The origins of the celebrated French jewellery Maison Van Cleef & Arpels begin with the marriage of Alfred Van Cleef to Esther Arpels in 1895.
The Van Cleefs, originally from Amsterdam, were diamond cutters by trade, whilst Esther’s father Salomon had established himself as a jewellery dealer after moving his family from Ghent in Belgium to Paris in the 1860s.
Prattware is the collective term given to a specific style of underglaze coloured earthenware, often relief decorated, produced in the UK from approximately 1780 to 1840.
The light earthenware body of a piece is decorated in a palette of oxide colours comprising, cobalt blue, yellow ochre, manganese, brown, and copper green, which are applied under a pearlware glaze. This palette had been previously used as the basis for polychrome delftware.
The home of Imperial porcelain manufacture from the Ming dynasty onwards, the Jingdezhen Kilns of Jiangxi province in Southern China are famed for producing the finest quality Chinese porcelain for both the domestic and export markets.
Although a comparatively remote location, Jingdezhen was ideally suited for the production of porcelain given the area’s abundance of high quality Petuntse deposits, forests to provide fuel for the kilns and the Changjiang river offering a convenient means of shipping.
Gadrooning, also called nulling, is the term given to a decorative motif which is comprised of a series of repeating vertical convex flutes or curves. The style became particularly popular as an applied decoration in 18th and 19th century silver, furniture, porcelain, and glassware.
The term treen is derived from the old English word trēowen, meaning “of the tree” or to put it in more simple terms, wooden. In the antiques trade it is the collective name used to describe handmade functional items which are made predominantly from wood.
From the earliest civilizations until the birth of the Industrial Revolution wood was the major raw material used in the production of most objects. This was due to its durability and versatility as a medium, as well as the prolific abundance of material available and its inexpensive cost.
Thank you so much for choosing the BADA Week colour for 2022. Could you tell us more about why you have chosen this particular colour?
I love olive green and find it is a colour that almost everything looks good with.
Piero Fornasetti was an Italian painter, artist and designer with an eclectic style. He was a very important figure in Italian industrial design culture, to such an extent that his name is internationally known. He was involved in a variety of disciplines, including painting, drawing, graphic and product design. In the course of his career he created over 13,000 works of art and was responsible for one of the largest outputs of objects and furniture of the 20th century.
One of the finest silversmiths of the Regency period, Paul Storr’s magnificent neo-classical designs were much admired by Royalty and the English aristocracy, adorning palaces, and stately homes throughout Europe. His creations remain much in demand with contemporary collectors and can be seen in the collections of Windsor Castle, the V&A Museum, Buckingham Palace, The New York Metropolitan Museum, and a host of other leading public and private collections worldwide.
We spoke to Kelli Ellis about her Instagram takeover, sustainability and upcoming trends in the antique trade.
Originally, the term teapoy was used to describe a small flat topped three-legged table and derives from the Hindi word tīn, meaning three, and the Persian word pāi, meaning foot. In the 17th century the term was usually spelt “tepoy” a name which bore no relation to the drink it at all and early examples are often mistaken for candle stands. However, the evolution of the term is intrinsically linked with the British passion for tea.
Established in 1814, Dent London quickly earned an unparalleled reputation for the accuracy of their clocks and marine chronometers, earning them the patronage of monarchs, and famed explorers, as well as some very famous public commissions.
Born in 1790, Edward John Dent was just three years old when his mother passed away and was apprenticed to his grandfather, a candle merchant, at the age of 14, finding lodgings with his cousin Richard Rippon.
Based in the beautiful city of Nancy in North-eastern France, Daum Frères is famed for producing some of the finest and most innovative art glass of the Art Nouveau period and remains one of the world’s leading master glass and crystal makers to this day.