People have always liked to take home a souvenir from the seaside, whether it's just a shell picked up from the beach, a stick of rock or a trinket bought from a promenade shop. And this just where crested china began. Now hugely collectable, this lovely white china was conceived a century ago by William Goss as an experiment to produce fashionable china miniatures. 

The Edwardians (1902-10) were fanatical about miniatures pieces, so, when Goss began the production of china trinkets - mementoes for the newly mobile working classes, brought to the seaside by steam train - they were an instant success. 

His wares were of very high quality, but cheap copies and similar items were soon produced by other factories and flooded the market. Sometimes the quality was questionable. Today, crested china is an area of considerable activity and, with over 10,000 different period designs already documented, there is much to keep collectors busy.

Designs can show anything from animals and birds, to shoes and musical instruments, but the concept was that one bought these crested china objects in their place of its origin. 

They flourished during and after World War I when they became sought after souvenirs in the shape of grenades, tanks, machine guns, bombs and zeppelins.

At the bottom end of the scale, pieces had no name, smudgy decoration or firing cracks but, among quality producers, names to watch for are Arcadian, Carlton, Willow and Grafton as well as the established companies like Wedgwood, Royal Worcester and Crown Derby.