Let's be honest - there's more than one reason

to watch the Antiques Road Show on PBS. The first, of course, is to expand our knowledge of learned topics such as silver, period furniture, paintings or ceramics from professionals such as Nicholas M. Dawes. The other is to enjoy the reaction of locals when they learn the little trinket they picked up in a garage sale is actually a priceless rare item, or when they are told that Grandma's treasured Ming vase is not as valuable as they thought.

Morris County held its own mini-version of the Antiques Road Show on Monday, July 16 at the Morristown Antique Center in Morristown. From 1 to 2 p.m.,

the well-known antiques author, appraiser and dealer Nicholas M. Dawes was guest speaker. An expert in the field of Majolica and Lalique, his topic at this event was English Porcelain and Pottery.

Born in the county of Shropshire in Central England on the border with Wales, Dawes has been a New Jersey resident for 22 years, and first became interested in antiques as a 12-year old boy when his mother owned an antique shop.

Now, amongst other things, he does several Road Shows a year. He was recently in New York City, and his next assignment on the Road Show will be in New Orleans.

Dawes also lectures at museums and societies on a wide variety of topics regarding antiques, and he teaches Decorative Arts at The New School in New York City.

Dawes traced the development of the ceramics industry over the last 300 years in England, beginning with crude earthenware products, which were literally made from clay and then baked in an oven.

"Making ceramics is a lot like cooking, it is baking except that obviously you can't eat the results," said Dawes.

As time progressed, recipes and technologies changed, but the basic process of ceramic-making is still the same today.

Interestingly, in the early 1700s, England simply could not hold a candle to the true masters of porcelain-making - China. The Chinese invented porcelain 1,000 years ago, and they still make it well.

The Germans were a close second with their Meisen pottery, but the English were notoriously unskilled. They did progress, eventually, from earthenware to the production of the blue and white Delft china, specifically designed to compete with the Chinese, but all this was on a cottage industry scale.

Collectable as the blue and while Delft china now is, at the time it was regarded as being crude and suitable only for the lower classes.

In the 1750s, along came Josiah Wedgwood who started making his instantly recognizable brand of porcelain, first in white, and then in different colors in the 1770s and 1780s. He excelled at his craft, and the aristocracy was happy. Said Dawes, "Wedgwood only made one thing, but he made it really well…"

The English potters, based mostly in Staffordshire in central England, excelled in the 1750s at making creamware (cream-colored earthenware).

This later became the basis for transferware, literally a pattern put on using a transfer. This style sold very well - Russian Tsars, European crowned heads of state, and George Washington were valued buyers. Martha Stewart collects it now.

The expansion of the railways led to the acquisition of more disposable income, and people were able to buy decorative items for their homes. Then, in 1813, Charles Mason developed his ironstone which was strong, heavy and suitable for export.

Much of this came to the New World and is still being made today.

The English ceramics industry received a huge fillip in the 1800s, when a ban was placed on Chinese export porcelain, and this led to the start-up of companies such as Coalport.

on the road

If the Antiques Road Show came to our area, what sort of ceramics would Dawes expect to find? In New Jersey, Trenton was a huge pottery center.

"They used to call Trenton the Potteries of America," Dawes said, referring to the pottery-making area of England.

There was also a glass-making center in Philadelphia. So he would expect to find examples of those ceramics and glassware.

Dawes was recently at an Antiques Road Show in New York City "where there was a potting industry in the 19th century, and I was looking for Victorian ceramics made there." He did in fact find one in Brooklyn.

Sandra Hoeflin of Madison showed Dawes a purple and black ceramic bowl, which she learned was made by Staffordshire in the 1920s. Kay Archer of Chatham brought in a pink jug.

"I thought it was something else, but we've discovered that it's pink lusterware," Archer said.

Did anyone bring along a rare valuable piece of porcelain? "What's it worth?" shouted someone from the audience, referring to an item they had brought. "Whatever anyone is prepared to pay for it," replied Dawes cannily.

antique TIPs

1. Hold a vessel with the fingers and hands inside and out - never by the handle.

2. Professionals don't refer to porcelain as bone china but as hard-paste. This is the true porcelain of Chinese invention. Bone china is a variant. Soft-paste

porcelain is an experimental attempt to make hard-paste.

3. Use Windex and a toothbrush for cleaning anything glass or with a glaze.

4. It is not a good idea to allow ceramics to get wet, or to put them in the sink where they can be broken.

5. Finally, the mark on the ceramic should never be allowed to authenticate the piece. Instead, the piece should authenticate the mark.

The Morristown Antique Center, located at 45 Market Street in Morristown, often holds free seminars. For more information about its fall series, call (973) 734-0900.

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