David Battie | |
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Born | David Anthony Battie 22 October 1942 England |
Occupations |
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Years active | ?–2020 (retired) |
Known for | Expert on ceramics, specialising in oriental works |
Television | Antiques Roadshow |
David Battie FRSA (born 22 October 1942) is a British retired expert on ceramics, specialising in Japanese and Chinese artefacts. [1]
After attending art school, where he studied graphic design, Battie worked for Reader's Digest magazine for three years. [2] In 1965, he joined the auction house Sotheby's. He worked in the Departments of Ceramics and Oriental Works of Art and was appointed a director in 1976. He retired from Sotheby's in 1999.
After leaving Sotheby's, he became editor of Masterpiece magazine and has written many books on pottery and porcelain. He also undertakes public speaking. [3]
He is probably best known for his many appearances on the long-running BBC television programme Antiques Roadshow , in which he appeared for 43 years, from the first series in 1977 until his retirement in 2020.
David Battie married Sarah Francis, a glass expert from Sotheby's, in 1972. The couple have two daughters. [4]
In 2012 Battie broke his leg in a fall. While in hospital he contracted an antibiotic-resistant infection and ultimately remained in hospital for six months, undergoing eight operations, including four skin grafts. Battie suffers from the genetic disorder haemochromatosis and has also developed Type 2 diabetes. [5] He is an ambassador for the charity Antibiotic Research UK. [6]
In 2022 and 2023 a number of Asian art, ceramics, antiques and historic textiles from the David & Sarah Battie Collection, were auctioned by Tennants and by Dominic Winter Auctioneers. The pieces included those from Qianlong period and from the 17th to 19th-century. [7] [8] [9]
Antiques Roadshow is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979, based on a 1977 documentary programme.
Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product, with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects that are not tableware and so do not need a glaze for protection.
Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Pottery decorated using this technique is known as transferware or transfer ware.
Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought together two of the four surviving Georgian auction houses in London, Bonhams having been founded in 1793, and Phillips in 1796 by Harry Phillips, formerly a senior clerk to James Christie.
Eric Knowles FRSA is a British antiquarian and television personality, whose main interests are in ceramics and glass.
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.
Capodimonte porcelain is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory, which operated in Naples, Italy, between 1743 and 1759. Capodimonte is the most significant factory for early Italian porcelain, the Doccia porcelain of Florence being the other main Italian factory. Capodimonte is most famous for its moulded figurines.
William Billingsley (1758–1828) was an influential painter of porcelain in several English porcelain factories, who also developed his own recipe for soft-paste porcelain, which produced beautiful results but a very high rate of failure in firing. He is a leading name associated with the English Romantic style of paintings of groups of flowers on porcelain that is sometimes called "naturalistic" by older sources, although that may not seem its main characteristic today.
Kataro Shirayamadani, also known as Kitaro Shirayamadani, was a Japanese decorative ceramics painter who worked for Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio from 1887 until 1948.
Adelaide Alsop Robineau (1865–1929) was an American china painter and potter, and is considered one of the top ceramists of American art pottery in her era.
Henry George Sandon was an English antiques expert, television personality, author and lecturer who specialised in ceramics and was a notable authority on Royal Worcester porcelain. He was the curator of the Dyson Perrins Museum for many years.
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Art pottery is a term for pottery with artistic aspirations, made in relatively small quantities, mostly between about 1870 and 1930. Typically, sets of the usual tableware items are excluded from the term; instead the objects produced are mostly decorative vessels such as vases, jugs, bowls and the like which are sold singly. The term originated in the later 19th century, and is usually used only for pottery produced from that period onwards. It tends to be used for ceramics produced in factory conditions, but in relatively small quantities, using skilled workers, with at the least close supervision by a designer or some sort of artistic director. Studio pottery is a step up, supposed to be produced in even smaller quantities, with the hands-on participation of an artist-potter, who often performs all or most of the production stages. But the use of both terms can be elastic. Ceramic art is often a much wider term, covering all pottery that comes within the scope of art history, but "ceramic artist" is often used for hands-on artist potters in studio pottery.
Paul Rowley Atterbury, FRSA is a British antiques expert, known for his many appearances since 1979 on the BBC TV programme Antiques Roadshow. He specialises in the art, architecture, design and decorative arts of the 19th and 20th centuries.
John Sandon is a British expert and prolific author on ceramics and glass. He is best known as an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, which he joined in 1985.
Rouen porcelain is soft-paste porcelain made in the city of Rouen, Normandy, France, during a brief period from about 1673 to 1696. It was the earliest French porcelain, but was probably never made on a commercial basis; only nine pieces are now thought to survive.
Audrey Selma Atterbury was a British puppeteer best known for her work on the 1950s pioneering BBC children's series Andy Pandy.
Arita ware is a broad term for Japanese porcelain made in the area around the town of Arita, in the former Hizen Province, northwestern Kyūshū island. It is also known as Hizen ware after the wider area of the province. This was the area where the great majority of early Japanese porcelain, especially Japanese export porcelain, was made.
Vezzi porcelain is porcelain made by the Vezzi porcelain factory in Venice, Italy, established in 1720 by the Vezzi family. It was the first porcelain factory in Italy, after the experimental Medici porcelain of the 16th century. It operated only until 1727, so surviving pieces are few, probably fewer than 200. It made "true" hard-paste porcelain, and was only the third factory in Europe to do so, hiring technicians from Meissen porcelain and Vienna porcelain, the first two makers.
Sang de boeuf glaze, or sang-de-boeuf, is a deep red colour of ceramic glaze, first appearing in Chinese porcelain at the start of the 18th century. The name is French, meaning "ox blood", and the glaze and the colour sang de boeuf are also called ox-blood or oxblood in English, in this and other contexts.