A circa 1770 Meissen ('Dot" period) porcelain bowl with a raised rococo design around the inside rim, decorated with deutsche blumen within the three raised reserves and in the center. Not a tour-de-force in flower decoration but there is a bit of artistic freedom and charm in the execution. (ALT)

A porcelain 'osier' soup dish manufactured at Chantilly circa 1740 and painted in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style, illustrating ‘the three friends of winter’, bamboo, pine and prunus trees with flowering branches and a perched bird with one flying overhead.

As eye-opening and lovely lecture today live from the Museum of Royal Worcester on ‘Sugar, Slavery and Empire, and the Evolution of Worcester Porcelain Sucriers’ with Neil Buttery and Paul Crane.

Snuffbox (Saint-Cloud, c1745), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

A Paris porcelain coffee cup and saucer with gilt and painted fruit and floral decoration. Possibly made at the Nast factory (1783-1835) around 1820. It's not from Sèvres or Meissen or Chelsea, etc., but it does have some charm.

I bought this circa 1740 Meissen reticulated dish with Kakiemon decoration at Sotheby’s a few years ago. Henry Arnhold was one of the great Meissen collectors, this dish was from his collection and had been pictured in his own catalogue, seen here. “Flying fox” and squirrel!

Sèvres dinner plates, circa 1770-80, each decorated with scattered sprays of roses in the well and with rims with blue and pink hexagons surrounding flowers containing three reserves of roses, all within gilt line edges. A standard pattern in stock about that time, used on several services. (ALT)

Soup plate in the ‘Atlas’ pattern, inspired by SE Asian ikat textiles (Nymphenburg, c1765), George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

I don't collect Wedgwood porcelain but as a porcelain collector it's nice to have a first edition of Old Wedgwood by Frederick Rathbone, published in 1898. Fine illustrations of the typical jasperware and with a copy of that Stubbs portrait of Josiah perched on a white horse.

A porcelain rectangular snuff box with hinged silver mounts manufactured at Mennecy circa 1760. Decorated with sprays of roses and flowers in polychrome colors on all sides and on the underside of the lid. Each of the sides is impressed with a central diamond and basket weave pattern. Meissen-like.

A porcelain snuff box with hinged silver mounts manufactured at Saint-Cloud circa 1735. In the shape of a putai (or "pagoda" figure) and painted with chinoiserie figures, flowering plants and buildings in polychrome colors on the sides and on the exterior and interior of the lid. (see ALT)

A circa 1740 Saint-Cloud porcelain cup and saucer (trembleuse) with paneled and lobed rims and a matching saucer with a painted raised gallery, all decorated with bamboo, pine and prunus with banded hedges in the Japanese Kakiemon style. Nicely-painted but the French still needed to "fill space".

A Vincennes porcelain cup and saucer I purchased at Christie’s years ago. And then it appeared quite by surprise in Rosalind Savill’s multi-volume Everday Rococo a couple of years ago, too. Madame de Pompadour owned a small tea set with similar decoration, I’ll never know if this was part of that.

Central Park. Still snowing, still lovely.

On 22 February 1784 the first American trade ship The Empress of China left New York City for Ghangzhou (Canton). Chinese export porcelain had been imported to the colonies long before, but this was the first of many, many American trade ships. Here's an 18th century Chinese Export rooster on a mug!

An 18th century Japanese porcelain bowl painted in the kakiemon style with flowers along the exterior and alternating decoration of dragons, phoenixes, prunus and pine trees within the cavetto. Along the everted rim is a series of chrysanthemums below a brown-painted line. Lovely decoration.

First tulip has arrived, watered from a circa 1740 Chantilly sugar bowl on a stand. The old and the new, looking out the window on a cold and rainy day in New York.

A circa 1765 Sèvres biscuit porcelain figure of a young boy playing a tambourine, standing on a square base with foliage support. Listed as "Tambeur de Basque" in the factory records. Nicely assembled using several porcelain molds.

One of my favorite pieces in a Sèvres dessert service, this type of sugar bowl (sucrier monsieur-le-premiér, first recorded in 1758). A large oval lobed bowl permanently attached to a stand and with lid, these are from the 1780s. Different gilding between these two, as you may see. (details in ALT)

French or English porcelain? Two Feuilles de Choux (Cabbage Leaf) decorated dinner plates, one made at Sèvres, one at Derby a few years later. Not impossible to spot the differences without looking for the makers' marks underneath (see ALT).

A spiral fluted porcelain tea cup, coffee can and saucer manufactured during the last quarter of the 18th century at Worcester, decorated in underglaze blue and with gilt oval and berry highlights on the inside rims. I used to collect variations of this pattern, it's somewhat easy to find.

Two bottles, one produced in Arita, Japan (c1680-1700), the other in France at the Chantilly factory (c1735-40). Which is which? Answer in the alt. George R Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto #c18th #c18 #18thc

A Louis XVI kingwood veneered commode with a beige and white marble top and two drawers with two gilt bronze frames. Both rounded front corners are flanked by gilt strapwork chutes above cabriole legs with gilt sabots, the drawers veneered in an ‘oyster’ pattern. Socks and t-shirts inside (!).

A porcelain quatrefoil bowl manufactured at Chantilly circa 1740, painted with tight bouquets in polychrome colors along the sides and everted rim and fitted with a later incised gilt metal ink well with a removable pound pot/sander. Interesting adaptation of an old bowl. (see ALT)

Did you know that in the 18th century ‘people of quality’ thought nothing of drinking their tea out of a cup or eating off a plate decorated with large creepy crawlies & other insects? Sometimes the insects would even be given shadows to make them more realistic! Newly on display

Decided to plant tulip bulbs in a couple of 18th century Saint-Cloud pomade pots. So far, so good.

Watched these two porcelain busts of Louis & M-A sell today at Christie’s, New York. Not to me, $80K on the hammer ($101,600 with charges) is a little out of my price range.

New tulips I’m watering now coming up. Placed in a Chantilly porcelain sugar bowl that’s a bit older.

Pairs of amazing 18th century Meissen porcelain birds on exhibition at Christie's, New York. All actual size and selling tomorrow. (see ALT)

A fine soup bowl (écuelle) with cover and stand for sale at Christie's. And that's an understatement. Vincennes factory, circa 1753, gilt trophy decoration, possibly owned by Madame de Pompadour. The second picture shows how it was placed in Irene Roosevelt Aitken's living room. (see ALT)

This week's exhibition at Christie's, New York. The Irene Roosevelt Aitken sale. Here's the room of Meissen porcelain animals and birds on brackets on three walls, an 18th century menagerie. The photos do not do justice to the display. (see ALT)

Since we're going to have -15F wind chills in NYC this weekend, I'm trying to think about spring. And finally using my Sèvres vase hollandois (circa 1758) to plant tulip bulbs. It's made in two parts, I'll water from the base below through holes in the lower section of the main vase. Wish me luck.

An immersive room highlighting the Canaletto ("Venice...", sold just yesterday for $30M+) at Christie's, Rockefeller Center; a digitally recreated version of the painting for sale, with continually moving 3-D images. Perhaps it was aimed at brief attention spans but still an enjoyable experience.

A very rare Vincennes large porcelain figure up for sale at Christie's in NYC tomorrow. A river god sitting on a dolphin, circa 1750. Glazed, which is rarer still for Vincennes-Sèvres. Amazing.

Send in the Clowns! Day One (for me) at Christie's, Rockefeller Center. A group of harlequins/Pierrots/clowns on display and all up for auction on Thursday. Starting on the left: Mennecy, Meissen and Böttger. (See ALT)

A small porcelain bowl manufactured at Chantilly circa 1740, with decoration of a flowering branch painted in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style. Possibly once a sugar bowl, now missing the cover. With typical Chantilly decoration of a large brown insect painted on one side.

A Sèvres porcelain round dish decorated with concentric lines in blue, two gilt with the "Lyres" pattern along the rim and in the center. Below two rings are bouquets of flowers, the central ring with a bouquet of two roses. Circa 1795, with the République Française "FR" mark in underglaze blue.

A 19th century Japanese celadon-glazed porcelain bowl painted throughout in the kakiemon style of ‘Three Friends of Winter’: pine, bamboo and plum, the interior painted with red-ribboned bouquets of camellias and chrysanthemums. Here in frozen NYC we need all the friends we can get this winter!

Saw a letter at the Printed and Manuscript Americana exhibition at Freeman's auction house last night, there was a fine panelist discussion, too. The star of the sale is this 1789 letter from Mr. Washington. Some fine documents, etc., related to Mr. Lincoln as well. Amazing history. (see ALT)

A Chelsea porcelain circular form broth bowl (écuelle) with fan-like handles, gilt highlights and a cover with a flower knop, all decorated with sprays of flowers. Red Anchor Period, circa 1755. The form probably inspired by one in silver and the decoration perhaps inspired by Meissen.

A circa 1760 Mennecy porcelain soup bowl (écuelle) with cover and underplate, the bowl in a two-handled and ribbed form with painted flowers and blue-lined rims, the cover with a painted rose knop. Similar to a silver form; with typical Mennecy rose bud decoration.

A number of Meissen animal figures, photos I took last year at the Zwinger in Dresden. Made during the 1730s and intended for Augustus the Strong's Japanese Palace. Several are also in Boston's MFA and the Met and elsewhere. Amazing.

I recently introduced Lucía Abramovich Sánchez of the MFA on Zoom for a Connecticut Ceramics Circle lecture on colonial Mexican pottery. During the Q&A both Lucía and I were asked about the pottery of George Ohr and we blanked. Shame on me and us! So here he is, and a few of his pots now in the Met.

A circa 1740 Chantilly porcelain beaker painted in polychrome colors in the kakiemon style, decorated with wheat sheaves and flowers. Simple decoration, nicely done.

Apparently it's Squirrel Appreciation Day so I better step up. Here are several 18th and 19th century porcelain items with a variety of squirrel decoration and forms. (details in ALT)

Louis XVI was executed on this day, 21 January in 1793. Marie-Antoinette was executed in October that same year. Here are four plates from a service they gifted to her brother the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria during the summer of 1786. (see ALT)

A Chinese porcelain bowl decorated with blue petal-form cartouches of floral sprays along the rim and above the blue-lined base and with blue petal decoration on the center of the interior. Probably Ming Dynasty, circa 1600 or earlier. Roughly potted and decorated but it has some charm.

A late 18th century Chinese Export dish decorated in a version of the ‘sworl’ Queen Charlotte pattern in blue and iron-red with gilt highlights. Copying a Worcester (on the right), and others' pattern popular at the time, which was itself a copy of an Imari design. A pattern made around the world.

Porcelain box depicting eruptions of Vesuvius from 1754 to 1799 (Naples, c1800). Yours from E&H Manners, London, if you can spare £24,000 (wish I could!) #c18th #c18 #18thc

A Chinese Export porcelain octagonal plate decorated in the Japanese Kakiemon ‘two quails’ pattern in green and iron-red with gilt highlights and a double row of leaves in red along the rim. A very popular motif, you can see it on porcelain from Meissen, Chantilly, Chelsea, Bow and more.