What are your Favourite Collectables?
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Chaise Longues are luxurious pieces of furniture, originally used as ornamental items and as a day bed where the lady of the house could take a quick nap in the afternoon. The only way to get comfortable on a chaise longue is to lie back on it. It is said that Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame, would settle back in his chaise longue at his home in Goldeneye, Jamaica to dream up his stories.
A chaise longue usually measures around 6ft, so there is plenty of room to stretch out. Victorian chaises have a shapely serpentine shape and Regency couches are recognised by their attractive carved scroll ends. Both are the epitemy of elegance, and with a bolster cushion tucked under your neck you’re ready to kick off your shoes and settle back. Nowadays, the antique chaise longue is more often used as a decorative piece, with the modern soft sofa being preferred for the afternoon siesta.
Although crested china was once considered to be worthless, there are now several thousand avid collectors in the UK alone – and prices have risen accordingly. The Goss factory in Stoke-on-Trent first produced crested china in the late 1880s, modelling most of their wares on precise historical shapes copied from museums up and down the country.
Seeing the success of the Goss factory many other companies followed suit. They produced a multitude of novelty items up until the 1930s. Some German manufacturers produced souvenirs very cheaply, if somewhat crudely. This led to many outlets to advertise ‘Best English China at Foreign Prices’. Tastes then changed and it is estimated that around 90 per cent of crested china was destroyed – and the remaining 10 per cent relegated to the attic. Crested china started to enjoy a revival during the 1970s, which continues to this day.