Reference Books and Catalogues
Whilst Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood does have a thriving
Book Department,
reference books are often best sold within sales containing the pottery, porcelain
and glass they pertain to.
Reference books are an invaluable resource to collectors, academics, dealers and
researchers.
As an exceptionally broad and varied discipline, useful reference books are an invaluable
resource to collectors, academics, dealers and researchers alike, whether their
favoured field is domestic, European or Oriental or whether they prefer aged folk
pottery or contemporary glass and studio ceramics.
Often produced in relatively small print runs and sometimes privately published
to meet what might seem like the quirky needs of a particular niche, or field of
collecting (a single factory, an individual modeller or maker) they can often quickly
become difficult to acquire.
The very nature of these reference works generally requires them to be hard back
and extensively illustrated, something that makes them exceptionally useful and
as a result more costly to produce. Seminal works, including the museum catalogues
of national and provincial collections, are a reliable and referenced source of
information, far more credible than the often transient 'knowledge' that is published
on the Internet, and are often quoted by collectors, traders and especially auctioneers
in their presale descriptions!
Whilst many may consider old dealers and auction house sale catalogues to be nothing
more than disposable magazines, especially if they have been annotated and scribbled
upon, dispersals of single owner collections are to many an invaluable resource,
particularly when proving provenance and they can also be an affordable reference
source to those whose pockets are not quite so deep.
Specialists
 | Nic Saintey
Department Head
|  | Andrew Thomas
Ceramics and Glass Expert
|