For those that missed it, on yesterday’s British Antiques Roadshow (Sunday 21 Feb) were two wonderful arts and crafts necklaces. One identified as John Paul Cooper (I think maybe Henry Wilson) and one by HG Murphy (interestingly with very Nossiter like leaves). Click on link to view the full TV clip.

A new photo from the archives of Harry Peach, of Leicester School of Art and Dryad, provides further evidence linking a special tea caddy in the Collection (now sold) to the Leicester School of Art. More information can be found at this link.

I have just released my February newsletter covering my latest research and new items for sale. It can be seen at this link if you wish to subscribe please click here.

I am delighted to have assisted Liverpool Museums with their acquisition of the Collection’s Lily Day watercolour. More details at this link . Thanks to the Decorative Arts Society for their help in enabling this purchase.

I have a fondness for 1940’s and 1950’s British silver. In many ways the history of silver in this period was a replay of the 1890-1900’s art s and crafts movement. that so attracts me. Small design led workshops battled to succeed and in so doing produced wonderful innovative pieces that inspired later generations. I have just listed a tea and coffee set that epitomises these themes. and is a gloriously heavy well designed well made complete set. More details at this link.

Somewhat belatedly I have realised that the Bromsgrove Guild fish plaques that I acquired and sold last year were copies, or at least inspired by, Hokusai woodblock prints. Who would have thought, Japan influences the Bromsgrove Guild.

An interesting start to the day courtesy of an Instagram post by a leading Pugin expert. Staring at me from my ipad was a beautiful teapot design from Pugin’s Parliamemtary Archives, that was identical to the teapot in the Collection, previously attributed to John Hardman. The discovery of this design also means that a very similar teapot in the V&A’s collection can now be directly attributed to EW Pugin, Augustus Pugin’s son,, not Hardman. More details at this link.

Albert Edward Jones started his own workshop in 1902 and was a key member of the Birmingham arts and crafts revival. Very early on he combined his silver with pieces from the local Ruskin Pottery factory. In combination these pieces represent some of Jones’ most exciting and innovative work. Over the coming weeks I will be listing additional major pieces of Jones /Ruskin silver sourced from a private collection.

Continuing my occasional news updates on re-uniting pieces with families, I am delighted to say that my Jephcott milk and sugar have been re-united with their teapot. These are unique handmade pieces so pretty improbable. See this link to see the milk jug.

I have been alleviating some of the frustrations of lockdown by buying spoons, and have now listed them for sale on the website. I hope you like them.

I have just released my December newsletter covering my latest research and new items for sale. It can be seen at this link. if you wish to subscribe please click here.

Having been moved to write an article on silver (foundation stone) cermonial trowels some years ago, I now find myself in the grip of a fascination with ceremonial (opening) keys. I have just listed three Birmingham Guild keys from 1937-9 that are beautifully made and represent the pre war optimism and ambition of St Pancras, now Camden, council. The commissioning architect of the keys was Albert John Thomas, senior architectural assistant to Edwin Lutyens . Full details at this link.

I have just released my November newsletter covering my latest research and new items for sale. It can be seen at this link. if you wish to subscribe please click here.

I have just listed an exceptional symbolist Glasgow School silver tea caddy by James Herbert and Frances MacDonald McNair. Full details at this link

I have just listed a truly wonderful vase or massive cup by Gilbert Marks. See full detail at this link or see a video on the item here.

A fortuitous, and somewhat erroneous purchase, has led me to research Albert Henry Jephcott, a central, if obscure, figure in the Leicester arts and crafts movement and a key silversmith with Dryad. See link for more details.

My Zoom lecture “Arts and crafts silver: Shaping modernity” for the Silver Society is now online at my new YouTube channel! An exciting new addition to The Peartree Collection. This channel will host video content I plan to create going forward. Meantime the lecture in four parts can be seen by clicking on the blue text/link above.

I have added to the Collection a new Giacinto Melillo vase, itself a lovely piece. It also has a laurel design that is so close in workmanship and style to the Collection’s panther handled askos that it would seem to further strengthen the attribution of Melillo to that piece also. More details at A766 and A59

Further to my earlier post on Haselers follow-up range of pewter and metal pieces to the Tudric range, called Hazelware, two bowls have been found by the ebay dealer libertyvintage. Full details at this link .

I am delighted to invite you to a Zoom lecture that I will be giving on Tuesday 29th September at 7.00pm (UK time), hosted by the Silver Society. The title is “Arts and crafts silver: Shaping modernity”  Full details are attached by clicking on this invitation from the Silver Society. You can also obtain the lecture details by contacting me directly.

Topic: Silver Society Lecture
Time: Sep 29, 2020 07:00 PM London

I acquired a strange William Hair Haseler Catalogue that had images of Tudric pieces by Knox and Baker for sale but also introduced a new range of “Hazlewares”. I have finally researched this and the catalogue dates to c 1917/18. Hence it is after the Liberty/Tudric period but clearly Haseler continued to make and sell these pieces under their own name only. Additionally they tried to introduce their own more “modern” Hazlewares – a play on the Haseler name which is German for hazelnut (the Solkets mark often thought to be two acorns is in fact two hazelnuts and was designed by Oliver Baker and registered in 1899 by Haseler for their own artistic silver range).

These Hazlewares must have sold very badly as I have hardly seen any of the designs. some are rather boring but I have included below some of the more adventurous candlesticks, frames and clocks. Handwritten on the Hazleware interior divider of the catalogue it says “not yet able to deliver” so they may also have had post war production issues. Do contact me if you have any pieces marked “Hazleware”. I am now happy to sell this catalogue if you are interested. The catalogue is 64 pages, 3-48 is essentially “Tudric” pieces, 50-64 Hazleware.

Following my research into Ernest Charles Jefferies, the Antiques Trade Gazette has reported on the sale. See extracted article. I am delighted that the article has just prompted the buyer of one of the plaques to contact me to say his is signed Jefferies, so confirming the research.

I have done some fresh research into enamels recently sold at Fieldings Auctioneers. Click on this link to read about it.

Remarkably the large Artificers Guild silver and copper biscuit box I have for sale has just come to light in a BBC documentary on modern Britain. An identical box (conceivably this one) features in a c 1960 film clip of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s office in Downing Street. It can be seen on the table behind him in “other images” of my product write-up at this link.  This clip is from the BBC’s documentary “A history of modern Britain”, second episode. Thanks to Dave at www.hammerandhand.co.uk. for spotting this!

I thought that might get your attention – nothing to do with going on a long drive. I have ex poste, updated my paper on Knox’s “cloisonne opal” designs to include a discussion whether it would have been more appropriate to call his technique “champleve opal”. I feel either, or both, are equally fair to use. Additionally I have since found a Rene Lalique brooch using the same technique and dating to c 1900 giving the tantalising possibility that Knox was influenced by Lalique, or better still, the other way round (see Fig 8a of the revised paper). See this link to get to the new paper.