China & glass - Caroline Clifton-Mogg

We use china and glass everyday of our lives. This book shows you how to choose and take care of old and new purchases - with lots of ideas on storage, display and everyday use. Every weekend I make my way on Saturday morning to the nearest antique market which, fortuitously, happens to be Portobello Market in London. Once there, I tack down the road, ducking and diving into the many arcades, each of which holds stall after stall, selling everything you could imagine from scientific instruments or leather hat boxes to fishing reels, old garden tools, telescopes, paisley shawls and corkscrews. Although often sorely tempted, I - generally speaking - manage to resist these transient temptations, because it is towards the stalls that sell old china, glass and silver that I am consistently and unerringly drawn. And it is not only old china and glass that tempt me: unusual one-off pieces, pressed and engraved glass, rustic earthenware, smooth creamware and subtle oriental glazes all catch my eye and stop me in my tracks. I am not a purist collector, my specialist knowledge of great porcelain painters or glass blowers is practically non-existent and in fact I am hardly a collector at all,