By Thomas Hamilton Ormsbee — Is business bad? Is unemployment increasing in your town? Don't wring your hands and cry for the good old days! Start something new! This, in the 20th Century manner, is the story of how soft paste porcelain came to be made in Worcester, chief city of Worcestershire, and 110 miles north of London. Not that such fanfare accompanied this or any similar project of the time, for the 18th Century was not one of italics but of unhurried dignity with both written and spoken word measured and...

Bowes Curator Howard Coutts on Meissen, Staffordshire, and Sèvres

By Maribeth Keane — I’m the curator of the ceramics bit of the Bowes Museum. It’s a big museum with 30 galleries of which three or four are devoted to ceramics alone. Within Britain, it’s got one of the biggest and most expensive groups for people to see. We have about 5,000 or so pieces in the collection. We’re not sure exactly. It’s all registered, but of course we get tea sets registered under one number, so I think in total it’s about 5,000. I’ve collected both cups and saucers over the years, which...