While updating photos for my website I came across something I hadn’t noticed before; many of the figures on my 17th century Arita pieces...

A few weeks ago, I was having our monthly coffee and schmooz with Don Olson, dealer in fine American antiques and folk art. These...

As both a collector and a dealer I have always been concerned with the condition, history, and provenance of a piece, whether buying for...

In the mid-17th century foreign access to Chinese porcelain was curtailed, and the Dutch shifted their sourcing of Asian porcelain to...

Browsing through the December 2023 issue of Architectural Digest I came across an article by Sam Cochran on page 58 titled “A Knights...

In last month’s blog I wrote that while “clobbered” Chinese export porcelain was considered by many to be garish, it fit the interior...

In a previous blog I wrote about “clobbered” Chinese porcelain, using a densely over-painted cider jug as an example. Here in the first...

“Double Dutch” is a jump-rope game said to have originated with Dutch immigrants in New York City where a pair of jump ropes are turned...

The phrase to put “English on a ball” means to put a spin on it, and as a verb “English” can mean to Anglicize something. When it comes...

I’ve come to appreciate 19th century Japanese transferware, but I’m afraid I’m one of the few who has. Collectors of English transferware...

So goes the title of a 19th century song. A Chinese export porcelain example of silver threads among the gold is this armorial plate made...

This covered cider jug seems to have gotten (more than) a little help from somebody. It started life as a typical blue and white Nanking...

We typically we think of ceramics designs flowing from China and Japan to the West, but two of the pieces above are examples of a design...

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with John Albertini, a descendant of the 19th century Boston businessman Sam Caverly....

It's a new year and for me blogging is a new endeavor, so off we go. I just returned from the Washington Winter Antiques Show. There were...