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Born in 1885 at Lille, France, Louis Dage was early known as a ceramics artist, describing himself on the birth registration of his daughter in 1906 as a ‘decorator on faience’. In 1920 he joined with Louis Fontinelle (1886-1964) to create a faience factory in Antony, near Paris, but the venture was short lived and they parted company two years later. In 1930, Dage set up his own studio at Saint-Sever in company with his brother and daughter becoming managing director of the firm three years later. There then followed a little over thirty years of production under his direction until his death in 1961. Art Deco designs with their simple lines and bold decoration were produced initially to be followed by pieces of more rugged shapes and patterns, partly resulting from the shortage of conventional raw materials during the second world war.

This bowl and cover represents the best of Dage’s earlier work. The base has straight sides curving in slightly towards the base and has a flush fitting flat and gently domed cover overhanging slightly at the edge. The piece is covered overall with a mottled glaze in tones of blue and light aubergine on which are painted maple leaves in green with bright blue berries, a design which can be found on some of Dage’s other pieces (see image 13). The lid carries his signature ‘DAGE’ with a flowing line underneath, a much less common version of the Dage mark but which can be found elsewhere (see image 14). More normally pieces are signed ‘L.Dage’, the name being in lower case rather than capitals.Form and decoration combine to produce a striking object, characteristic of the fashions of the time of its production and a worthy tribute to its maker.

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.

While Art Nouveau in style, Schoeman only perfected these techniques in the late 1960s, producing pieces in the style from a studio in Kentish Town which sold well in the London outdoor art markets. In the late 1970s, Schoeman moved to America with the intention of producing large scale art but the venture foundered and he died in 1981. This plaque, of which other examples are known, must have been one of his most popular designs in those London years and is a striking example of the techniques he developed and mastered.

While this model, often called the ‘harvest pattern’, is found quite often, it is very unusual to see a graduated set of three, all matching. The form of the mark, where the lion does not sit above a crown, was used between 1922 and 1927 which gives us the dating here. The largest jug carries the letter ‘a’ which was a decorator’s mark and stands for Louisa Ayling. Perhaps she worked on all three, but this must remain a guess although the quality of the work on all three is quite consistent producing a highly decorative and attractive ensemble.

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.

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.

A fine quality Japanese porcelain vase, the ovoid body with a curved flaring foot and rising to a tall concave neck with a well defined shoulder, applied elephant and ring handles to the sides and a galleried rim, decorated in bright underglaze blue with two bands of stylised flowering chrysanthemum at the top and bottom between a continuous scene of flowering peony and chrysanthemum, the top rim with repeating whorl design on the exterior and stylised leaf design inside, the stepped base glazed white.

The kilns at Seto in the Aichi prefecture of Japan and situated close to Nagoya form one of the traditional ‘Nihon Rokkoyo’, the six old kilns of medieval Japan. The location of Seto was ideal for the production of ceramics with an abundance nearby of both porcelain clay and forests to provide firewood for the kilns. Production began as early as the Heian period (794-1185) and continued without a break thereafter, the earlier pieces being more pottery forms copying Chinese wares. It was in the early nineteenth century that the kilns turned to producing porcelains decorated in underglaze blue and white, a development initiated by the potter Tamikichi Kato who went to Arita to learn the techniques of its production there, returning to Seto in 1807. Production grew and developed and was directed towards the export market in the Meiji period (1868-1912) with Seto wares being displayed at the European and North American exhibitions and fairs. Their delicately painted designs of birds and flowers proved to be immensely popular and were, in their time, to influence Art Nouveau and Art Deco designs. Some of the forms produced were truly virtuoso creations including, besides vases, screens, jardinieres and even ceramic tables.

Signed pieces are known and besides Tamikichi Kato the distinguished potters included the Kichiemon brothers, Kato Chuji and Kawamoto Jihyoe, and Kawamoto Hansuke. But not all the best pieces carried an artist’s signature as this vase well demonstrates. Formed from fine quality clay, as can be seen from the foot rim (image 10), the complex shape with its spreading base, angled shoulder and galleried rim would have been difficult to create. The handles show remarkable skill with the rings somehow formed so as to hang loose (presumably some form of kiln waster technique was used). The detail and artistry of the painting speaks for itself. Note in particular the shading effects on the peony flowers. While not perhaps an exhibition piece, this vase is definitely of exhibition quality and would be a worthy addition to a collection of nineteenth century Japanese ceramic art.

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.

Bianchini Ferier was a silk weaving manufacturer based in Lyons. Founded in 1888 by Francois Atuyer, Charles Bianchini and Francois Ferier, it first produced fine silk damasks mainly for the clothing industry. After gaining a silver medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 it went on to enjoy great success and many well known artists created designs for it in the early C20th, most notably Raoul Dufy. Production continued until the early 1990s when the firm was acquired by Tissages Bauman.

This print resembles designs in the firm’s archives from the late C19th and was probably created in the early C20th. It was designed for framing and the dotted line definition of the composition can be seen at the edges. Presented now in a modern surround it provides an excellent example of the firm’s work and a reflection of the Art Nouveau style so popular when it was produced.

'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.

Celadon glazed wares with enamel decoration in fairly muted colours are a familiar product amongst the ceramics produced by Japanese potters at the end of the nineteenth century but examples of this type of dish are rather less commonly found. The basket of flowers is a regular decorative feature of Chinese ceramics, but given here a slightly different interpretation with the depiction of lotus, the emblem of summer. The mark probably imitates Chinese ‘commendation’ marks inscribed within the foot rim, another nod on the part of the Japanese potters towards their Chinese counterparts.

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.]

The town of Arita in the former Hizen Province, northwestern Kyūshū island, was a major centre for the production of porcelains in Japan. Best known for blue and white pieces it also produced polychrome wares as well, including the familiar Imari colourings. While similar to Imari, the wider palette of colours used here is usually termed ‘Arita’ and this bowl employs not only the colourings but also many of the decorative elements found in these wares. The angular form, though, is unusual. Dating is to the Meiji era (1868-1912) probably around 1880.

The design and style of these pieces recalls products of the ‘aesthetic movement’ era popular in Britain from 1860 to 1900. The object was to produce items of beauty and the furnishings and domestic objects of the middle-class home were to be of a quality that would please the eye of the artist and grace the houses of collectors and connoisseurs. William Morris, in particular, concentrated on distinctive organic forms and the floral designs of his wallpaper and tiles are reflected in the gilt bronze decoration here (see image 8) . The influences on the movement were diverse and Oriental porcelains extremely popular. Perhaps this explains the use of blue and white ceramic here, although the work looks Western rather than Eastern. The form of the nozzles also has many parallels in other contemporary candlesticks. Although there is a slightly continental feel to these pieces, the aesthetic movement was very much a British fashion so English manufacture is the most likely with a circa date in the late nineteenth century before the style lost its popularity in 1900.

The Harrach glassworks is named after Alois Raimund von Harrach (Count Harrach), on whose estate it was founded in Bohemia, in the early eighteenth century. Managed at first by one Elias Muller, the firm traded under a variety of names becoming known as Harrach in the nineteenth century and Harrachov, the name eventually given to the town where the factory was situated, in the twentieth. These opulent vases were a popular part of its range in the nineteenth century, the pattern being produced in a variety of similar shapes and always as shelf ornament pieces. The decoration here is particularly lavish with an attractive use of colour and has survived in excellent condition making these a desirable addition for collectors of Bohemian glass or admirers of nineteenth century glass style generally.

Will H. Bradley (1868-1962) was an American artist and illustrator whose work enjoyed enormous popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, indeed he became America’s highest paid artist. Some of his most elaborate and original poster and advertisement designs were produced in the last years of the nineteenth century and he was an apt choice for Albert Overman’s then thriving business. His style was quintessentially Art Nouveau and is often compared to that of the English artist, Aubrey Beardsley, indeed he was sometimes dubbed as the ‘American Beardsley'. This poster design for Overman has been much copied and reproduced over the years with original examples residing in museum collections. The dating of this particular printing is not wholly certain; the reproduction is certainly way superior to that of more modern versions and the accompanying frame also indicates some age, perhaps to the 1960s or through to the 1980s. We have, then, both an elegant decorative item and an excellent addition to a collection important poster art.