International acquisitions, appointments and expansions are among the latest round up of auction house news. A new owner for Paris firm Pierre Bergé & Associés features in this ...

The earliest collectors of firearms were probably monarchs intent on amassing armouries to demonstrate their wealth and power. They also became patrons, employing expert craftsmen to create better and ...

When they first came into use in the 1830s, friction matches were hazardous and could combust without warning, so vesta cases were something of a necessity. But as their production became more ...

After 1840, F. & R. Pratt of Fenton in Staffordshire, became the leading (but not the only) manufacturer of multicoloured transfer printed pot lids and a huge range of related wares. Long admired for ...

Records date back to 1720 for a small glassworks off London's Fleet Street, but Britain's longest running glass house, best known as the Whitefriars factory, really came into its own when James Powell ...

British awards and decorations have many fascinating stories. There are two major categories: campaign medals and gallantry medals. Campaign medals are awarded to members of the British Armed Forces, ...

A new museum currently under construction just outside Paris has made two purchases at Hôtel Drouot this month. The planned Musée du Grand Siècle, devoted to the French golden age under the reigns of ...

Silver spoons for the dining table have been around since antiquity - a much longer history than the table fork, which did not come into general use until the 18 th century. By this time spoons had ...

"In their view, we Londoners know little about God, and nothing about pottery". Royal Doulton's rise from London makers of domestic stonewares to an internationally-recognised Staffordshire Potteries ...

Home of the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire opens to the public for one-day event this summer. The one-time home of the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire will open to the public ...

Tributes paid to Asian art dealer Michael Goedhuis. Condolences and memories of the well-respected Asian art dealer Michael Goedhuis were published on Instagram this week followin ...

They did this to avoid the perils of travel and (after 1784) to escape paying duty in a region where a heathy distain for the Hanoverians persisted well into the 19 th century. Currently some 30 ...