Alison Davey
Specialist in British Art Pottery since 1996, and one of the world's leading dealers in Martin Brothers birds.
dealing in British Art Pottery, since 1996
world record for Pilkington's Royal Lancastrian: the St George vase, June 2021
then-record for a Martin Brothers bird jar, Woolley and Wallis, 2015
Furer and Douglas collection of Martin Brothers birds, Rago's, USA
selling exhibitions curated, including Praise the Glaze
AD Antiques is a specialist dealer in British Art Pottery, founded in 1996 by Alison Davey and now based in the North Cotswolds.
For 30 years we have bought and sold exceptional pieces for collectors, museums, interior designers and investors around the world. We also represent leading contemporary ceramic artists, including Heidi Warr and Peter Beard.
From car boot sales to the vetted fairs
Alison's route into antiques was unusual. After graduating from Edinburgh University with an MA in 1995, she worked in criminal justice, latterly at Edinburgh prison.
Her interest in the decorative arts began with trading at car boot sales, and it quickly became a passion. For several years she spent her weekends and annual leave exhibiting at antiques fairs across the UK. In 2000 she decided to get the dealing bug out of her system once and for all: she resigned, moved to Staffordshire and began trading full time.
In the early years AD Antiques sold Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau decorative arts of every kind, including glass, metalwork and jewellery. But one field stood out above the rest: British Art Pottery.
Why British Art Pottery
For Alison, the appeal lies as much in the social and political ideas behind the pottery as in its beauty and originality.
The designers and factories of the period were pushing the boundaries of creativity, glaze chemistry and design. Many were rejecting the machine age and supporting the social thinkers of the day, who argued for a return to local crafts, the dignity of the worker, and simpler lines in place of elaborate ornament.
That spirit runs through every piece AD Antiques offers, from the lustres of William De Morgan and Pilkington's to the flambé glazes of Ruskin and Moorcroft.
A name linked with the Martin Brothers
Alison has specialised in the Martin Brothers for more than 20 years. In 2015 she paid £91,500 for a 35cm bird jar at Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury, then a record for the Martin Brothers. She later brought the Furer and Douglas collection of Martin Brothers birds to Rago's in the USA, where it totalled $769,800.
Her experience is also a safeguard for collectors. Fakes and skilfully hidden restoration are common, and restoration can reduce a piece's value by more than half. In 2018 she launched the Martin Brothers Bird Passport, a free, individually numbered record of each bird's ownership and provenance.
In 2020 she spotted a bird stolen from a museum collection in Ealing on social media, and worked with Art Recovery International to recover it.
The scale, the condition, the provenance, the quality of the modelling, but perhaps more than anything, the expression.
Alison Davey on what makes a great Martin Brothers bird, Antiques and The Arts Weekly
Working with museums and collectors
Alison regularly works with museums and has contributed to significant acquisitions. Three pieces from AD Antiques will feature in the Holburne Museum's exhibition William De Morgan and His Fantastic Creatures in Bath, from January to May 2027.
She also acts for private clients at auction. For one client she bought a rare Pilkington's Royal Lancastrian St George and Dragon tile panel for £17,000, more than double its top estimate.
Alison is also a consultant for the Art Advisory Group, an independent service that connects clients with specialists for buying, selling and valuing art and luxury goods.
She has consulted for television programmes including Antiques Roadshow, writes for specialist magazines and journals, and has shared photographs and research with The Victorian Web, the academic reference site on Victorian art and culture.
Bringing British Art Pottery to new audiences
Alison took British Art Pottery onto the vetted fair circuit, where traditional antiques had long dominated. In one year alone AD Antiques exhibited at 37 fairs across the UK, and over the years the business has shown at leading London fairs including Art Antiques London, LAPADA and the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in Battersea.
She has curated seven acclaimed selling exhibitions, including Praise the Glaze in 2010. She was also one of the first UK dealers with a stand-alone website, which she coded herself in the early 2000s. Today AD Antiques deals online and by appointment in the North Cotswolds, with every piece guaranteed as described and shipped fully insured worldwide.
Alison has been a long-standing member of the British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA), and served on its committee until June 2026.
In the press
Also featured in Antiques Info (2009), Learning with Experts, the Harborough Mail and The Victorian Web.
From the collection
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Buying from us
- Guaranteed as described, including any invisible restoration
- 14-day money-back guarantee
- Complimentary packing and fully insured shipping worldwide
- No buyer's premium or hidden fees
Selling to us
We buy single pieces and entire collections, with immediate settlement and no seller's commission. At auction, combined fees can cost a seller up to half of a piece's value.
Read Alison's guide: Auction vs Specialist → Sell to AD AntiquesGet in touch
alison@adantiques.com · +44 (0)7811 783 518
Viewings in the North Cotswolds by appointment.