Fire breathers
Dragons, snakes, monsters, serpents... have a good look under your bed before you go to sleep tonight! Antique British porcelain is full of these fascinating creatures. This week I am sharing another column I wrote for Homes & Antiques, and it's all about these wonderful fire breathers.
The British ones were copies and imitations of East Asian originals, but soon started to live their own lives. While dragons and similar creatures have a very different meaning in East Asia, here in Britain they became wonderfully distorted and sometimes very strange - some faithfully copied, some completely changed, some without any sense of what they were meant to be. The result is a jumble of different styles and creatures, and I never tire of looking at them.
You can read the full story in my article, which you can find here... and if you want to read all my columns hot off the press, see below for a discounted subscription link to Homes & Antiques.
To read the column in Homes & Antiques
For a discounted subscription, head to Homes & Antiques, it is a wonderful magazine and you will be able to catch my monthly column about British porcelain. You can get a discounted subscription and order a free copy here. The free issue contains an interview with myself and several other collectors. The magazine is delivered all over the world but you can also get a digital subscription.
The Murray Pollinger Collection of Samuel Alcock
In the meantime, this wonderful collection is still available. Many pieces have been snapped up in the last three weeks, but there are still plenty to choose from... and even just going through the catalogue is a joy! I have now started to release small batches of the items into my normal shop stock (see below for the latest ones), but if you'd like to get access to the whole collection, please make sure you are a subscriber so you receive an email with links to the catalogue, more information about Murray and his wonderful collection, and the shop page with the items for sale.
Where to find things
You can find all my available stock here. If you always want to see the latest additions, follow me on Instagram... I post pictures and a story several times a week.
Happy weekend, and watch out for dragons! 🐲🐲🐲
A spectacular dessert service by Chamberlains Worcester in the "Kylin" pattern, also called "Dragons in Compartments", ca 1795
This week's new treasures:
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