what does a flambe glaze look like?

A flambe glaze has a deep red colour, often with darker streaks or spots running through it. It has a high gloss finish that catches the light. The process relies on copper oxide and a starved-oxygen atmosphere in the kiln. The results are unpredictable, meaning the colour pools differently on every single piece.

I inherited a tall ceramic vase from my grandmother with a dark blue background and rough texture, how do I know if it is stoneware or bone china?

Turn it upside down and look at the unglazed foot rim. Stoneware feels gritty and rough, like sandpaper, and usually has a dense grey or tan body. Bone china is smoother and whiter. The rough texture on the dark blue background points heavily towards Lambeth stoneware. The salt-glazing technique used there naturally leaves a pitted effect on the surface.

clean inside an old ceramic vase?

Use lukewarm water and a soft bottle brush. A drop of mild detergent helps lift old dust. Avoid soaking it. Water can seep through unseen cracks and damage the clay body.

My wife bought a pair of matching floral vases that have artists initials on the bottom but one has a different date code to the other, did they make pairs at different times?

It is quite common for matching vases to carry different date codes. Factories produced popular shapes and patterns continuously over several years. Dealers often married up similar pieces later on to form pairs. As long as the height, shape and decoration match, they sit well together on a mantlepiece. The artists applying the flowers worked from standard factory pattern books. This ensured consistency across batches, even if those batches were fired months or years apart.

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Antique Doulton Vases from the 19th Century

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Antique Doulton vases are decorative ceramic vessels ranging from salt-glazed stoneware to fine bone china, originally produced to adorn the mantlepieces and drawing rooms of Victorian homes.