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Feature Information
Carlton Ware Display
Highlights Summer NEC Antiques Fair
Highlights Summer NEC Antiques Fair
NEC, BIRMINGHAM B40 1NT
24 - 27 July 2008
A special display of Carlton Ware ceramics will be a major attraction at the Antiques for Everyone fair at the NEC, Birmingham from 24 - 27 July 2008. Antiques for Everyone is Britain s largest vetted and datelined antiques fair featuring more than 350 exhibitors from across the UK, Europe and America. With art and antiques on sale from less than £10 to more than £100,000, it is a major international event for collectors and dealers.
A Carlton Ware Floral Comet
plaque by Violet Elmer, circa
1931.Carlton Ware is widely regarded as one of the most popular collectable ceramics and this unique display, titled Carlton Ware - The Trademark of Excellence, will feature five hundred pieces from the collection of Dr Czes Kosniowski and Yvonne Kosniowski, two expert and dedicated enthusiasts. With careful research and an obsession for collecting, Dr Czes Kosniowski and Yvonne Kosniowski have created the world s most comprehensive database of Carlton Ware patterns and shapes and together they run Carltonware.com, a website for collectors and enthusiasts. The display will feature many popular, rare and unique pieces, with a particular emphasis on the Art Deco period. When people see the vast range of Carlton Ware designs and the quality of the decoration, they are always astonished, explains Dr Kosniowski. We look forward to meeting many regular collectors from across the world at the NEC fair and further extending interest in this very popular area of ceramics .
Items on display from Dr Czes and Yvonne Kosniowski will
not be for sale, although a number of exhibitors will be
offering Carlton Ware from the late 19th century to 1950.
Dr Czes Kosniowski and Yvonne Kosniowski are the authors of A Pocket Guide to Carlton Ware and Carlton Ware Catalogue and Price Guide. They can be contacted on Tel: 07860 539748.
Carlton Ware was one of a number of popular ceramic ranges to emerge from the Stoke on Trent Potteries in the 1890s. The company was formed by James Frederick Wiltshire and W.H and J.A Robinson and called the Carlton Works. In 1894 they created a trademark, which was a circular mark with a crown on the top with their initials W&R. Wrapped around were the words Stoke on Trent and Carlton Ware below, with a swallow flying in the centre.
In 1911 the Robinsons left the partnership and James Wiltshire became the sole proprietor. The company was renamed Wiltshire and Robinson Ltd. The company took on a new designer, Horace Wain, who introduced many new shapes and designs that proved highly popular. In 1911 James Wiltshire was killed in a railway station accident at Stoke-on Trent and his son, Frederick Cuthbert Wiltshire, took over the company. In 1930, the company acquired the bone china manufacturers Birks, Rawlins and Co, a move that enabled the company to expand. In 1958 the company name was changed to Carlton Ware Ltd. In 1966 Cuthbert Wiltshaw died and Carlton Ware was sold to Arthur Wood (Longport) Ltd. Success continued until the 1980's but like so many pottery companies it went into receivership in 1989. Despite an attempt to revive the name by the Grosvenor Ceramic Hardware, it closed in 1992. Five years later the Carlton Ware name was purchased by Frank Salmon, who revived the brand by producing limited edition figures, novelty teapots and tea ware.
Carlton Ware is popular because of its attractive designs and decoration, from Art Deco shapes in unusual colours, Kate Greenway style fairies, Chinese and even Egyptian decorations, inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the 1920's, to the well known Toucan promotional range for Guinness in the 1950s. Salad ware from the 1920's was also very popular up until the mid 1970's, with popular designs based on the lobster and bright red tomatoes. Today the Art Deco and Orientally-themed Chinoiserie lustre wares are particularly collectable.
Antiques for Everyone is well known for its enormous range and variety of antiques and
collector s pieces. More than 100 dealers specialise in ceramics, including Continental, English
and Oriental pottery and porcelain; at least 50 galleries will be showing fine art, from 17th
century portraits to 19th century watercolours and 20th century Modern British painters; around
30 dealers show furniture including Georgian, Victorian, Arts & Crafts and Art Deco; no fewer
than 25 dealers specialise in silver and jewellery, while dozens of exhibitors show a wide range
of collectables and decorative accessories including everything from 2,000-year-old antiquities
to Steiff teddy bears, French clocks, fine engravings, working barometers, tea caddies, early tinplate
toys, scientific instruments, early arms and armour, garden statuary, kitchen antiques,
decorative brass and copper, samplers, sculpture and textiles.
Collectors from all corners of the globe regularly attend and an estimated £10million worth of
antiques will have changed hands during and after the fair. Most importantly, a committee
comprising approximately 150 specialist experts inspect exhibits for quality and authenticity,
ensuring that buyers can make their purchases with confidence. The fair is well known for its
high quality exhibits with more than 30 exhibitors belonging to the BADA (British Antique
Dealers Association) and another 100-plus are members of LAPADA (The Association of Art &
Antiques Dealers).
The Antiques for Everyone fairs are organised by Clarion Events NEC and take place every spring, summer and winter.
Click here to download the above feature as a pdf.
Halls 17-19, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, UK, B40 1NT.
Admission: £10.00, including free car parking.
Public Open Times 24 - 27 July: Thurs 11am-7pm / Fri-Sat 11am-6pm / Sun 11am-5pm