The Royal Crown Derby factory opened in Derby in 1748 and is still in operation today. Skills have been handed down from generation to generation and today's artists still work in the old traditions of decorating and gilding.

In 1760 William Duesbury took sole control of the factory which he had acquired in 1756 and so Royal Crown Derby began. Duesbury set very high standards and would only employ the most talented artists of the day. Among them were artists like William Billingsley, William Pegg, Zachariah Boreman, George Robertson, George Complin and the Brewer brothers. Billingsley and Pegg as well as Moses Webster soon gained a reputation for flower painting on china and were considered to be among the finest artists of their day, painting roses being their speciality.

While usually the flowers were painted onto the white glaze of undecorated china Billingsley would paint the whole of the surface and brush out small areas of colour and then add further paints for effect. Boreman initiated the use of topographical landscapes for china painting and he used the wild Derbyshire countryside as his inspiration. You can view many of these examples at the Crown Derby museum at the factory.

Collectors are becoming very interested and are commissioning bespoke designs, such as the recent dinner service, for presentation to the Royal Family, where each plate was painted with a different race horse.

Many of Derby's limited edition series are hand painted, like the recent plates with floral designs which were inspired by Jane Austen's favourite flowers and the Pemberley Vase, which was named after Mr Darcy's estate in the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice.

The Derby factory has always been good at striking the balance between artistry and commerce which is important when running a ceramic factory. They have always encouraged their artists, sculptors and designers to evolve new techniques by working with external potters and ceramicists, such as Ken Eastman and Angela Verdun who was commissioned to create a large decorative design, with a Derby theme, for a new arts centre.

In 1981 Derby launched its paperweights with five birds, a penguin, wren, quail, owl and duck and a rabbit. They have introduced new paperweights each year with the exception of 1982 nad 1984 and these collections have remained very popular.

The Imari style of decoration, based on traditional Japanese porcelains are used for the paperweights and the patterns are inspired by traditional brocades. The names stems from the fact that the porcelains were originally exported to Europe via the port of Imari. Each year new pieces are added to the collection and they are often limited editions, which makes them very collectable. If you join the Royal Crown Derby's Collectors' Guild you will get free gifts and advance notice of which new pieces are coming out.

Derby occasionally revives a withdrawn design and creates a new decoration for it, such as the Chaffinch in 2008. The original had been modelled by Robert Jefferson who created all the early pieces. Sue Row has designed the new decoration. There is also a new series for 2008, featuring popular pets and the first two are the Guinea Pig and Hamster.

If you want to start collecting Royal Crown Derby you will be spoilt for choice. There are several hundred pieces in the paperweight collection alone and many are rare and difficult to find. Royal Crown Derby is marked with a cipher to identify the year, starting from 1880. 2008 paperweights carry the Roman numerals MMVIII, the 1981 cipher was XLIV (44) and this system continued until 1999. From 2000 they used numerals coinciding with the year, thus making it a lot easier to identify the year of production.