WriteAntiques has moved

Dear Reader

Rightly or wrongly, following the advice of those who claim to know better, I have jumped ship and relocated the blog to its own domain.

Please click the link or paste the new address into you browser. You'll find WriteAntiques in its new home at www.writeantiques.com.

See you there.
Sincerely
Christopher Proudlove

Leonardo notebooks go online and available for download

A newly-released website, www.davincinotebooks.com makes available the entire content of Leonardo da Vinci's 14th century notes. Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between the sciences and the arts, and as impressive and innovative as Leonardo's artistic work are his studies in science and engineering, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and science. The downloadable text is available in pdf format and has been reformatted for ease of download from the original to just over 1,100 pages. And to think Bill Gates paid $16 million for his copy.

Britons flock to online auction sales

Fourteen per cent of adult Britons who use the internet made their most recent online purchase from an auction site according to a survey by Apacs, the UK payments association. I bet I know which auction site ... which is why I'm not surprised when fees for buyers and sellers keep rising. Problem is, there seems to be no serious alternative.

eBay robots - the latest weapons in scammer wars

eBay scam latest: I learned something new today - eBay power sellers use bots (web robots) to post hundreds of sales offering "Buy it Now" stuff such as e-books, digital photos and Windows wallpaper for a penny (or a cent). It's all delivered digitally, but automating the process is the only way the sellers can make any money.

When a buyer clicks to buy and pays up, the bot is programmed to automatically email the product and at the same time, a standard generic positive feedback notice which is recorded on the buyer's profile.

Impressed at the quality and speed of the service, the buyer responds with positive feedback for the vendor and everyone is happy. And so are the scammers.

Now the crooks have got wise to the system. They use similar bots to create a large number of fake buyers' accounts and to locate and purchase the digitally delivered cheapo stuff, thus building up convincing amounts of positive feedback.

The rest is obvious. They then set up bogus sales for valuable kit that doesn't exist, rake in the proceeds and vanish.

Time was when it was enough to simply check that a seller had a good level of positive feedback to feel comfortable about buying from him. Now it's becoming increasingly important to check out exactly what goods the feedback relates to. If you find lots of 1p purchases listed - steer clear.

Pop diva Cher to mount Sotheby's sale of cast-offs

The highest bidder gets to sleep in Cher’s bed – though the Academy Award-winning actress, singer songwriter and half of the pop duo Sonny & Cher – will have taken the money and ran. She’s signed up with Sotheby’s to sell the contents of her Malibu home in California.

Around 700 lots of furniture, works of art, jewellery, original costumes and a four-wheel drive Hummer are expected to raise around $1 million (£540,000). There’ll be viewing in London and New York for some of the highlights before the Beverly Hills sale on October 3.

Christie's sale of the centuries - great houses give up their secrets

Important antiques and works of art from four great private houses are expected to raise more than £1 million in a two-day auction later this month.

International fine art auctioneers Christie's will sell more than 800 lots in a marquee at Gyrn Castle, Llanasa, North Wales, the country house home of prominent 19th century Liverpool ship owner Sir Edward Bates.

Click here to see a slideshow of the four properties and some of the objects up for sale

The sale, on July 17 and 18, follows the recent death of his descendant Sir Geoffrey Bates, the fifth baronet. The house and its 367-acre estate are alson on the market, either as a whole or up to 10 lots. Estate agents Strutt & Parker have issued a £3.5 million guide price.

Gyrn has the lion's share of the sale with around 450 lots, but property from two other historic Welsh houses will also be sold: Nantlys Hall, a Victorian mansion at Tremeirchion, which is also on the market, and Mostyn Hall, which overlooks the Dee above Mostyn village, Flintshire.

Other objects in the sale are from the attics of Capesthorne Hall, the South Cheshire home of the Bromley-Davenport family who in October last year sold Greek vases and antiquities in a £1.5 million sale at Christie's in London.

Most controversially, the sale will see the dispersal of The Gyrn Apostles, an unusual and rare group of late 15th or early 16th century carved wooden figures, each of which stands about two feet high.

Christ and seven of the figures, either Welsh or English, have been at Gyrn since at least 1831 and were in place when the property was acquired by Sir Edward in 1856. They are estimated at £15,000-25,000.

Four further Netherlandish examples, depicting respectively Matthew, Peter, James and Bartholomew, will be sold individually with estimates ranging from £2,000-6,000, potentially upsetting those who believe the group should be kept together.

The Gyrn collection reflects the opulence enjoyed by the successful Victorian ship-owner, politician and successive generations of the wealthy family. It includes both early oak and good Georgian mahogany; porcelain; fine oil paintings; silver; sporting trophies and collectors' items. They will be sold throughout the first of the two-day sale.

Nantlys was built in the early 1870s for a branch of the great Welsh antiquarian family of Pennant. About 75 lots include, notably a strong group of family silver such as a Victorian soup tureen by John Samuel Hunt, which is estimated at £3,000-5,000, as is an imposing 18th-century English School portrait of Peter Pennant (c1664-1736) who was the High Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1674, Flintshire in 1675 and Caernarvonshire in 1676.

Nantlys furniture includes a set of 14 George III mahogany dining chairs estimated at £15,000-20,000, while a fine mid-Victorian gilt wood table topped with specimen marble is estimated at £15,000-25,000.

Among around 100 lots in the sale are from the attic rooms at Mostyn Hall. A late 17th century Dutch old master oil painting of a frozen river landscape is estimated at £3,000-4,000 and an early George III mahogany writing table is estimated at £5,000-8,000.

A rhinoceros trophy estimated at £500-1,000 is among the more unusual items in the sale.

Among the treasures from Capesthorne Hall are paintings collected in the 18th century by members of the Bromley-Davenport family making the Grand Tour; Regency furniture and arms and armour including an early 17th century English Pikeman's armour, circa 1640 estimated at £3,000-3,500.

The sale will be on view at Gyrn Castle next Friday and Saturday, July 14 and 15, from 10am to 6pm, and on Sunday 16 July from 10am to 4pm. A catalogue of the contents, priced £16 at the door, £20 by post, admits two to the view and subsequent sale

eBay Motors set to go head to head with newspapers over classified ads

The leeching of advertising spend away from newspapers and magazines to the Internet looks set to move up a gear with a plan by eBay to invite traders to post classified ads on eBay Motors. For £150 a month, garages and dealers will be able to list up to 100 cars on the site - a fraction of the cost of traditional printed ads. Handy - if you can afford the petrol. Pip pip.

Poor eBay: does anyone know who's in charge?

Pity poor eBay - it's grown so huge, no one seems to be in control. Like a giant megalithic blob, it flops one way then another, leaving customers bewidered. Word on the wires is that within days of deciding it would longer accept payment from Nochex - a move that caused thousands of power sellers to scramble to re-write their listings or face a lifetime ban - the eBay suits changed their minds. Nochex is back in favour and the panic is over. I wonder how long it will be before eBay backs down and starts to accept rival Google's checkout syste, Time will tell.
Pip pip.

Christie's play leapfrog with Internet first

International auctioneers Christie’s crept up quietly and stole a march on their rivals today by announcing the introduction of live Internet-based bidding for some of their sales.
Nothing new there, you might say, but Christie’s have chosen to protect their brand and have developed their own version of the technology instead of falling in with such providers as eBay Live, Live Auctioneers and others.
The big news, however, is that Christie’s version includes both sound and video from the saleroom – features that leapfrog over their competitors and potentially provide a far more compelling programme. A demo version can be seen here.

Titanic memorabilia prices show no signs of sinking

Prices for Titanic memorabilia continue to spiral. In a Christie's sale in New York yesterday (Thursday June 1) a painted bronze flag with the insignia of the White Star line - owners of the liner - sold together with a Titanic name board from one of the lifeboats that carried passengers to safety after April 14, 1912 sinking sold for £38,600 ($72 000). They had been estimated at £27,000-38,000 ($50 000-70 000). A "Liverpool" port sign and another bronze Titanic name board, sold together for £32,000 ($60,000).

Mystery antique: can you identify it and offer a valuation?

What do you do when you find an antique and need to get it identified? There used to be three choices: take it to a museum, a dealer, or an auction house and ask each in turn for an opinion.

The third choice is probably the best course of action because the first might be able to identify it but would be unable (or unwilling) to give you a value, while the second might be able to identify it but could give you a misleading price in the hope that you'll sell it cheap.

Now there's a new choice: ask online, which is what I'm doing here, because I genuinely have no idea who made this hand-painted pottery vase, or what it's worth. I bought it at a car boot sale for very little.

Clearly, it's a quality piece with some age - I'd say mid-Victorian. It's seen better days, though: one handle has been broken (not too expensive to have restored) and the gilding is badly worn. However, the flowers are beautifully painted and the foot is particularly interesting because it is decorated with a fish-scale pattern in deep pink. It measures 26 cms in height and I like it very much.

I just wish I knew which factory made it, who decorated it and what it's worth. All suggestions gratefully appreciated.

Click here for a slideshow of further images

What do you want to read about? I like a challenge

Got an idea for a collecting column? Is there some topic you'd like to read about? No promises and no strings but do let me know. I like a challenge!
Email me: columns 'at' chris-proudlove.co.uk.

The man who brought marble sculpture down to size

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by Christopher Proudlove©
Remember the pantograph from your childhood? I recall using one to copy maps from atlas to geography exercise book at school.

One arm acts as a small pointer while the other holds a drawing implement such as a pencil. By moving the pointer over a diagram, a copy of it was drawn on another piece of paper.

By changing the positions of the arms in the linkage between the pointer and pencil, the scale of the image produced can be reduced or enlarged.

Since its principals are based upon Euclidean geometry, it is possible that that the pantograph has been around for thousands of years.

Artists soon adopted its use to duplicate drawings and it is believed that Leonardo da Vinci used one to duplicate his drawings on to canvas.

Sculptors and carvers also adapted the pantograph to trace the outlines of drawings on to blocks of marble or wood as guides for carving.

Towards the end of the 18th century, pantographs were used to cut wooden letter blocks for use in typeset printed material and later still, pantographs were invaluable in the engraving of gold and silver objects, especially those not flat.

Sculptors subsequently developed the pantograph to duplicate low-relief carvings and by the 19th century, the so-called swing-arm pantograph was capable of duplicating complex pieces much faster and more accurately than by hand.

Michelangelo's "David" was one of the most popular statues copied by this method as the Victorian era experienced an explosion of interest in reproductions of statuary from antiquity.

Portrait busts of famous figures in literature, politics and music of the day also became popular and the duplicating pantograph made actual marble busts affordable.

Enter one Benjamin Cheverton (1796-1876) artist craftsman, technician and entrepreneur who invented the Cheverton Reducing machine in 1836.

The great inventor and steam pioneer James Watt (1736-1819) had developed a machine to produce scaled-down copies of original works and Cheverton perfected the machine for commercial use.

Cheverton was himself a sculptor but also an engineer. His machine, not unlike an old treadle dentist's drill, used parallel arms, one terminating in a probe and the other in a rotating cutting bit.

As the probe was moved over the full sized version of the sculpture, gearing caused its shape to be duplicated by the cutting arm.

Thus, a soft material such as ivory, plaster or alabaster anchored beneath the cutting bit would be carved with the precisely the same details but on a smaller scale.

Where multiple copies of the sculpture were required, the plaster model could then be used to produce a mould.

The success of the Cheverton Reducing Machine was the key to leading artists of the day accepting the idea of their work being copied and duplicated as many times as their was demand for it.

Patented in 1844, the machine was the toast of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cheverton displayed its capabilities by making a reduced copy in alabaster of Theseus from the Elgin collection in the British Museum, for which he was awarded a coveted exhibition gold medal.

At about the same time - the history books plump for 1845, although the exact date is uncertain - a new highly vitrified, translucent, creamy-white ceramic body appeared on the scene which the Minton ceramic company christened Parian.

This had excellent moulding qualities which enabled modellers to capture the finest of detail.

When fired, the unglazed biscuit porcelain produced a finished article closely resembling marble ... hence its name, after the marble from the mines on the Greek island of Paros.

Originally called Statuary Porcelain, the combination of Cheverton's Reducing Machine and Parian brought classical sculpture within the reach of the masses. Soon just about every pottery company in the country was producing Parian ware.

However, Minton, together with Copeland and Garret, also of Stoke, were among the most productive and possibly proficient.

Christmas present for Queen Victoria

Both had displays at the Great Exhibition and when Queen Victoria visited the former's stand, she purchased various Parian figures.

Also displayed was a parian figure of the Prince of Wales, a copy of an original by the sculptor Winterhalter. This was purchased by the Prince Consort as a Christmas present for Queen Victoria.

Many new models came into production, mainly through Herbert Minton's association with Sir Henry Cole, who ran Summerly's Art Manufacturers.

This was a marketing organisation founded in 1847 to encourage well known artists to design everyday goods for industrial production.

John Bell, Richard Redgrave and Richard Westmacott were among the designers who spent time at Minton supervising their work being made up in Parian.

The result today is an extensive array of statues and busts of characters from classical mythology, sport, politics, the arts, religion, royalty, business and industry, none of which could have been possible without Cheverton's Reducing Machine.

Wisely, Cheverton appears to have resisted the temptation to sell his rights to it, choosing instead to control its output personally.

After his death in 1876, various other similar machines appeared, notably the Profilometre made by Frederic Sauvage.

However, being first, it is Cheverton who is regarded most highly by today's collectors.

When biggest isn't always best

Sometimes biggest isn't always best. In 1992, a life-size Scottish marble bust of an unknown female sitter sold in a London auction for £825. In their last sale, Chester fine art auctioneers Byrne's sold a five-inch version of the same bust - by now identified as Lady Sophia Frances Rutherfurd - for a staggering £14,950.
The price is believed to be an auction record for a bust by Benjamin Cheverton whose Reducing Machine enabled miniature copies of a sculpture to be produced as an exact copy down to every tiny facial feature and fold of clothing.
The miniature ivory bust was sent for sale by a couple who had owned it for many years, aware that it was made by Cheverton (it was inscribed with the fact on the base) but unaware of who he was or the identity of the sitter.
Byrne's were able to shed light on both issues: Adrian Byrne studied Cheverton's work at university and wrote his dissertation on the inventor and innovator, while research by partner Jo Boucher revealed the sitter to be the daughter of Sir James Stewart of County Donegal, Ireland and wife of Scotland's Lord Advocate Andrew Rutherfurd.
Given her husband's prominent position, Lady Rutherfurd was a noted Edinburgh hostess and the family's close friends included Lord Jeffrey, Lord Cockburn, and the architect William Playfair.
The full-sized bust was the work of Sir John Steell (1804-1891) who was appointed Queen Victoria's Sculptor in Scotland, and created many of the public statues in Edinburgh. They include the equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington outside Register House and that of Sir Walter Scott at the centre of the Scott Monument
On Lady Rutherfurd's death in October 1852, Steell was commissioned by her husband to sculpt her portrait bust in marble and Steell made a death mask to assist in the process.
Steell had recently completed portrait busts of Lord Cockburn (1851) and Lord Jeffrey (1852) and during 1853, Steell also executed a bronze bas-relief panel featuring both Lord and Lady Rutherfurd in profile for their red granite funerary pyramid designed by William Playfair in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh.
Steell's depiction of Lady Rutherfurd as a Roman matron was probably in view of her husband's erudition and love of the antique. Lord Rutherfurd's first design for his wife's tomb was for a marble copy of an antique funerary urn on an altar.

Pictures show, top:
Benjamin Cheverton's finely carved ivory miniature bust of Lady Rutherfurd after an original sculpture by John Steell. The ivory bust measures around four inches and is mounted on a five-inch black marble column, inscribed 'J Steell, Fec.t/Cheverton Sc.'. It sold last week for £14,950. The full-size model for it fetched £825 in a London sale in 1992. (Photo: Byrne's, Chester)

Above, left:
The Scottish marble bust of Lady Rutherfurd, sold in a London auction for £825 in 1992. (Photo: Christie's Images)

Right:
A contemporary marble bust of Benjamin Cheverton, inventor of the Reducing Machine. (Photo:Science Museum, London)

Below, left:
A Copeland Parian figure of Clytie, in Greek mythology the mistress of the sun god Helios. Her jealousy of her sister Leucothea, who shared his affection, led Clytie to plot her sister's death. Losing Helios' love as a result, she died of despair and her body gradually took root and she metamorphosed into a plant, the heliotrope which always turns its head to the sun. The Victorians loved the myth and Clytie was in popular countless middle class drawing rooms. She's worth £400-600

Right: Benjamin Cheverton's reducing machine ... think of a 3D pantograph

Wartime memories cast in bronze - moving and amusing

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by Christopher Proudlove©

Sunday, July 10 has been designated as the day for celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and as the country prepares to mark the occasion, it occurred to me how attention will be focussed on war memorials across the land.

One of the most dramatic is that at Hoylake, Wirral, about which historian and author Norman Ellison writes: "From the northern end of Grange Hill rises the tapering obelisk of the war memorial - a noble monument to the dead of two world wars.

"The bronze figures by Charles Jagger are typical of that famous sculptor's rugged style. Around the high base are inscribed Kipling's stirring words: 'Who stands if freedom fall? Who dies if England live?'"

The memorial consists of a granite obelisk against which stand life-size bronzes of a female figure representing Humanity and a figure of a soldier holding his gun horizontally in front of him.

When Jagger exhibited a model of the latter at the Royal Academy, it was entitled Soldier on Defence.

With the production of a later bronze edition, the title Wipers -military slang for the Belgium town of Ypres - was added.

The memorial was a turning point in Jagger's career. Following its completion in 1922, the sculptor was never short of work.

The combination of stark melancholy bronze figures set against strong architectural forms became the central concern of his greatest monument, the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.

It's worth a trip to the capital just to see the work, in all its moving grandeur, it is a true tour de force.

By his own admission, Jagger sought to show "the Tommy as I knew him in the trenches".

The compelling realism of his figures has always been highly emotive and is at the same time realist and heroic.

Inspiration for the Tommy in Wipers may have been come from a French war poster, On ne passe pas, published in 1918 by Maurice Neumont, but Jagger's figure is less aggressive and at the same time more noble and powerful.

The same bronze Tommy featured in 18-inch reductions like the example illustrated here. When a copy occasionally comes on to the auction market, demand is assured.

They were much admired when they were cast and the then Prince of Wales commissioned a copy for his own collection. This led in 1922 to a further commission for a portrait statuette of The Prince of Wales himself.

Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1943) was born in Kilnhurst, Yorkshire, the brother of artists David and Edith Jagger.

He studied at the Sheffield School of Art and the Royal College of Art from 1908 to 1911, after which he travelled to Venice and Rome.

He won a prize in Rome for his sculpture, but returned home in 1914 to enlist in the army.

He knew the horrors of the trenches from first hand experience. He joined the Artists' Rifles and in 1915 was commissioned in the Worcestershire Regiment.

He and served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front and was wounded three times, receiving the Military Cross for gallantry.

While convalescing, he began work on a bronze relief titled No Man's Land, now in the Tate, in which he gave full rein to his abhorrence of war.

Corpses lie stranded on barbed wire, while a solitary look-out hides behind them from the sniper's bullet.

Flurry of letters to The Times

Jagger's realism was too much for some. When the Royal Artillery monument was unveiled in 1925, the inclusion of the bronze of a dead Tommy provoked outcry and a flurry of letters in The Times.

In light-hearted contrast, Old Bill would be positively delighted that after 60 years, he has found the "better 'ole" he sought during the First World War ... in the hearts of collectors around the world.

The cartoon creation of soldier-artist Bruce Bairnsfather, Old Bill has left the mud of Flanders far behind and he's going places in the saleroom. Pottery plates featuring the character average about ££30-40 apiece, while a teapot on stand can fetch at much as £150-250.

The 4½-inch bronze car mascot illustrated here dates from the 1920s and is worth £200-300.

Bairnsfather was a commercial artist by training, but the young infantry officer became Britain's secret weapon, keeping his comrades' spirits high by drawing cartoons in charcoal on the backs of maps and on the walls of ruined farmhouses.

Word reached the War Office and Bairnsfather was signed up as an official war artist that took him to all the important battle fronts.

What made him a household name was a weekly series of his cartoons published by the magazine Bystander.

Crusty Old Bill was his most celebrated character. He was a seasoned veteran Tommy with a walrus moustache and a sarcastic wit.

Perhaps the best known cartoon depicts Bill and a comrade sheltering in a shell crater in mid-battle.

As the bullets whistle above their heads Bill says: "Well, if you know a better 'ole, go to it!" It was reproduced on a countless number of Old Bill products that kept people smiling for two world wars.

Giving extra bite to the propaganda exercise was an inscription found on the underside of some Bairnsfather ceramic ware which reads: "Made by the girls of Staffordshire during the winter of 1917 when the boys were in the trenches fighting for liberty and civilisation."

Main manufacturer of Old Bill pottery was Grimwades of Stoke-on-Trent and pieces are often, although not always, marked Winton or Atlas China.

An upmarket Old Bill ceramics manufacturer was the Royal Staffordshire Pottery of Wilkinson Ltd., while Carlton China, owned by Wiltshaw and Robinson, also of Stoke, produced porcelain figures of the character in a style similar to that of W.H. Goss.

One of these depicts a 5½inch version of Old Bill standing guard with the base captioned: "Yours to a cinder, Old Bill." In typical Carlton (and Goss) style, it also carries the arms of a city, in this case London.

Another inspired by Bairnsfather is a model of a dugout with a Tommy peeping out. The inscription reads: "Well-built dugout containing one reception-kitchen-bedroom and up-to-date funk hole ... This desirable residence stands one foot above water level, commanding an excellent view of the enemy trenches. Excellent shooting (snipe and duck) ... "

The model was also copied by Savoy and Birks, Rawlins and Company Ltd., of Stoke.

Another Bairnsfather favourite was an anonymous British Tommy who makes frequent appearances.

One cartoon shows him opening yet another tin of plum and apple jam and grumbling: "When the 'ell is it going to be strawberry?"

My favourite was a book of cartoons produced on the outbreak of war in 1939. One shows an aged Old Bill back on his home ground again in Flanders.

Says Old Bill to formidable French farm wife at her doorstep: "It's 20 years since I was 'ere, Missus. Sorry I got to dig a trench through yer yard again!"

Or Old Bill explaining to a young Tommy standing alongside: "Yus, son. We was 18 months just where you're standin! Then comes the Big Push, and we got to 'ere."

Pictures show, above, left: Wipers - the haltingly powerful bronze by Charles Sargeant Jagger, a larger version of which can be seen on Jagger's Hoylake and West Kirby war memorial. The smaller version stands 18 inches in height and has an auction value of £20,000-30,000

Right: Bruce Bairnsfather's crusty Old Bill. This 1920s bronze car mascot is worth £200-300 at auction

Below: Jagger's Hoylake and West Kirby war memorial

Collect paper ephemera, even if folding money is tight

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by Christopher Proudlove©

Imagine what life would be like without paper - no rubbish-strewn streets for one thing. From plans for buildings and ocean liners to folding money, paper has played a vital role in shaping almost every aspect of the world we know today. Interestingly, all of it makes for a fascinating collection - particularly if space - and folding money - are tight.

Peter Burford*, the Director of Administration & Communications at Apsley Paper Trail in Hemel Hempstead told me that paper was first invented in China around 105 AD, but the technology of papermaking did not reach Western Europe for another 900 years and it was a further 450 years before it reached England.

Although the word paper is derived from the thin sheets of papyrus reed used over 5,000 years ago in Egypt, true paper is made by soaking and softening vegetable fibres until they become individual filaments. Removing the water leaves single sheets of 'naturally' intertwined fibres.

Although archaeological evidence suggests that a form of fused silk and paper substance was in use in China around 100 BC, the first record of true papermaking is in a report to the Emperor Ho Ti about the work of a Chinese court official named Ts'ai Lun in 105 AD.

His brilliance earned him the title of patron of papermaking throughout China.

It was not until the 3rd century that the secret art of papermaking began to creep out of China, first to Vietnam and then Tibet.

It was introduced into Korea in the 4th century and spread to Japan by the 6th century where, during the 8th century, the Empress Shotoku undertook a massive project to print a million prayers on individual sheets of paper, each mounted in its own pagoda.

Thereafter, the art of papermaking spread slowly westward throughout Asia to Nepal and then to India.

In 751 the technology of papermaking began its long journey into Europe via the Islamic world when Arab warriors, at war with the Tang Dynasty, captured a Chinese caravan that included several papermakers.

With their expertise, Samarkand soon became a great centre for paper production.

Gradually papermakers made their way further west through the Moslem world to Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo.

Finally, when the Moors from North Africa invaded Spain and Portugal, they took the technology with them to Europe in the 11th century.

The first record of a paper mill in Europe is found in 1056, established by the Moors at Xativa in Spain.

After the Christian armies finally dispelled the Moors from Spain in 1224, papermaking began to spread slowly throughout Christian Europe, first to Italy by 1250.

The first North American paper mill was established in Philadelphia over more than years later, in 1690, that

Even when paper began to be made across Europe, its widespread use was hampered by politics.

Partly due to its perceived Moslem origin and partly because of the influence of the wealth landowners with financial interests in sheep and cattle, a Papal Decree of 1221 declared that all official documents produced on paper were invalid.

The preferred medium was parchment - smoothed and scraped animal skins but it was very expensive and available only in limited quantities. It has been estimated that a copy of the Bible, hand-written on parchment required the skins of 300 sheep.

When Johann Gutenburg perfected movable type and printed his famous Bible in 1456, he not only spread the word of Christianity, but also sparked the first revolution in mass communication.

The birth of the modern paper and printing industry is commonly marked from this date, although it was another 250 years before western ingenuity turned the promise into a reality.

The first recorded paper mill in the United Kingdom was Sele Mill near Hertford owned by John Tate. Founded around 1488, the mill was visited by King Richard VII some 10 years later and a report of the visit was printed by Wynken de Worde.

Sheets bearing John Tate's watermark have been found in books printed in 1494.

Other early mills included one at Dartford, owned by Sir John Speilman, who was granted special privileges for the collection of rags by Queen Elizabeth and one built in Buckinghamshire before the end of the 16th century.

During the first half of the 17th century, further mills were established near Edinburgh, at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, and several in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

In December 1724, Henri de Portal was awarded the contract for producing the Bank of England watermarked bank-note paper at Bere Mill in Hampshire and by 1800, there were 430 paper mills in England and Wales, although fewer than 50 were established in Scotland, producing paper by hand.

With the country at war with Napoleon's France, there was a shortage of labour for making paper and, in the new spirit of the age, mechanisation was the obvious answer to both the shortage and the increasing demand.

The solution came from France, where in 1799 Nicholas Louis Robert, an accountant at a paper mill in Essonnes had invented and patented, a hand-operated machine for making paper in lengths of up to 12 feet.

Exchange of prisoners

Unable to get finance to develop his invention, he sold the rights to his patent to his employer Leger Didot who in turn approached his brother-in-law, John Gamble, the latter being in Paris at the time organising the exchange of prisoners.

Gamble secured an English patent in October 1801 and persuaded Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier, partners in the City stationery firm of Bloxham and Fourdrinier, to back him in return for a one third interest in the patent rights.

The first Robert machine was installed at Frogmore Mill in Apsley, Hertfordshire, in 1803

In 1806 the Fourdriniers claimed that the cost of making a hundredweight of paper by machine was 3 shillings and 9 pence (19p) compared to 16 shillings (80p) by hand.

With nine workers operating it, their machine could produce in one 12 hour day the same amount of paper that it would take 41 workers by hand

By 1850 UK paper production is estimated to have reached 100,000 tons and the pattern for the mechanised production of paper had been set.

*The Paper Trail project is a unique activity-based industrial exploration centre built around an historic, fully working paper mill. It offers public access into the heart of a real working environment and is complemented by an active business and industrial enterprise hub. For further information, contact Peter Burford on 01442 234600.

• Of all new-found collectibles, paper ephemera is perhaps the cheapest, the most common and the most underrated. And you name it, someone somewhere collects it.
  

• Oddest things we've seen were illustrations from the lids of Cuban and Havana cigar boxes and the bands that go around the cigars being sold alongside a selection of tissue wrapping papers from various brands of pipe tobacco. Any one of them could be had for a couple of pounds.
  

• Some ephemera has been collected for years, even centuries: Christmas cards, stamps, currency, books, manuscripts, posters, maps, early photographs, matchboxes ... the list is a long one.
  

• But what about these little exploited areas for future collections such as orange wrappers and packing case labels; takeaway sugar packets; giveaways from children's comics; knitting and sewing patterns; protest badges; fanzines; calendars; bill and letterheads; business cards; polling station billboards ... another long list.
  

• Paper money, a long-established collecting area, remains a firm favourite. with devotees. Dealers InterCol who trade online at www.intercol.co.uk, has a China Ming Dynasty banknote dating from the 14th century dated between 1368 and 1399 and printed on the bark of the mulberry tree. It is priced at £950, while an uncirculated 10 bob note (that's 50 pence to younger readers) is priced at £4.
  

• Elsewhere, there are numerous notes from around the world in the 50 pence to £5 bracket that would appeal to younger collectors of more limited means.

Pictures show, top:
As we start the celebrations of the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, ask yourself where political cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) would have been without the paper to carry his salute to "Admiral Nelson recreating with his brave tars after the glorious Battle of the Nile"? The print is worth £4,000-6,000

Below, left to right:
There's money in banknotes. One of only six Portsmouth branch Bank of England £5 notes known to exist. This one sold last year for £21,150

A Chinese banknote. The first banknote in the world appeared during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and this example bears a inscription which threatens death to any forger. It has a value of 1,000 kwan

No paper - no children's comics, such as this one featuring Pip, Squeak and Wilfred in the Daily Mirror in 1922

Collectors of old enamel advertising signs strike oil

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by Christopher Proudlove©
The collecting world was abuzz this week as news filtered out about the sale of an Edwardian enamel advertising sign promoting "BP The British Petrol" which sold for a world auction record of £28,000.

No, not a printing error. With the auctioneer's 10 per cent buyer's premium and VAT, the 3ft 6in by 2ft 3in sign (pictured here) made a little over £25 ... per square inch!

Who said nostalgia isn't what it used to be? It has to be conceded though that the image of the 1920s racing car thundering over the finish line is both wonderfully patriotic and stunningly graphic. But what a price.

It was one of a collection of 10 early enamel and mirrored glass advertising signs taking up every inch of the walls in the hall and sitting room of a small two-bedroom bungalow.

They had been collected by a keen photographer and auction buff, who had retired to Herne Bay but had been determined to keep his collection with him.

The sign was bought by a Yorkshire collector who is clearly dedicated to his hobby. Speaking by telephone immediately after the sale, the buyer told me he already owns around 100 old enamel advertising signs but he confessed that the BP sign was easily the best he had seen and he just had to have it.

"The world of enamel signs is like football and this sign is in a league of its own. It's in near perfect condition and is a remarkable survivor when you consider it's gone through two world wars," he said.

"What was once thought of as scrap metal are now being seen as the works of art they really are. But they're painted on steel - not canvas - and you could hang it back outside and it would last a lifetime."

According to the weekly trade newspaper, the Antiques Trade Gazette which carried the story on its front page, the price appeared to be an auction record for what was described as a previously unrecorded image.

However, the record price for any advertising sign is currently $85,000, paid in 1990 for a Campbell's Soup painted sign made from tin by the Standard Advertising Company, Ohio, decorated with 52 red and white cans forming the stripes of a stylised American flag.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for either price to be beaten and whether more examples of the BP sign emerge following the publicity.

Enamel signs have become to be regarded as the jewel in the crown of British advertising in the late Victorian and Edwardian era, arresting public attention with their often outrageous entreaties to passers-by for over half a century.

Millions were produced between 1880 and 1950 but comparatively few survive today after they were made redundant by a combination of social change, the rise of magazine and later television advertising ... and the Advertising Trading Standards authority,

However, by the early 1960s, a handful of collectors began to recognise them as highly decorative works of art in their own right and soon survivors were being rescued.

It wasn't a moment too soon. Following the Second World War, when scrap metal had become a scarce commodity, tens of thousands of the signs had either been exported abroad, notably to China, or else melted down for recycling here at home.

Ironically, the nostalgic revival of interest in industrial and transport museums and steam railways, such as the one in Llangollen, also played a part and many old signs found their way back to their original locations, lending authentic atmosphere to station platforms and street settings.

The secret of the longevity of the Hovis and Virol signs we remember from our childhood is that they were made from vitreous enamel which is actually a thin layer of glass fused by heat on to the surface of the metal.

Interestingly, the technique has been around for centuries. In history, enamels were applied first on gold and then silver, copper, bronze and more latterly on iron and steel. The term is also used for the application of coloured glass applied to other glass objects.

The earliest known enamellers worked in Cyprus in the 13th century BC. Gold rings discovered in a Mycenaean tomb on the island were decorated with various vitreous coloured layers fused on to the gold.

Glittering lustrous finish

The art of enamelling was given a massive boost by the adoption of the cloisonné technique, in which strips of gold, silver, copper or brass form a network of small raised cells, or cloissons, to form the decoration of an object to which they are applied.

The various coloured enamels are then applied to the cloissons, often as a paste, and the whole is fired and polished to a glittering lustrous finish.

This contrasts with the champlevé technique, in which casting, chasing or engraving to the surface of a metal object is filled with enamels, fired and then polished flush. Saxon bowls found at Sutton Hoo are some of the finest early examples.

The Limoges area of France is famous for its champlevé enamels, while a technique developed in Italy in the 13th Century is known as basse-taille.

This required a translucent or transparent enamel to be applied over a low relief, sunken or intaglio design, usually in gold or silver.

Next came the plique-a-jour technique in which translucent or transparent enamels were fused to create a web across a network of cells, without a backing, thus making the enamel the structure of the piece.

This was the most difficult type of enamelling, but one that produced spectacular results such as those by the Art Nouveau jewellery designers Lluis Masriera and René Lalique.

The first enamelling of cast iron for such domestic products as cooking pots dates from the 18th century in Germany, while sheet iron was introduced in Sweden at the end of the 1700s.

This so-called vitreous enamelling was being mass-produced by the time of the Industrial Revolution and by the mid 19th Century enamelled steel cooking vessels were commonplace.

Glass is applied to the sheet metal either as a powder or mixed with water and fired in a furnace to temperatures that causes the glass to melt and coat the surface of the sheet. This gives a smooth surface that is hard and resistant to scratches, weather fire and chemicals.

The durability of early advertising signs, still showing the brilliance of the original colours after a hundred years, is one of the best examples of the long-term colour stability of vitreous enamel.

The only sad thing is that many, if not most, or the graphic artists whose designs are reproduced on the signs remain anonymous.

• One of the earliest manufacturers of enamelled iron advertising signs was Salt and Co, of Selly Oak, near Birmingham.

• Managed by Benjamin Baugh, an early pioneer of the enamelling trade, Salt operated 12 huge furnaces, and later changed the name to the Patent Enamel Company.

• The West Midlands area become synonymous with the production of enamel signs, further factories being established in Bilston, Wolverhampton and Oldbury. London was the other main hub of manufacturing, with four large factories, including Gamier and Co, also producing millions of signs.

• Arguably the best designed, most colourful and durable enamel advertising signs were made in Wolverhampton, a centre of enamel manufacturing since the 18th

• Among the most important firms were Macfarlane & Robinson; Orme Evans and Chromo.

• The Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War which prohibited the use of steel for advertising, coupled with the disappearance of smaller businesses which needed to advertise to survive in the face of competition from emerging supermarkets and stricter advertising legislation caused the relatively rapid decline of production.

Pictures show, top: Record breaker: this dramatic BP Petrol sign sold for a massive £28,000 last week, the highest price ever at auction for an enamel sign
Below, left to right:
An early 20th Century enamel advertising sign by Chromo of Wolverhampton, enamelled with the royal coat of arms and worded "Recruits are now wanted for all branches of His Majesty's Army, God Save The King". It sold for an affordable £270
"Black Cat Pure Matured Virginia Cigarettes" sold for £460
"Suter Hartmann and Rahtjen's Composition Company Ltd, 18 Billiter Street, London", used this sign depicting the British Super-Dreadnought moored in an Admiralty floating dock to promote their antifouling paints. It sold for £10,500
"There's No Tea Like Phillip's", decorated with a classical female with jardinière of flowers to side cutting the letters into stone. It measured four by three feet and sold for £2,600
An early 20th Century enamel advertising sign by Willing & Co of London, worded "Star - Largest Circulation of Any Evening Paper", sold for £180

Set a trap for George Tinworth's Doulton mice

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by Christopher Proudlove©

It's a long time since I watched a Punch and Judy show. It was probably 15 or 20 years ago on the prom with the young apprentices at Llandudno, North Wales. Happy days.

I remember it well. We were on holiday and I recall being amused to see a tiny mouse, unobserved by the rest of the crowd, snuffling around and snatching the odd crumb dropped by lunchtime picnickers.

The memories came flooding back, as they say, when I spotted the amusing little pottery group illustrated here.

It was made at Doulton in Lambeth, South London, in the days before the firm's move to the Staffordshire Potteries, when individuality and modeller talent was recognised and rewarded.

The group comes from the whimsical mind of George Tinworth (1843-1913. It's called Play Goers and shows a family of mice watching a Punch and Judy show to the musical accompaniment of a one-mouse band.

The first Doulton sculptor to model the creature for the company, Tinworth knew how to bring out the comedic best in a mouse.

A more unlikely a subject for one of Doulton's leading ceramic sculptors to make would be hard to imagine.

Most days would find Tinworth immersed in creating massive stoneware panels depicting biblical or historical scenes.

Examples can be seen in a number of cathedrals around the world, most notable among which are those in York Minster.

However, he is reported as having complained of being unable to finish such pieces satisfactorily "with a tired mind".

His jokey "humoresques", as he called them, showing animals in human situations, was his way of finding light relief.

Consequently, they were produced in small numbers and without documentation except for Tinworth's easily identified 'GT' monogram which many of them bear. Today they can make often staggering prices.

He modelled mice either singly as paperweights and chessmen, or in groups that tell a story.

For example, a menu holder, first produced at Doulton in 1885, is designed as an apple stall, with the mouse attendant asleep while another quietly steals an apple.

In Tea Time Scandal, a mouse tea party is in progress, while Menagerie is a clock case featuring 19 mice all engaged in various circus pursuits including a wheel of fortune and a shooting gallery.

Another shows mice in a rowing boat, made by Tinworth in about 1885 and called 'Cockneys at Brighton'. While one rows, another plays a concertina, much to the amusement of the young mice in the prow and the dolphin following alongside.

Tinworth was born in 1843, in the most unlikeliest of circumstances to have produced a gifted potter.

The son of an inebriate wheelwright, he was brought up in the squalid surroundings of Walworth in south east London, the only one of four sons to survive past infancy.

Schooling was negligible, but his Nonconformist mother brought him up on the Bible and taught him to read and recite the scriptures.

Among his boyhood jobs was working at a fireworks factory, where an incident with a leaking bag of gunpowder on a bus almost put an end to his young life.

By the time he was 16, with two jobs already behind him, he began working for his father, secretly using the tools to practise wood-carving.

At 19, and after pawning his overcoat to pay the fees, Tinworth joined evening classes at Lambeth School of Art, under the brilliant headmaster John Sparkes.

His father was deliberately kept ignorant of the boy's attendance, and Tinworth's progress there was exceptional.

Schools of the Royal Academy

He won a school prize at an annual show with a carved panel of Christ being mocked by the soldiers, and after three years, in 1864, he was admitted to the Schools of the Royal Academy to study fulltime.

To do so he had to ask his father's permission to attend. Grudgingly the old man agreed, on condition the boy worked for three or four hours before breakfast and again in the evening after school.

Two years, later Tinworth had won a number of medals and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

At about this time Henry Doulton, whose father John had founded the Lambeth Pottery, was working closely with Sparkes and the School of Art in developing his family's business.

Until then Doulton had concentrated on industrial ceramics, bathroom fittings and saltglaze drainage pipes.

The business had earned a fortune for its founder and in a move as much motivated by philanthropy as further profit making, John Doulton decided to diversify into arty decorative ceramics.

Coincidentally, Sparkes was growing concerned that Tinworth's talent was being wasted working in a wheelwright's shop.

The obvious happened as if preordained: by the end of 1866 Sparkes had been instrumental not only in persuading Doulton to offer Tinworth a job, but also in coaxing the latter to accept, even though neither truly knew what each had to offer the other.

The result was a less than auspicious start, modelling the Gothic decoration on the outsides of water filters - a Doulton standard product.

However, with the encouragement of first Sparkes and later the architect Edward Cresy, writer John Ruskin and eventually Henry Doulton himself, Tinworth went on to become one of the company's leading artists.

At first, he modelled several large terracotta medallions based on Greek and Sicilian designs. This was followed, in 1874, by him exhibiting three large panels at the Royal Academy and a further eight smaller examples the following year.

By 1894, he claimed to have produced at least 500 important biblical panels and countless other smaller examples, as well as busts, statues, figure groups vases, jugs, tankards and vases. His output continued almost unabated until his sudden death in 1913.

Tinworth's "humoresques" first appeared in the 1870s and many of them are unique. Others, however, were duplicated in small quantities from moulds, but all were finished by him individually before adding his incised initials.

Perhaps his most famous figures produced in this way, after his mice, are his boys and girls playing musical instruments, now extremely rare and sought after.

Pictures show, top: Play Goers - this charming Tinworth mouse group is modelled as a Punch and Judy show with attendant mice in green, buff, brown and blue glazed, the base has the usual impressed "GT" monogram and rose mark, and is inscribed with "LC", an assistant's initials. The piece measures 5½ inches in height and has a saleroom estimate of £1,500-2,500 ($2,700-4,500)

Below, left to right: Tinworth excelled at figure modelling, as this group proves. The pair of vases left and right are worth £3,000-4,000 ($5,500-9,000) and the clockcase, centre, £2,500-3,500 ($4,500-6,400). Interestingly, the penny farthing rider is a boy in this case and a milestone support at the rear reads "5 MILES TO LONDON". It's worth £1,200-1,500 ($2,000-2,700). The near identical figure but with a frog rider is named "Bicyclist"

The "GT" monogram used on much of Tinworth's work

A remarkable and rare Tinworth figural group, circa 1880s, titled The Swimming Bath. Notice the use of the blue glaze to represent water and the brown stoneware-coloured bodies in it, modelled with such precision that they do indeed appear to be swimming. It's worth £6,000-8,000 ($11,000-14,500)

Collecting Staffordshire figures and war medals for valour

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by Christopher Proudlove©

Since this column is mostly about old things, I thought it only right that it should tip its hat to things worth seeking out and collecting that are 150 years old. The list is endless and the more we looked, the more we found. So we thought we'd better be specific.

Arguably one of the most important events of the period in question was the war in the Crimea, culminating in the battle and seige of Sebastopol.

By way of a quick history lessons, after the British victory at Alma, the British and French forces advanced on the Russian naval fortress at Sebastopol which was laid seige.

Bombardment of its defences began on October 17 1854 under the direction of the allied commanders General Lord Raglan and General Francois Canrobert, while a British naval squadron under the command of Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons bombarded the city from the sea.

The Russians attempted to break out by attacking the British at Balaclava on October 25 but this failed, as did attacks 11 days later at Inkermann and on August 16 1855 at the Chernaya River.

Lacking sufficient force, several allied attempts to storm Sebastopol failed in the spring of 1855, but on September 8, the French commanded by General Aimable Pelissier took part of the southern end the city.

The British, meanwhile, under their new commander General Simpson took the Redan, only to lose it again, but on September 11, the Russians abandoned the city after blowing up the defences and scuttling their ships in the harbour.

The seige ended and Czar Alexander II signed peace terms at the Congress of Paris on March 30 1856.

They were tumultuous times, reported in graphic detail in all the UK newspapers who, in fact, had been dealing with a kind of siege of their own: an iniquitous Stamp Tax, first imposed in 1712.

In 1815, the Tory government of Lord Liverpool increased the stamp duty to 4d but unable to stop the rise in the number of unstamped publications, the law lords were forced to remove the duty and the 1d newspaper was born in June 1855.

The 24-hour flow of instant news today creates heroes and villains almost instantly. In 1855, while newspapers played a part in speeding up the process, immortality took a little longer to achieve.

This is where the manufacturers of Victorian Staffordshire pottery figures stepped in.

Often illiterate and working as family groups in the backstreets of the Staffordshire Potteries, the potters began to churn out cheap but highly colourful decorative figures of the personalities of the moment.

Early figures were small and shaped and decorated all round. By the mid-1850s they had grown much bigger and the back left unmodelled and undecorated, hence the name flatback.

Also known as chimney ornaments, their flat backs allowed them to be placed on the mantelpiece against a chimney breast.

Until relatively recently of little interest to ceramics connoisseurs, Staffordshire flatbacks are now big business and specialist dealers sell nothing else.

Many of the early figures are anonymous but later examples can be identified by comparing the features with the likenesses of named individuals in the pages of such publications as The Illustrated London News, on sheet music and playbills, and in the popular "Penny Plain, Tuppence Coloured" prints, clearly the source of inspiration for their makers.

Interestingly, the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854 gave a major boost to the Staffordshire figure industry.

Figures from the Royal household, notably Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the first two children, Princess Victoria and the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, being among the most popular, but foreign royalty also featured.

Immortalised in clay

Monarchs who were allies of the Crown, such as Napoleon III of France, his wife Empress Eugenie, the Sultan of Turkey, and the King of Sardinia were also modelled as were statesman and politicians involved at the time.

Florence Nightingale, who brought a semblance of professional nursing care to the dead and dying of the Crimea, was also immortalised in clay as were the likes of Sir Robert Peel, the Irish republican politician Daniel O'Connell, Gladstone and Disraeli, and arguably the hero of the era: the Duke of Wellington.

This list is by no means exhaustive and many more individuals such as sportsmen, criminals, novelists, social reformers and so on are all out there hoping to attract the attention of the well-heeled collector.

Early smaller examples can be had for prices starting around £35-50. Larger examples are more expensive, particularly if their bases are impressed with the name of the character depicted.

This can often be a source of amusement. The unknown potters who made them were often illiterate and their spelling left much to be desired.

They also thought nothing of using the same set of moulds for a number of different models, clearly assuming that no one would notice.

At the time, they were so cheaply produced it didn't matter. It matters even less today because the figures are so quirky and charming that this eccentricity only adds to their desirability.

However, the newcomer should beware the frighteningly large number of fakes on the market. They are so very well-made that they sometimes fall even the seasoned collector.

If in doubt, leave well alone. Alternatively, buy only by only from recognised dealers who are prepared to give you a written guarantee that what you're buying is authentic. No guarantee -- no sale.

Expect to pay upwards of £200 for a good example of a famous named individual.

Panel The Crimean War also produced a unique group of collectors' items, notably the military medals awarded for service during the 12-month campaign - a conflict marked by muddled incompetence, the Light Brigade attacking the wrong guns to name but one famous catastrophe.

A recent London sale included a section devoted to the medals awarded in the conflict including an Inkermann Distinguished Conduct Medal to a Private Sam Vickery of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards.

Interestingly, Vickery was later appointed orderly to Florence Nightingale at Castle Hospital, Balaklava and Scutari.

Vickery' also saw service at Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol - as the clasps on his Crimea Medal attested. The group was estimated at £6,000-8,000.

A group of four to a John Stewart of the 71st Foot comprised a Crimea medal with a Sebastopol clasp, an Indian Mutiny medal with a Central India clasp, a long service and good conduct medal and the Turkish Crimea Sardinian issue medal which were together estimated at £500-600.

A pair to William Lute, 1st Battalion Royals, included a Crimea medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol, together with the Turkish Crimea medal which was estimated a £200-300, while the going rate for a single Crimea medal with Sebastopol clasp to a named recipient was £120-150, or £60-80 to an anonymous recipient.

However, the real prize of the sale was a Victoria Cross dating from the First World War which was estimated at £70,000-90,000.

Like all VCs - even those made today - it was made from the bronze cannon captured by the British forces from the Russians at the siege of Sebastopol.

This country's highest award for gallantry is also the ultimate collectable for the lover of militaria.

Pictures show, top: On parade: Staffordshire potters immortalised military heroes almost at random. Some are recognisable, others named and some identified only by their style of uniforms

Below, left to right: The Victoria Cross made from the bronze canon captured from the Russians at Sebastopol. The group was in a recent London sale estimated at £70,000-90,000

A charming named figure of Crimea heroine Florence Nightingale. Ironically, the self same moulds were used for other unnamed figures

Private Vickery's Crimea Distinguished Conduct Medal group, worth £6,000-8,000. Notice the clasps on the central Crimea Medal for Alma, Balaclava, Inkermann and Sebastopol

How to stop your antique furniture turning to dust

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beetle
Originally uploaded by Christopher Proudlove.

by Christopher Proudlove©

It's that time of year again: High Noon either for your antique furniture ... or the beetles eating it. But action now can prevent the worst.

Fact is, between now and the end of August, the tiny larvae of the Common Furniture Beetle, Anobium punctatum, that have been chewing their way through your woodwork, emerge as adults. They then either fly or walk to the next piece to find a mate, lay their eggs and start the process all over again.

The result in the best-case scenario is a piece of furniture whose strength is seriously undermined by the tiny tunnelling and chomping, or worst case, a piece reduced to a pile of dust.

Restoring antique furniture is generally something best left to the experts, but eradicating woodworm is a relatively straightforward job