I’ve just spotted this Pilkingtons Royal Lancastrian lustre lidded bowl on eBay. It is an extremely finely-decorated piece by Gladwys Rodgers, one of the most collectable of the Royal Lancastrian artists.
Royal Lancastrian lustre wares are quite often worn or may have cracks, hairlines or crazing. Their thin bodies and the glazes that were used make this inevitable. However, this piece appears to be in excellent overall condition and is illustrated with no fewer than 12 photographs!
It’s a truly stunning and rare example of early 20th century art pottery.
Some of my favourite pieces of Troika pottery are the early and unusual smooth glazed sculptural wares in white. Simple in design and decoration yet strangely appealing. At the time only the smaller pieces from this range proved popular with collectors, along with the ever popular textured range. The larger pieces didn’t sell well possibly because of their high price tags.
Due to the unpopularity of the larger pieces fewer were made making them relatively scarce today. However I noticed a couple of these large pieces have appeared on eBay recently including this unusual double candleholder, and this large white glazed fruit bowl. Quite striking centre pieces on anyone’s dining table!
This piece of Moorcroft Pomegranate is a rather nice and attractive shape, with looped handles at the top of a fluted vase. Not only does it have this stunning pattern on the outside of the vase, but the inner rim has also been carefully decorated.
Moorcroft is a quality pottery still operating today. The original pieces such as this one, offer a glimpse into the past at the remarkable skills and imagination of the designers and modellers. Very rarely nowadays do we equal such imagination I think.
Once again this eBay seller has included plenty of photographs and also indicates that the vase does have crazing and some restoration. It’s always good to be sure about the condition of items on eBay not everybody’s idea of perfect is the same! If you’re unsure there’s no harm in emailing the seller to verify an item’s condition and ask for furtehr photographs, I’d always reccommend it.
I have just spotted a PenDelfin Cyril Squirrel on eBay. Cyril Squirrel was designed by Doreen Noel Roberts and only produced for around two years from c1963-1965.
I always advise people to be careful when buying off eBay. Be sure to ask the seller any questions before you bid and check out the photographs properly. It’s all to easy to be disappointed when you receive something that isn’t as good as you were expecting, and quite often it can be prevented beforehand.
So it’s nice to see this seller has included plenty of photographs of Cyril. They illustrate that he isn’t in perfect condition (far from it!) but it gives a clear indication of all the little bangs, nicks and paint flakes that he has so you can judge quite clearly how much to pay for him.
The earlier pieces of Troika are among my favourite, especially those in the dark oxide or bronze glazes. It’s a special area for Troika collectors some staying well clear of these darker more unusual pieces and some collecting them with a passion.
The Troika D-plate, such as this one, offers an interesting alternative to standard round chargers and are almost always decorated with the bronze and dark glazes. This version has the standard printed Troika St Ives pottery mark. Occasionally they can be found with the moudled Troika St Ives mark along with the moulded Trident mark which is always nice. Nevertheless it is a nice example with some fantastic coloured glazes in the centre. At around 8″ square these D-plates always look good and offer a change from the many vases that often dominate collections!
Following on from my recent post about eBay Australia forcing its users to use PayPal, it seems that eBay’s users aren’t the only people who are unhappy about this decision.
eBay Australia is being investigated by the Australian Competition Commission to see if it is abusing its near-monopoly position in the online auction market to gain an unfair advantage in the online payments market (eBay owns PayPal).
If eBay get away with this in Australia, it seems highly likely they will extend the policy worldwide - we wait with baited breath…
More details here.
Some of the Snowman figurines and Snowman China made by Royal Doulton are highly collectable. I’ve just spotted the very rare Salt & Pepper shakers on eBay - one has the Lady Snowman on and the other has the gentleman Snowman. Quite simple in design but beautifully decorated this set can fetch considerable amounts.
The Snowman figurine collection by Royal Doulton was started in the mid 1980s with James, item DS1. He was designed by Doulton designer Harry Sales, modelled by David Lyttleton and in production from c1985 to c1993. He was accompanied by his friend The Snowman, model DS2, who then was transformed into a variety of characters including the Highland Snowman DS7, the Drummer Snowman DS15 and the Snowman Skiing DS21!
While many collectors like to have the full set of the Snowman figurines, especially the first version ones, some are often keen to include some of the china pieces such as the Salt & Pepper shakers.
I feel it’s always best to collect what you love rather than what you feel you should, it always makes collecting much more fun. So whatever your collecting choice, be it the Snowman figurines, the Snowman china or both(!) the decoration of all may be simple but the quality is just what you’d expect from Doulton.
eBay Australia will be banning all payment methods other than PayPal and cash on delivery from June 17th, it has emerged.
The changes are supposedly aimed at preventing fraudulent and problem transactions but have widely been seen as a way of generating more income for eBay, who own PayPal.
PayPal fees can add several percent to an auction price and are also charged on the cost of postage - netting eBay a nice extra source of revenue.
We’ll have to hope that similar changes aren’t rolled out in the UK, as both sellers and buyers are likely to be put off by the extra costs and the lack of choice to use a cheque, for example.
I know that cheque payment is still popular with our customers and we would not dream of removing this choice voluntarily. Even if such a ban were to come into force on eBay, we would certainly continue to accept cheques and postal orders for website sales.
You can read more about the changes here.
Just a quick note as I have spotted a great item on eBay. You don’t often come across these, it’s a PenDelfin Pixie House Plaque.
The Pixie House plaque was designed by PenDelfin founder Jean Walmsley Heap and only produced in the 1950s (c1953 to 1958). It’s around 8″ in size and shows a Pixie outside a house (funnily enough, hence its name!).
I do know that some PenDelfin collectors prefer to stick with just the animals (rabbits, dogs, squirrels, ducks!) and choose not to collect the more unusual in design items such as this and the other PenDelfin ornamental ware. However, I’m not one of those! PenDelfin produced such a wide range of things in its early days, I love to see the more unusal items.
It’ll be interesting to see what this fetches as it does have damage, but is very nicely signed on the reverse with the name, the PenDelfin Ware logo and Jean Walmsley Heap’s designed by mark. Having just been listed and already at £260 and over 9 days to go, it’s obviously caught the attention of some collectors already.
Happy bidding if you decide to go for it!
I’ve just spotted this Cyril Squirrel on eBay. Cyril is one of my favourite PenDelfin’s, he was designed by Doreen Noel Roberts and is quite large in size standing around 7″ tall so stands out amongst the rabbits. With him only being produced for such a short time, around 2 years from 1963 to 1965 he’s quite sought after nowadays.
This example doesn’t seem in too bad condition although he does have some paint flakes. It’s nice to see him with his original label and no big chips to his nose! I’ve seen quite a few with nose chips, I think it might be due to him standing quite tall and occasionally being knocked forward hence his nose bangs down and chips!
It’s always good to check condition with PenDelfin, they must be one of the few figurines that really are exceptionally easy to damage. Slight rubbing can result in paint flakes and knocking can easily end in chips or larger areas of paint flaking. Dungaree father and Thin Neck mother are famous for having been beheaded at some point!
At the moment Cyril is only £26 (bargain!) although he does have 4 days to go. As with all auctions the action is usually towards to the end, I expect he’ll rise quite some more!