Retroselect

Welcome!

This is my collection of retro ceramics and glass from the 1950s to 1980s. There are some older pieces too, including some pharmacy bottles, Dutch tiles and royal commemoratives. The objects on this site are almost all mass produced or 'reproducible art', in contrast to one-off studio pieces.

I am English, and have Dutch, German, Irish and Scottish ancestry. All pieces on this site are English, unless otherwise stated. Values given on this site represent prices realised on eBay since 2001 (£ = UK pounds sterling).

What's the story behind retroselect?

"That's so ugly: it's really fifties" is what my friends and I used to say back in the seventies when we went round antiques markets in London as kids. Fifties style looked hideous to us, and nobody at that time liked it. Much of it ended up in the trash when houses were cleared out. Now, lots of collectors, including me, love it.

In those days, I liked Victorian things (there was a real craze for Victoriana back in the 1970s), as well as pharmacy stuff. I never liked collectible ceramics until quite recently, when I inherited an orange-peel Carlton Ware jug from my Irish uncle Bill, a Wade Queen Elizabeth II coronation mug from Mum, and Dad bought me some T.G. Green Cornish Ware for Christmas. All those pieces are now on this site.

And I didn't start buying on the internet until 200, when I was browsing the web for some plates for my new house. I stumbled across an auction site called eBay, and noticed that it also sold Carlton Ware, Wade and T.G. Green. The rest is history.

It is always nice to hear from people, but please don't email asking about prewar stuff (I dont have a clue about it) and there is no point saying: 'I have six cups with flowers on, how much are they worth?' I need a photo of the pattern, and a description of the backstamp.

Photos were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 990 camera, which shows some barrel distortion in macro mode (and so some straight lines may appear slightly curved). The site was first put up in May, 2003. No information on this website should be interpreted as a guide to how prices will change in the future. My advice is not to buy retro from the Internet unless you know what you are doing. But do have fun! The site is my hobby, and was designed by Edwin Heida. Enjoy browsing!