Antiques Roadshow Coming To Liverpools Sefton Park Palmhouse.

 Sefton Park Palm House. Will host the Antiques Roadshow for a Valuation day on the 28^th June 2022.

The magnificent structure in its wonderful parkland setting will see over a thousand people bring their cherished items, and car boot finds along for appraisal.

I was so proud to be invited to become a member of the Antiques Roadshow team and to be hosting a Roadshow day in my home town, well it does not get better than that.

For decades every Sunday night I watched the programme. The programme that inspired me to become an antique specialist.

I said to my mate Eric Knowles, when I joined the team.

“I can remember sitting there in me short pants, watching you talk about Art Deco figurines”.

“Cheeky Monkey” he said in his Burnley accent “I'm not that old”

Sefton Park built by Liverpools forefathers to give gentle relaxation and greenery to both the gentry and the working classes. And an escape from the industrial grime. 

It is a place I have visited all my life. From a very early age. During school holidays, unable to afford a week away we would go on days out. On bus trips and spend the whole day walking around the park. Though we lived closer to Stanley park with its boating lake which too has a Palm House it was a special treat to visit the mini Kew Gardens with its gigantic plants and its Aviary with its exotic species. The colours of the birds a complete eye opening contrast to the soot covered monochrome world not far from the docks where we lived and my father worked. 

I would sit and draw birds for hours on end during primary school taking paper home to do voluntary homework. I trained a Kestrel.

Then we could meander over to the bandstand and visit the famous cafe, still thriving today.

And there we would see the Peter Pan statue which was a treat for childrens sore eyes. And of course the famous Eros statue that is just by the cafe.

As you walk today watch carefully and you may see a wild Parakeet flying overhead, that had escaped from the cages that held the birds.

Then as a teenager and member of an infamous Fishing club I would sometimes, weather permiiting, in the summertime, board our clapped out smiley faced Charabang after doing my paper round and wolfing down my tea. And then we would drive to the lake to set the tackle up and pitch a line and a float in hoping to catch a perch or a roach. 

There on the bank sitting still against a mirror like calm, occasionally broken by a swan or two and a gaggling group of Canada Geese landing. And those quacking ducks that gorged themselves on the loaves of bread they were fed by children with their parents or grandparents escaping the humdrum of everyday life.

Years later I laughed in sadness at that wonderful sketch in 'Boys From The Blackstuff' where Yozzer Hughes who had gone slowly mad after losing his wife and children and fed up trolling the boards asking all and sundry to “Giz a Job” wades in to the lake. Sefton Park Lake. To drown himself. 

He went to see the Priest pleading with him

 “I am desperate”  over and over again, pleading with him. 

“I am desperate" in a sadder pitch. 

The other side of the confessional screen and the Priest feeling his desperation says “Call me Dan”

“I'm Desperate Dan” he replies. He went mad.

There was nothing left to do. He had given up. He waded into the lake.

Only to get half way across and the water only came up to his knees.

Life was so bad for Yozzer he couldn't even end it all.

He just can't do anything right. When life goes against you. 

And it was like that in Liverpool at the time.

The decline of the docks. Industry had gone and unemployment was high.

This was the time that Sefton Park Palm house fell into dis-repair. It was a sorry state. There was no money, so it was claimed by the City Council. This was the Hatton era. 

And it started to get vandalised.

I recall stopping my car once and walking through the missing panes of glass and almost crying at the sad state of neglect and the sorry state of the place. The plants had all died. There were no avaries. 

I did not cry. I got angry and became a heritage campaigner fighting a corrupt council whose councillors and officials were lining their pockets, with the peoples hard earned rates.

The lake was left to choke up and all the fish died. They drained it and found loads of shards of pottery, some Herculaneum, that had been dumped there. 

Liverpool had escaped the Luftwaffe but it couldnt escape the dim wiited corrupt councillors who lined their pockets with greed.

A campaign was won, grant funding was found and like a Pheonix it raised itself from the ashes and became a venue.

I went to a wedding there. In the afternoon. A wedding in a greenhouse I thought “Now thats clever. It was very hot. The sun would eventually set and a good evening would then be had by all.

 I did a gig there. As a clarinettist.

Another one some months later outside the cafe on a Sunday afternoon. Part of the amazing Gerry Harrison's Jazz Workshop. Then progressing I did a gig on the bandstand with my little group. The Penny Lane Jazz Band. We were not that good at the time, but it was great experience. 

Experience to stand there in front of people and of course in order to live you have to die a thousand deaths.

So, I got a job. As a specialist on the Antiques Roadshow and when asked by our Executive Producer Robert, “Did I have an idea for a suitable venue”. I calmly said “Yes I do”. 

And in June 2022. Hopefully, if they let me, I will be there on national TV, a proud Liverpudlian alongside some of the best antique brains in the country.

With an accent exeedingly rare.

Dreaming about what I will find.

One thing is for sure.

I know I will find a welcome for all my colleages from the people of my home town and they will bring along, their humour, their stories and their warmth.

I cant wait to show the team the place, that has been a massive part of my life.

The Palm House Sefton Park Liverpool, in all its majesty.

Liverpool's Affordable Art Fair-Costs Seven Quid To Get In.

Even Ken Dodd thinks its funny. Saturday saw the beginning of Liverpool Biennial. Which generally means the place is littered with immature and foolish excuses for works of art that have cost a fortune, that generally look like a kid has done them, and have no meaning whatsoever. http://www.biennial.com/

Take the Dazzle ship, please someone take the dazzle ship. 

What a waste of money. The city is closing nursing homes all over the place and they have let some ageing hippy called Carlos Cruz-Diez: turn the historic ship owned by Liverpool Museums, The Edmund Gardner, into a work of art (sic)......and he got paid for it.  http://www.biennial.com/collaborations/carlos-cruzdiez-dazzle-ship 

Dazzle painting was a system for camouflaging ships that was introduced in early 1917, at a time when German submarines were threatening to cut off Britain’s trade and supplies. The idea was not to “hide” the ships, but to paint them in such a way that their appearance was optically distorted, so that it was difficult for a submarine to calculate the course the ship was travelling on, and so know from what angle to attack. The “dazzle” was achieved by painting the ship in contrasting stripes and curves that broke up its shape. Characterised by garish colours and a sharp patchwork design of interlocking shapes, the spectacular ‘dazzle’ style was heavily indebted to Cubism.

But would they have used a Rasta design? That stands out like a sore thumb. Maybe not.

Liverpool museums staged what they called an affordable art fair saturday last It seemed well attended and once you got past the thousands of kids screaming in the foyer it was a pleasant enough experience.

 Though I am glad I had a free ticket or I would have felt aggrieved at the seven quid required to get in to a free museum.

Lets hope the takings go to re instating some of the damage that the current director Dr David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming has recently done to our history.

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/sudley-house-why-have-liverpool-museums.html

Maybe they could use the room that housed the so called affordable art fair to promote some of Liverpool's past glory. 

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/herculaneum-pottery-held-by-liverpool.html

Big In Japan-My Shop Is Featured........In Japan.

Following the visit of a Japanese film crew late last year the programme Europe;Scenery of Water (yes that was the title) went out  on BS Japan.

Japans Judith Chalmers was doing the travel programme. She even bought something a rather nice vase with which had been painted well with a slightly oriental lady.

 Liverpool looks great the shop is featured at 00:26minutes  into the video and is on for about 10 minutes.
I may be dubbed. I even told a joke that I shouldn't have, when she asked me where I was born.
"Ten minutes from Liverpool F.C's ground in Anfield" I said. "I learnt to know the score from the crowds reaction. Hooray.......one nil. Hoorayyyy.....two nil.....Hoorray .....three nil, although it could be confusing when the meat pies arrived".
 To my amazement and relief, the crew all fell about laughing which is more than I can say happens when I tell it in Liverpool.

 I try to talk up Liverpool pottery and Herculaneum to be precise. Well someone has to do it, as Liverpool museums have given up on it.  http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/herculaneum-pottery-held-by-liverpool.html


 Liverpool Vision have put it on their You Tube channel

There you go..........Big in Japan watch it here http://youtu.be/hQ8NEa8h__M

The DELLA ROBBIA POTTERY by Peter Hyland

Peter Hyland called in today with a copy of his new book ‘THE DELLA ROBBIA POTTERY’

I had given him an image of a piece that I consider the best piece of Della Robbia that I have seen. I bought it in France.

Peter wrote the book The HERCULANEUM POTTERY Liverpool’s Forgotten Glory.

My image was not as high resolution as he needed for publication, which is a shame, but there you go. I love it.

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/sirens-calling.html

The book is enriched with illustrations and on first glance it looks extremely comprehensive.
Della Robbia had a brief lifespan from 1894-1906. It was founded by Harold Rathbone.
Walter Crane attended a VIP ceremony at the Walker Art Gallery on 10th February 1894 when the prominent speaker Sir William Forwood spoke of the need to keep tradition with pottery and the applied arts on Merseyside. And he said he is pleased to think that Mr Rathbone and some members of his family had already made a departure in that direction.

In the same month Della Robbia opened.

You have to ask in retrospect why a pottery was formed, to produce wares of an antique Italian tradition than of a thrusting enterprise in a modern age.

Arts and Crafts had swept the country and we see at this time the same principles being laid down in numerous potteries the length and breath of the British Isles.

Liberty sold Della Robbia.

The Birkenhead based pottery had a retail outlet in Berry Street Liverpool.

Some of its pottery ladies would be trained at the Art Sheds under the influence of Herbert MacNair and his wife Francis MacDonald who were half of the Glasgow Four. The others being Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald.

CRM would submit a design for the proposed Anglican Cathedral.

Cassandra Annie Walker who is recognised as one of the top pottery ladies at Della Robbia must have fell under the influence of The Glasgow Style.

Her designs for the cover page of The Sphinx certainly bear that out.

That style would be swept away by Charles Reilly at the Liverpool School. He hated Art Nouveau and led the city into a Beaux Arts style, not only in his architectural teaching but also in the practice of applied arts and decoration.

The Della Robbia covers such a small period in the development of art and architecture on Merseyside, slightly idealised with sentimentality and rustic ideals.

This would be swept away with the industrial scale killing in the Great War that would employ methods of mass production that would later be employed in the domestic manufacture of almost everything.

Though it closed in 1906 we see through the beginnings of Della Robbia a microcosm of society and its ideals.

Della Robbia prices have been on the increase for a while now, but beware, as a potter, I see it as some of the worst pottery that should not have been let out of the workshops…and some of the best.

The pottery is an oxymoron of itself.

My personal opinion is that its rustic antique style is hiding, on a far too often occasion, bad workmanship.

Yet ‘Boy and Lanthorn’ a panel by Conrad Dressler which was exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in 1895 is of the highest quality in design and workmanship.

Frank Watkin was the thrower. And Dressler was the chief designer and modeller until 1896. Carlo Manzoni took over the role in 1898.

It was quite a going concern.

There is a huge collection in the Williamson Art Gallery.

http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/williamson-art-gallery.html


They designed a fountain for the Savoy Hotel and a monumental fountain in Newsham Park with Hippocampus holding a monumental bowl aloft.

There are amazing pots and plaques and tile panels.

The main decorators were….well you will have to buy this well put together book that Peter has exhaustively compiled for your delectation.

Herculaneum Ship Plate-Piece Of The Week

Liverpool Pottery at the Herculaneum factory in sight of the Mersey Estuary of course had to produce wares portraying ships. They are now quite rare as most of them are in American collections. They were popular at the time with the people who manned the ships and were made as late as 1830. A range of three masted and on occasions two masted vessels were often portrayed. The last ships plate I had was sold to a client whose girlfriend was doing a trip in a tall masted ship. She took part in the ceremony at the crossing of the equator and during that trip she circumnavigated the Cape off the African coast, a perilous journey still. This was a nice touch. I thought a modern take on the exact sentiment that would have seen the plate originally bought in 1805. They often had flags to suit customer preferences (British, American, Dutch and even Danish Flags).

Peter Hyland in his book Liverpool's Forgotten Glory says (pg 58) "Judging by the frequency in which these plates turn up today, they must have been extremely popular and treasured. It is not unusual to find a 'ship plate' which has been broken many years ago and carefully riveted together"       

This one in fact has some very old restoration to the rim. If an object could tell a story what would this plate say.

Has it been to America? And Back? What is the ship printed in the middle and who bought it, was it a sea captain or a sweetheart to give to her loved one when he risked his life on uncharted waters?

Maybe, I will never know for sure, but it really is a piece that sums up 18th century Liverpool, and not just local history but Maritime art. This is now 200 years old. It is a shame the people now running Liverpool museums don't think the same way about our forgotten glory. http://waynecolquhoun.blogspot.com/2009/06/herculaneum-pottery-held-by-liverpool.html

The 'Ship Plates' are a treasure any collection of Liverpool Ceramics without one would be bare.

Herculaneum Pottery held by Liverpool Museums to be put in Permenant Storage

Monday, 29 June 2009

David Fleming Srikes Again, will someone put him out of our misery.
MARITIME DISASTER.
This is no storm in a teacup. It is another peice of our culture at stake.
3000 members of The Northern Ceramics Society are up in arms at the proposals to put the collection of Liverpool Pottery, currently, in the Maritime Museum at the Albert Dock in permanent storage. Yes ....permanent storage we all know what that means. Worse still it is to make way for…. a café, yes a café, this is another misguided attempt to rob us Liverpudlian's of our heritage and blame us for the slave trade by the Fuzzy Felt knob at NML Dr David Fleming.
http://www.northernceramicsociety.org/few people have said that I have been a bit hard on David "Fuzzy Felt" Fleming to which I am of the opinion that I have not been hard enough, he is a walking disaster a nightmare a public relations car crash. I forgot more about Liverepools Culture last week than he will ever know.
http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/search/label/David%20Fleming This man is single-handedly destroying my culture and turning Liverpool museums into something that resembles the "Wacky Warehouse" where kids run around all over the place with ice cream, screaming and shouting. The sort of place you don’t want to go to anymore. Sudley used to be great he ruined that. It is now called Sadly Art Gallery locally.I attended an excellent study day a decade ago about Liverpool pottery and this was linked in to the permanent exhibition in the Walker, which was the history of Liverpool Pottery.This was then moved out of the Walker and watered down to all those pots with ships on, and was sent to the Maritime Museum, that was bad enough but now to ditch this, is a absolute outrageous act of uneducated nonsense by someone who it has been said should not be running my museums because he is a dimwit. Yes a dimwit without education in the finer things in life, this little tin pot dictator understands is bums on seats.Cant someone put him out of our misery he is a carpet-bagging networker, a disaster wanting to make us all pay for the slave trade when it was nothing to do with me.The NCS were instrumental in bringing to the fore our heritage. Volunteers who have a passion for what they do, educated collectors, whose advise has been sought in building up the collections.Painstaking attention to detail, out on digs in all weathers, in their own time finding the original sites where kilns were, showing us our own heritage, our Georgian heritage, working with the museums under the previous director. And now the tin-pot Fleming does them in with a stroke of his pen, just like he did with the Friends of Liverpool Museums. How can you do this how can a stupid act of getting rid of something as important as our local pottery be replaced by chairs for a café. He hasn’t got a clue.The public bequeathed this whole collection and the public servants need to understand that they work for us not for themselves.“We can’t trust this guy” one elderly gentleman said talking about Fleming.A client of mine, a avid Liverpool collector said to me “He is a b*st*rd” such is the depth of ill feeling towards him.
Someone need to carry the coffe can for this, there is already five times the amount of Liverpool Pottery in storage as is on display at present.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum_Pottery Huge collections are on display in some of the top American museums and we wont have any.Along with Herculaneum whose factory was at Herculaneum Dock there was Gilbody, Pennington, Richard Chaffers and Co, Philip Christian and more. I want to know about this stuff it’s my history…. this nutter running my museums has to go he is a disaster.