later became Shorter and Son was first set up by Arthur Shorter in 1878 with a partner James Boulton in Stoke on Trent. Their products were solidly in the main-stream of Victorian taste - majolica wares of all types predominated. Time saw another generation join the firm and various amalgamations took place. One of the sons, Colley Shorter, developed a close association with Clarice Cliff whom he eventually married. Her designs, while concentrated on the wares signed with her name, also fed in to the productions of Shorter and Sons and the range of their wares expanded considerably in the 1920s and 1930s.

‘Fish Ware’, as it became known was introduced in the late 1920s and rapidly became one of their best selling lines. Initially production was confined to flat ware and in 1935 a part service was acquired by the Duchess of York, later to become Queen Elizabeth. The range expanded and the design of the gravy boat and stand, introduced in 1936 (and included in the present selection), was attributed to Cliff herself. There were further additions and the late 1950s saw the addition of salt and pepper pots on a wavy tray (also included in the present selection). This service, then, probably dates to around 1960 a little before the firm was effectively taken over by Crown Devon in 1964 and the eventual loss of the identity of its wares. The popularity of the line is easily understood and our present selection is an excellent memento of the design.

Guido Cacciapuoti was a celebrated Italian ceramicist. Born in Naples in 1892 and from a family with a tradition in the creation of majolica pottery, Guido exhibited his work widely in the 1920s and finally, in collaboration with his brother, Mario, and Angelo Bignami as the administrative and commercial director, he founded the factory ‘Gres d'Arte Cacciapuoti Bignami & C.' in Milan in 1927. Mario unfortunately died three years later leaving Guido to carry on on his own until his death in 1953.

In the 1930s, Guido’s workshop became famous for the production of ceramic animal sculptures with fish being a particular speciality. More commonly seen are groups of John Dory, again with a red glaze, but the smoother lines here and the particularly intense colour reflect more closely the contemporary Art Deco style. Sought after in their own time, with patrons such as the King of Italy and Mussolini, Guido’s works are highly collectible today and this group would make a striking addition to a collection of Art Deco ceramics with considerable decorative appeal.