Something old
i Fountain
Portuguese
By the 17th century, rinsing hands had become an essential element of dining etiquette in wealthy European households. To this end, decorative fountains were increasingly installed in adjacent closets or even incorporated into elaborate, multi-tiered buffets.
This faïence (tin-glazed) polychrome fountain was made at Rato in Portugal, circa 1775. Raised on a waisted, marbled socle, this piece is in the form of a dolphin.
Always emblematic of water, the dolphin also symbolised Christ as the saviour of souls in Christian allegory and had been an attribute of Neptune and of Venus in classical mythology. £9,000.
ii Wall mask
Austrian
Ceramic wall masks appeared in western interiors well before the 20th century. Notable examples include the tragedy and comedy masks in some of Robert Adam’s 18th-century interiors. However, it wasn’t until the 1920s and 1930s that they become more universally fashionable. Personifying the spirit and style of the jazz age, art deco masks are now enjoying a significant revival. This black (male) and white with orange ringlets (female) double-mask was made in glazed earthenware by Goldscheider, in the early 1930s. As here, Goldscheider’s Viennese masks characteristically display sculptural and exotic qualities that make them particularly desirable. $1,000.
iii Ewer
German
The quality and provenance of this ewer are unimpeachable. It was made around 1741 for Augustus III, elector of Saxony, by the Meissen porcelain factory’s greatest modeller, Johann Joachim Kändler, and his assistant JF Eberlein.
Fashioned in rococo style, it is from a set emblematic of the elements – earth, wind, fire and, here, water – and its design echoes Kändler and Eberlein’s 2,200-piece “Swan Service”, generally considered to be one of the finest table services ever to be made.
Its aquatic motifs include bulrushes, waves, dolphins, a fleet of warships and Neptune in a shell-chariot drawn by four galloping hippocampi. £165,000.
iv Vase
Frederick H Rhead
This glazed earthenware vase is etched with a stylised arboreal landscape, rendered in shades of brown and green on a dark blue ground.
It was made around 1915 by Frederick Hurton Rhead (1880-1942) at his Santa Barbara pottery in California.
Born in the UK, Rhead had learnt his trade in Staffordshire, central England, before emigrating to the US in 1902. His work for the Weller, Roseville and Arequipa potteries is very desirable but his Santa Barbara pieces from 1913-1917 encapsulate a truly unique fusion of British and American taste that has acquired iconic status – and price tags to match. $516,000.
v Six-tile panel
William de Morgan
William De Morgan (1839-1917) was the most innovative and influential ceramicist of the 19th-century arts and crafts movement. He is best known for his rediscovery of metallic lustre glazes from Hispano-Moresque pottery and Italian maiolica and his inventive reworking of floral Iznik (Turkish) pottery designs – the latter often combined with distinctive grotesque, animal, fish or bird subjects.
In this characteristically coloured six-tile panel, an owl is perched above a crescent moon amid carnations and foliage on a blue ground.
Modern reproductions of de Morgan’s tiles are available but this is a hugely desirable original. £13,000.
Judith Miller is the author of annual antiques and collectables guides for Millers
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Something new
1 Pottery
Vincent Van Duysen
When Objects Work, based in Bruges, Belgium, is leading the way with modern tabletop design from some of Europe’s leading architects. The brainchild of Béatrice Delafontaine, the collection includes saucepans from John Pawson, cutlery from the late Maarten Van Severen and ceramics by Antwerp-based architect Vincent Van Duysen.
Pottery, launched in 2004, comprises earthenware containers with sandblasted oak lids. The slight roughness to the wood is part of their charm and the seven colours, as well as the variations to the height of both the dishes and the lids, offers almost endless combinations. From €98-€180.
2 Harp
Ichiro Iwasaki
Sfera, based in Kyoto, is a very outward-looking Japanese brand. It operates Ricordi, an Italian restaurant in its headquarters designed by Swedish architects Claesson Koivisto Rune, and presents its new ranges at Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan.
This teapot called Harp is by Tokyo-based industrial designer Ichiro Iwasaki.
It comes in white porcelain with either a natural or stained maple plywood handle. It was created specifically for both Japanese and “English” tea (as Sfera refers to it). Harp (available at B&B Italia in Milan) is part of a range of tableware called Contrast, which naturally includes a great espresso maker. €58.
3 Galo
José Vizoso
Sargadelos, based in Galicia in north-west Spain, first started producing porcelain in 1804. In 1963 the potteries were revived by a group of returning intellectuals, including the artist/writer Luís Seoane, exiled in Argentina since the end of the Spanish civil war.
The renaissance was part of an effort to restore the local culture that had been wiped out by Francisco Franco and this decorative figurine designed by José Vizoso, one of the designers brought in by Seoane in the late 1970s, is full of references to traditional Galician folklore.
The range also includes a charming porcelain chess set. €266.
4 Intreccio Svanito
Tomas Maier
Adding to its growing homeware range, Bottega Veneta has joined forces with Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (better known as KPM), one of Germany’s leading porcelain manufacturers, to produce its first tableware collection.
The pattern, entirely hand painted, is a representation of the house signature intreccio, or weave, and the effect is faded or washed out (svanito means vanished). Each item of the nine-piece setting is different and all come numbered by the painter. The set will be available from Bottega Veneta stores from October but it’s a good idea to order now as hand decoration takes time.
From €85-€350 per piece.
5 Oma
Harri Koskinen
Oma’s 20-piece set is made up of white and grey ceramic cleverly combined with pieces in clear and bilberry blue glass, spun aluminium and oak.
Koskinen was aiming for permanence in the design – all subtle clean shapes and elegant curves – and wanted to give the user the opportunity to tailor their own set, hence the appealing mix and match approach to colour and material, which gives ease and elegance at the same time. It is proving successful – Oma has already found its way on to the shelves of London’s Skandium store despite being launched last September only for the Finnish market.
Grey plate, €24, Blueberry plate, €8.
Nick Vinson is special projects director at Wallpaper* magazine
