Potting Up Some Beauty

 

QUESTION: I love plants and for the last few years I’ve been buying a variety of colorful vintage ceramic flower pots at local flea markets and garage sales. Few of them have any makers’ marks. I’d like to have some idea who made some of the pots I have. Can you help me?

ANSWER: Unfortunately, many of the potteries that produced these pots didn’t mark them. But I should be able to give you some clues to their makers through descriptions of their patterns. Some things never go out of style. And so it is with vintage ceramic flower pots. 

Gardening furniture and accessories have become one of the hottest vintage collectibles. For the last several decades, decorating magazines have shown them in rooms adorned with vintage garden ware. Produced in many styles and colors, there’s a flowerpot available to harmonize with almost any decor.

Many American potteries, such as McCoy, Shawnee, Roseville, and Camark produced flowerpots from the 1930s to the 1950s. And people are still using many of them today to display their houseplants. Some even collect them.

The Nelson McCoy Pottery Company, which operated in Roseville, Ohio, from 1920 to 1967, made over 10 different patterns of flowerpots with attached saucers. Some of the most common patterns, available in three sizes and glazes including aqua, green, dark green, white, yellow, rust, plum and pink, were Basketweave, Beaded Tower Patch, Greek Key, and Stonewall. These are quite common and can still be found at garage sales, although prices have risen to $5 to $45 in the past few years. 

Roseville Pottery operated several potteries in Roseville and Zanesville, Ohio, from 1892 to 1954. Early on, they made utilitarian ware, but by 1902, the company had begun to produce art pottery, such as Rozane, Fuji, and Della Robbia. Talented designers such as Frederick H. Rhead and Frank Ferrell contributed to the success of these   lines. Roseville later produced molded flowerpots in a variety of glazes and patterns, including Apple Blossom, Bittersweet, Bleeding Heart, Bushberry, Clematis, Columbine, Corinthian, Cosmos, Donatello, Ferella, Foxglove, Freesia, Iris, Ivory II, Ixia, Jonquil, La Rose, Magnolia, Moss, Pine Cone, Poppy, Primrose, Rosecraft, Snowberry, Water Lily, White Rose and Zephyr Lily. These had separate, not attached, saucers and were usually available in several glaze colors. Most were 5 inches tall, although the Donatello and Rosecraft patterns came in three sizes—4, 5 and 6 inches. Roseville flowerpots cost more than others and are usually hard to find than those of other manufacturers. Most sell for $75 to $200.

Shawnee Pottery Company of Zanesville, Ohio, produced not only kitchenware but inexpensive flower pots from 1937to 196 for Samuel Henry Kress,  F.W. Woolworth, and Sears Roebuck. Patterns included burlap surface, diamond quilted, square, three-footed with embossed flower, scalloped rim, and five-petal flower around rim. Their flowerpots sell for under $15.  

The Vernon Kilns Pottery of Los Angeles, operating between 1931 and 1958, produced flower pots with separate saucers in several of their handpainted dinnerware patterns, such as Brown-Eyed Susan, Homespun, Organdie, and Gingham in three sizes—3, 4 and 5 inches. Though highly sought after by collectors, all are hard to find, especially the saucers, and prices range from $40 to $60.

Founded in 1926, Camden Art Tile and Pottery Company was the third and last producer of art pottery in Arkansas. By the end of its first year, its name had changed to Camark to include both the city of Camden and the state of Arkansas. The firm produced flowerpots that were similar to, if not exact copies of, those of other manufacturers. The bottom line for Camark was to keep abreast of market trends and either meet them or anticipate new ones as was the case with flowerpots. By the mid-1930s, Camark had introduced a line of flowerpots with attached saucers. Camark realized the potential for flowerpot sales and predicted that growing plants will be sold in very large quantities and flower pots will become a necessity—a prediction which definitely came true. To cut costs, Camark changed the types of clays it used for its flowerpots. Previously, the company relied on Arkansas clays but began to use clays from outside the state.

With flowerpots, it’s really not whether they’re worth anything as collectibles— although some are—but whether they appeal to you.

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Ring the Bells for Bell Pottery

QUESTION: While out antiquing at a cooperative this past weekend, I came across a beautiful hand-painted, porcelain water pitcher decorated with flowers jammed on a shelf full of junk. The price was $10, so I figured for that price I could afford to buy it. It stands about 11 inches tall and has “BBC/CHINA” stamped on the bottom in black. I’ve never saw a mark like this before and the vase looked like a copy of more expensive Haviland china.

ANSWER: It seems that you’ve stumbled upon a rare piece of china made by the Bell Pottery Company of Findlay, Ohio. The firm only produced fine china rivaling French Haviland and Limoges porcelain for five years, from 1899 to 1904. And for that reason, the pieces are scarce. The dealer in that coop probably also thought it was a copy.

Located in northwestern Ohio, Findlay is better known for its glass. Bell located there because of cheap natural gas which it used to fire its kilns. The pottery began as a partnership between three East Liverpool, Ohio, men—brothers William M. and Edward F. Bell and Henry W. Flentke—who named their new company the Bell Brothers & Co. Pottery. Unfortunately, a series of disasters befell the young company, so it’s life was short lived.

Bell Pottery fired its first wares in July 1889, and by the following month 150 workers kept the dinnerware, toilet ware and hotel china rolling out. By March 1890, the pottery was running night and day and unable to keep up with orders. The partners added three new kilns to increase production.

The first problem occurred in January, 1891, when all the employees struck because of an attempt by the owners to reduce wages. By July, the Bells and Flentke settled the labor dispute and most of the old hands went back to work. But in March 1892, a shortage of natural gas became a problem, and the pottery had to rely on purchased gas from the city. In January 1893, the pottery converted to coal, which meant that all of their raw materials now had to be imported, and in May 893, a rumor that the plant would be leaving Findlay surfaced. That same month, a severe windstorm blew the roof off the decorating room on the third floor of the south building and destroyed six kilns north of the decorating room, causing over $8,000 damage.

In April 1894, the partners began to disagree and with the dissolution of the partnership, the court ordered the property to be sold. Flentke, then living in Evansville, Indiana, stopped the sale of the pottery. He resolved the differences between himself and the Bell brothers before the sale date, enabling the pottery to resume operations in August 1894, after a year of standing idle. But the peace lasted only two years, and in January of 1896, the court once again ordered the property sold for not less than $30,000. The  Bell brothers purchased the pottery for 36,450 and paid Flentke $7,295 for his share. By that time, the pottery hadn’t been in full operation for four years, and foreign imports had reduced the demand for its wares.

In 1898, the Bell brothers incorporated the firm as the Bell Pottery Company. A sherd from one of the early wares, marked “BBC/CHINA,” was discovered at an Ohio farmhouse site.

In August 1899, the Bell Pottery announced that it would begin producing hand-decorated white china, employing about 25 decorators. Common decorative motifs included currants, roses, blackberries, chestnuts and hops. By December, improvements included the installation of an oval dish jigger to enable the production of footed dishes for use as nut bowls or candy dishes.

Following a serious fire in April 1900, and more storm damage in June 1900, which knocked down both smokestacks for the decorating kilns, the Bell brothers erected a new brick building, and in 1901, issued additional stock with the intention of doubling the pottery’s capacity, employing 400. Their intention was to produce fine china that rivaled Haviland.

As often happens with small, young companies, they expanded too much and too fast. The Bell brothers planned on building a second factory in Columbus, Ohio, but William Bell died suddenly in 1902. His brother Edward took over management of the pottery, which soon became a union shop.

Edward had grand plans for the Columbus operation. He planned on 17 buildings with 12 kilns, to be doubled as the need arose. Lack of equipment caused more delays. By November 1904, he announced that he would move the Findlay operation to Columbus. The new pottery produced wares for about a year but by September of 1906, it was in the hands of a receiver.

Today, Bell vases and pitchers sell for $150 to $200 while smaller mugs and nut bowls sell for $50 to $75 each.