In the early days of the Antiques Roadshow, Arthur Negus was asked what wonderful things he had collected. I sympathised with his reply. He made his crust by selling antiques and could not afford to keep the ones he loved the most.

My position was much the same - the Meiji Satsuma vases and the Galle planters had to be sold. But, sometimes, fascinating - but not perfect - pieces came my way that I could buy for myself. In 1987, an Oxford house-clearer came to me with two badly damaged.ginger jars.

He said he had been called to clear the back of a barn and these were among the pieces he found there. He asked £15 for the pair and I gathered from his body language that he expected me to haggle. To his surprise, I gave him £15 and became the proud owner of a pair of soft paste porcelain vases.

I am sure some readers must feel quite sorry for me getting excited about some broken pots. But I had an idea what I was buying. On the base of the vases were the initials PVM in blue paint.

Looking up PVM' in my venerable copy of Chaffers, I discovered that the maker was one Petrus Van Marum. He was obviously proud of these jars, otherwise he would not have signed them.He was, however, proud of a failure.

Petrus was attempting to copy the must have' luxury in Europe at that time - porcelain.

In the late 17th century, the Dutch dominated international trade in goods from the Far East. When the first ships from China were unloaded, an amazing new material, called porcelain, was discovered. Porcelain was to have a profound influence on the visual arts in Europe. Until then the wealthy ate from silver plates, the middle classes used pewter, while the poor ate from wooden platters. Suddenly, like magic from the east, appeared this exquisite substance which was beautiful, strong and durable.

The Dutch imported over 12 million ceramics - and Petrus wanted to get in on the act. He was not the only one.

In England, entrepreneurs were also trying make porcelain. An alchemist named Johann Friedrich Boettger, with the help of Walther von Tschirnhaus, was the first to succeed. He produced it, for the Elector of Saxony. The formula was a jealously guarded secret. The Prussians even tried to abduct him!

For some time the poor man had been locked in a castle until he made gold. He failed in that, but he did discover the formula for porcelain - which became known as Dresden's gold'.

The Meissen factory in Dresden broke the Chinese monopoly and became one of the wealthiest companies in Europe. England, France and Holland also wanted the knowledge to break the Meissen monopoly!

When I hold my vases I am in touch with one of the most exciting quests of the 18th century. They are not hard and strong like porcelain, but light and very fragile, hence the description - soft paste porcelain. It is a miracle they survived at all.

For me, the attraction of antiques is that they come with a story attached. So, if you have an antique with an interesting story to tell, e-mail me at vettasylvia@aol.com or write c/o Oxfordshire Limited Edition, Newsquest Oxfordshire, Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 OEJ.