On the site where the Tannery Yard condominiums stand today, the influential Wilkes Street Pottery operated from 1813-1877. The relationship between the Wilkes Street Pottery, famous for manufacturing Alexandria stoneware, and Hugh Smith & Company, a King Street retailer, was a driving force in Alexandria’s economy during the early half of the 19th century.
Other News
Artfact.com Online Auction of Paperweights
Collectors of rare hand-blown glass paperweights have discovered an invaluable resource in Artfact.com. Offering up-to-date auction price results and live online bidding at paperweight auctions around the globe, Artfact.com is one of the worlds leading resources for collectors of antiques, fine art, and collectibles such as paperweights.
Sotheby’s Russian Art Auctions Realise $30.4 Million
The top-selling lot of the November Sales of Russian Art in London was Alexander Yakovlev’s 1926 oil on canvas The Kuli-Kuta Dance, Niamey, which sold for the within-estimate sum of £937,250.
Post War Dolls
Doll manufacturers were constantly experimenting with materials in an attempt to replace bisque china which so easily was broken. Various substances were tried including wood, celluloid, fabric, metal and a mixture of glue, sawdust and rags called composition. Pictured: Hard Plastic BND doll When plastic was invented it seemed that the […]
Harry Potter Dolls Are Magic
Evenings are longer now, and traditionally this is the time of year when witches shake the dust from their broomsticks to take off into the skies, black cats polish their whiskers and wizards settle down with their spell books and a goblet of something tasty made from newts. Harry Potter […]
Collecting Bonzo
Bonzo is probably the most popular character collected from the 1920’s right through to present day. A strange looking creature with a pudgy face and bright blue eyes he has appeared on everything from postcards through to toffee tins. I felt the urge to find out what made this little […]
Collecting Antique Typewriters
Antique Typewriters Collecting antique typewriters has really come of age in the last twenty years, as the appreciation of antique machines has grown in our technological times of smooth cases and blinking lights. There were a few typewriter collectors fifty years ago but they could have been counted on […]
The Life and Cats of Louis Wain
Louis Wain Cats Louis William Wain was born on August 5, 1860 in Clerkenwell in London. His father was a textile trader and embroiderer, his mother was French. He was the first of six children, and the only male child. None of his five sisters ever married. At the age […]
Black Beauties – Black Dolls
Black dolls are special, they enhance and enrich any collection of dolls. They provide a focal point, and the eye is always drawn to the black beauties amongst a group of insipid ‘white-skinned’ dolls Pictured right: Lee Middleton First Generation Doll Whether pale chocolate, dark ebony or coffee coloured, […]
Whitefriars Glassworks
Whitefriars Glassworks, an institution in British glass making survived over 300 years before the last of the burning furnaces was put out in 1980. Although this glass is no longer in production pieces by designers such as Geoffrey Baxter have become one of the most sought after collectables in Studio […]
