Antique Stoneware Bottles, Caley Norwich and Campos Filhos Aveiro

Old stoneware bottles bring instant character to a shelf, and this trio gives you three heights, two countries and three lovely finishes to play with. The tallest, at 17 x 8 cm, is a cream stoneware bottle transfer printed CALEY, NORWICH and LONDON beneath a crown crest, a proper piece of advertising history from the Norwich firm long known for its mineral waters. It has a couple of small chips to the base from its working life, all shown in the photographs, the sort of honest wear that comes with a bottle well over a century in age. The middle bottle, at 16.5 x 7 cm, is Portuguese: a salt glazed stoneware bottle impressed Campos Filhos, Aveiro, made by the Campos pottery in Aveiro in the early to mid 1900s, with a further stamp reading Setubal, the celebrated wine region south of Lisbon. Bottles like this were made to hold wine, and the mottled brown glaze gives it a wonderfully speckled, tactile surface. The smallest, at 13.5 x 6 cm, is a plain brown stoneware bottle with a simpler, rounder shape, carrying one tiny chip to the side, again pictured.

Together they have the warm, earthy palette that makes antique stoneware so easy to live with, all soft creams and browns that sit happily against wood, linen and painted walls. Each shows the tonal variation and light surface wear you would expect from stoneware of this age, shown closely in the photographs, so please do look through the images.

Use them as bud vases for single stems, dried grasses or eucalyptus, cluster them on a kitchen shelf or windowsill, or style them along a mantel with books and ceramics for a collected, lived in look. Odd numbers and varied heights always arrange well, so three is a happy number to work with, and two named makers give the group real interest and a story to tell.

Buy them as a ready made styling set or split them across different rooms and collections. Either way, antique stoneware like this brings texture, history and warmth to a home.