Crockery is an excellent way to showcase your design style through practical additions to your home. Everyone needs plates and cups, but why buy generic brands from a box store when you purchase pieces with a history and design all their own? Purchasing antique crockery for decorating your table and home can be a fun and challenging experience.
There are so many time periods from which to choose, each with their own distinctive style. To help in your antique crockery choice, two vastly different styles are highlighted below: Red Wing pottery and Wedgwood china.
Compared with lavishly decorated Continental wares, early English porcelain may seem relatively unsophisticated - but to many collectors this simplicity is fundamental to its appeal.
English makers tended to be much slower than their Continental counterparts in discovering how to make porcelain. One of the first English porcelain factories - Chelsea - was established by a French silversmith, Nicholas Sprimont in 1745, nearly half a century after porcelain had first been made in Germany and France. Wares made by Chelsea were mainly intended for the luxury end of the market and are among the most sought-after of all English porcelain. During this eighteenth century the practice of factories selling their ware, white and glazed, to men with decorating establishments of their own was very common. These workers were known as 'outside decorators', because their workshops were unconnected with a particular factory. Chelsea was one of the most famous places for this kind of activity.
Maybe you have not bought or seen an antique Royal Worcester item before, but you have probably heard the name at some point. The legendary antique manufacturer has been making beautifully products for a long time now and its popularity shows little sign of waning. Antique Royal Worcester pieces become more desirable as the years go by due to their impeccable craftsmanship and the story they have to tell. With that in mind here is a brief introduction to this iconic firm:
Antique Royal Worcester pieces come mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. The company specialises in the production of porcelain ornaments. Before the 18th century porcelain production was confined to the Far East, although the material was widely traded in Europe and potters in Britain were obsessed with trying to work out how it was made.
