Eric Knowles

Eric Knowles is well known to antiques lovers as a ceramics expert on BBC TV's 'The Antiques Roadshow'. He has also appeared on many other TV antiques programmes, including 'The Great Antiques Hunt', 'The Antique Inspectors' and 'You Can't Take it With You'.

Eric worked for a firm of antiques shippers before joining Bonham's, the London auction house, in 1976. In 1981 he became head of the ceramics department there, and is a leading authority on 17th - 20th-century European and Oriental ceramics, 19th-and 20th-century decorative arts, and the glass of Tiffany and Lalique. Since 2009 he has worked independently of Bonhams. As well as his many TV and radio appearances, he has lectured extensively and written books on Victoriana, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Royal Memorabilia. Royal Doulton have produced an Eric Knowles character jug. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

His Private Passions begin with a Bach Brandenburg Concerto, which is contemporaneous with the foundation of the famous Meissen porcelain factory at Dresden. Two other of his musical choices are related to his work - Borodin's 'In the Steppes of Central Asia' brings to his mind the camel trains bringing precious Chinese porcelain to Europe, and Debussy's liquid Arabesque No.1 evokes the sinuous forms of Lalique glass. Eric Knowles brought along a 17th-century Chinese bowl and a piece of Lalique glass, which can be seen on the BBC website, from his own collection to illustrate the similarities. His other choices include a movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade, a piece he loved as a boy, and an extract from Prokofiev's 'Lieutenant Kije' in an arrangement for brass band, which reminds him of his Northern roots.