As The Collector’s Companion enters its thirtieth year, we thought we’d mark our pearl anniversary by taking a look at some. Such is the history and beauty of pearls, they […]

Utagawa Hiroshige was a prolific travel blogger who was also a success in the world of fast-fashion, with somewhere between 600 and 1000 designs for disposable hand-held fans. That’s to […]

You may be familiar with artist Ai Weiwei from the sea of 100 million hand-painted porcelain sunflower seed husks in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, his Lego portraits or perhaps from […]

I know of a person who would amuse himself by piercing a hole in someone’s can of Coke, causing an annoying dribble when they tipped it up to drink. You […]

Back in the summer of 2022 (#106) we shared the paintings of artist Hermoine Burton. A keen amateur artist, her life’s works ended up discarded in a Bedford charity shop […]

With any new and exclusive technology, there inevitably comes the moment when it is seized upon by the masses and it becomes ordinary and everyday. For photography, that moment came […]

Ok, maybe we’re a bit late to this party and we’re all a bit sick of pink by now, but Barbie®: The Exhibition is still on in London and we’ve […]

Maricourt is a Snakes & Ladders style board game, c1900, intended to be played by couples, but it can be played as individuals. Interestingly, the initial pairing of couples by […]

On blogs scattered across the Internet there are tales told of the plucky and resourceful Victorian women who would fight off the unwanted attentions of ‘mashers’ with their hatpins. While […]

Having profiled one 1920s tea set in this issue, we thought it would be nice to show another, very different set, from the same period. This is the Campanula – […]