For My Lady’s Dressing Table

QUESTION: When I was a little girl back in the early 1950s, I remember my mother’s skirted dressing table with its many glass and silver boxes, which contained her combs and her perfumes and the fine white powder she used when she went out. Sometimes when she was busy doing something, I would sneak into her bedroom and sit at her dressing table and play with her dressing set, pretending to be a big girl. Now that I’m older and have been all grown up for quite a while, I’d like to find out more about those early dressing sets. I’ve seen some at flea markets, but I have no idea if they’re worth much. Can you help me?

ANSWER:  Dressing table sets first became fashionable in the 18th century. Back then, a variety of items may have graced a lady’s dressing table, including comb and brush sets, little boxes, and perfume bottles. 

Perhaps the most beautiful items of the Victorian lady's dressing table were the brush sets, which included hair brushes, clothes brushes, hat brushes, combs and a hand mirror. These sets became fashionable in the second half  of the 18th century.

Leading silversmiths of the time backed many of them with engraved silver. Others used ivory or tortoiseshell backs, sometimes inlaid with the fancy scrolled monogram of the owner in silver.

Combs have been in existence since ancient Egypt. The Romans taught the Britons to use  combs rather than go through their hair with four fingers. An early alternative to the comb was a scratching stick, often in the form of a hand or bird's foot carved in ivory or hardwood, which ladies might also use to relieve their itching scalps.

There were two categories of combs. Ladies used back, puff and side combs to hold their hair in place after having it styled. Both men and women used dressing and folding combs to arrange their hair, These dressing combs were often part of fancy brush sets.



Early comb makers used cattle horn, ivory, and tortoiseshell for their combs, as well as wood, bone and metal. Ivory and tortoiseshell were the most desirable and costly. At the end of the 19th century, a cheaper substitute for ivory was Xylonite, also called French Ivory, an early form of white plastic sold by the Xylonite Company. Few of these sets have survived because when the brushes wore out, a woman would discard the entire set.

In addition to comb and brush sets, a variety of boxes adorned ladies’ dressing tables. First made in the 17th century, dresser boxes contained a number of tiny compartments and drawers to hold trinkets, jewelry, and other items, and often had a mirror fitted in the inside of them. Today, these have become known generically as “jewelry boxes.”

Patch boxes are small elegant boxes used to store patchet, worn by wealthy women to hide an imperfection or to draw attention to a pleasing facial feature. Made from a variety of materials, patchet were often shaped
like tiny hearts, circles or diamonds.

But powder boxes were the most essential item on the dressing table. Figural ones took the form of half dolls or ballet dancers. From 1870 to 1920 a woman could wear powder without being considered a prostitute, so these boxes appeared in large quantities. A few of them contained a tiny puff, made of fibers or cotton with a tiny handle sticking up.

Another container to hold powder was the talc, a small elongated container similar to a salt  shaker. A lady shook some talc out on her fingers to help ease the often tight-fitting kid gloves onto her hands.

But one of the largest and most ornate containers found on a dressing table was the porcelain trinket box, made by Limoges, Capodimonte, and other European and Asian porcelain companies. Ladies used it to hold button-cufflinks. odd pieces of jewelry, or small souvenirs,. Some featured hand-painted flowers, designs and portraits and came lined with colored plush or velvet. The more elaborate boxes had interior division and trays.

Another required item on a lady’s dressing table was the perfume bottle. The tradition of encasing perfumes in expensive and beautiful containers is an ancient one. Ancient Egyptians used alabaster bottles to store perfumes, due to its density and coolness to prevent evaporation, but they also used elaborate blown glass perfume containers.


The variety of 18th century perfume containers was as wide as that of their fragrances and uses. Liquid perfume came in beautiful Louis XIV-style pear-shaped porcelain bottles. Glass perfume bottles became increasingly popular.



Fine china makers brought out all sorts of dainty things for the dressing table. The hairpin holder, hair receiver, pin tray, manicure set and the small tray upon which it lies, powder boxes, cold-cream casket, lotion bottles, rouge pot, comb and brush, jewel boxes, frames of the hand and triple mirrors, bonbonniere, perfume bottles, sachet holders and the cunning little barrel for small change were all of china and all matched and decorated with small isolated flowers pansies, violets or daisies—scattered carelessly over the entire surface.

Although not as common as porcelain dresser sets, matched dresser sets in cut glass, pressed glass and milk glass appeared in the late 19th century. Cut glass colognes came in a variety of shapes. The stoppers might have matched the design or have been made of silver.

Dressing table sets can range from perhaps $25 at a flea market to over $300,000 at auction, depending on when they were made. Finding one from the 18th century in one piece will be a challenge.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "Early Americana," online now.

From Boredom to Art

QUESTION: I belong to a reenactor group that specializes in Revolutionary War reenactments. Some of the men carry powder horns as part of their equipment. Most of these are plain reproductions. They serve the purpose. At several larger gatherings of reenactment groups, I’ve seen some beautifully engraved horns. What can you tell me about these engraved horns?  Might they be original or are they reproductions?

ANSWER: Powder horn collectors are a very specialized group. The horns they collect are usually engraved but not all of them are valuable. Today, there are a number of very good reproductions and contemporary powder horns being made. They’re so well done that it’s often impossible to tell the authentic ones from the reproductions.

Powder horns once provided a practical, inexpensive way to carry gun powder for use in the early flintlock and percussion firearms. They were America's first art form. Early settlers had to work so hard there was no time to make art.



The French and Indian War was the catalyst for horn art. Soldiers had a lot of time on their hands and were lonesome. So on their horns they drew images of their houses, trees, their gardens, their dogs, their girlfriends and other things that reminded them of home. But the simple powder horn of the early frontier evolved into personal works of art out of necessity. Soldiers, and perhaps groups of hunters, had to have an obvious way of identifying their horns.

Sometimes they used only their initials. If the horn owner was literate, or knew someone who could copy letters, dates, names and places, he had them engraved onto his horn. Eventually, animals, mythical creatures like mermaids or griffons, birds, snakes, various styles of flowers and vines and all sorts of geometrics decorated powder horns. To make their horns more personal, some men engraved rhymes on their horns. Next to his wife and children, a man’s powder horn was often his most cherished possession.

This high level of artistic competence among common soldiers and pioneers shows that many people in the Colonies must have had art training. Children who went to school learned penmanship and calligraphy which helped in engraving their horns as young adults.



Less artistic soldiers could pay professional hornsmiths, who traveled with the troops, set up tents, and took orders, to customize their horns. Better-paid military officers could afford to set the trend around camp for horns with similar designs. Historians believe there was a community of horn carvers who observed and borrowed from each other's work.

The earliest known American engraved horn, inscribed with the name Daniel Tuttle, dates from 1727. But older doesn't translate into more valuable. Seventeenth-century "pilgrim horns" sell moderately because they were plain and lacked artwork. Most of the classic engraved horns are 13 to 17 inches long. But horns may vary from a few inches to over two feet long. Usually, the bigger the horn is, the older it is, because men took longer forays into the forest to hunt in the 18th century.

Early on, settlers hunted for weeks at a time. As they got more settled, they would go hunting in the afternoon, so they didn't need to carry two or three pounds of powder with them. Because of this, they took smaller horns which they would carry in their bags or pockets.

Early settlers often carried two horns. One was a smaller horn which held fine-grain, faster burning gunpowder used only for priming the pan in early flintlock mechanisms. When percussion replaced flintlocks beginning in the 1830s, most men carried only a single horn in the field.



But many hunters and soldiers ceased using powder horns altogether in the 1830s with the advent of brass flasks and leather pouches.

So how can a collector tell an old horn from a new one. Old engravings often start deep when the knife first enters but then pressure is decreased and the rest of the line has uniform depth. Lines made with a knife and not a dentist's drill won’t end abruptly but will extend beyond the image's outline.

Collectors look for the "warmth and glow" emanating from an antique powder horn. The most prized horns are those with maps engraved on them. Often they show forts or towns along a river. Some originated as guidelines allowing soldiers to find their way back to forts. They became popular Ind eventually were professionally made by hornsmiths. Some map horns, though are believed to have been carved long after the war when soldiers returned tome. In some cases, horns were used as proof of military service, thus qualifying their owners to a pension.

While ordinary 18th- and 19th-century horns are common and usually sell for $10 to $40, those engraved with intricate artwork have attained the level of treasured American folk art worth thousands of dollars. Engraved horns can sell for as little as $34 and as much as $34,000. Many engraved horns came from the area around Lake George, New York, site of Fort Ticonderoga. Horns inscribed with historic names from that region are more valuable.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "Early Americana," online now.

Like a Bowlful of Jelly

QUESTION: Recently, I’ve begun to collect jelly molds. The ones I’m finding are mostly newer, but I’d like to perhaps add some older ones to my collection. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about these molds, except that many were not made to mold jelly as many people know it today. What can you tell me about the old jelly molds? Why did they come to be?

ANSWER: If you say jelly, most people think of fruit jellies in jars. While some people still make their own, the majority of people buy theirs at their local supermarket. Brands like Smuckers and Welch’s have become synonymous with jelly. But early jelly molds contained mostly other types of foods.

White earthenware jelly molds, particularly those produced in England around the turn of the 20tº century, are some of the most widely collected of all food molds. Although jelly molds have been produced in a variety of materials, including copper, tin, redware, yellowware, graniteware, cast iron, aluminum and plastic, over the last several hundred years, it’s the white earthenware ones that collectors favor. Cooks used these molds to form aspics, sweet jellies, mousses, and steamed puddings.

Historians believe the use of jellies began in medieval England, when people prepared the earliest of puddings, called blancmange, literally "white food,” from boiled milk and ground almonds, sometimes flavored with fish or poultry. Flummery, an oatmeal believed to have been the first food actually set in wooden molds, appeared during the late 17`º or early 18'"century.

Cooks prepared the earliest jellies---technically, aspics, being savory rather than sweet --with gelatin they obtained from cows' feet and sheep's heads, which they flavored with meat extracts. They used shavings from deer antlers to make hartshorn jelly. They employed Isinglass — a natural substance obtained from the air bladders of certain fish, and containing about 90 percent gelatin—to help improve the setting qualities of jellied foods. When cooks created the first aspics in the 18th century, the scope and use of molds broadened considerably.





By the 18th century, sugar had become widely available, and sweet jellies became popular. Cooks used wines, fruit juices and nuts used as flavorings, and colored their jellies with boiled down plants and other natural sources, including insects. The most common colors were lemon yellow, orange, ,and violet. People used individual bowls  or glasses until about the mid-1700s, when molds became larger.



One of the main suppliers of earthenware jelly molds was Wedgwood. Although best known for decorative pieces, Wedgwood produced many jelly molds. The company’s two-part "core molds" from the 18th century were well suited to translucent jellies. These molds remained in place once a cook unmolded the jelly. The hand-painted enameled designs on the inner core were visible through, and magnified by, the jelly, making for a handsome display. Wedgwood intended these jellied creations only as table decorations, not for consumption. Other Wedgwood molds featured classical and Egyptian themes, animal and birds, Prince of Wales' feathers, and the emblems of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The firm designed molds with eagle and corn-on-the-cob motifs for the American market.

In the 19th century, middle-class housewives began to use jelly molds. Molds came in a wide variety of shapes, including geometric forms, with their designs of swirls, tiers, and/or spirals, and . "architectural" styles. Architectural molds incorporated 18th and 19th century neo-classical building elements such as grooved columns, acanthus leaves, pieces of egg-and-dart molding, and rounded ornamental knobs. Various fruit, flowers, wheat, corn and animal patterns were also abundant. Cooks used many molds from this period for all kinds of food, from rice to ice cream to pudding. They used some pudding molds to steam or bake in while they used others for chilling and setting pudding that they had cooked in a saucepan. Generally, pudding molds intended for baking or steaming had a tube or spout in the center, much like an angel food cake pan, to allow for more even cooking.

Minton produced pyramid jelly molds as early as 1824. Historians believe these molds to have been two-part core molds similar to those produced by Wedgwood. Minton's 1884 catalog illustrates 63 different molds, featuring recumbent lions, crowns, wheat sheaves, shells, grapes, pineapples, other fruits, fishes, and florals. They also made  architectural molds. Minton molds often have a foot rim, a bluish tinge and no mark.

Another notable manufacturer was W.T. Copeland, a company that produced a prolific number of molds well in the 20th century, including architecturally inspired designs,  various fruits, chickens, bears, dolphins, and conch shells.

By the late 1880s, when advances in printing made colored cookbook illustrations possible, aspiring hostesses could prepare luscious-looking molded dishes. Using exotic molds such as those in Copeland's catalog, cooks used differently colored gelatins, as well as bits of food placed in the mold to create an attractively patterned surface when they turned out the jelly.

The Victorian era was the heyday of the jelly mold. When World War I began, may firms went out of business. Instant gelatin desserts, such as "JELL-O", took much of the work out of making molded desserts and the status as well.

NOTE: The title of this blog comes from the poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore, published in 1823. Most people probably never would connect a “bowlful” of jelly with jelly molds, but prior to the poem’s creation, many people used bowls to molded their jellies.
 
To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "EArly Americana," online now.

Good Night, Sleep Tight

QUESTION: My mother was an avid tea drinker, so she began to collect teapots. While she had some nice ones in her collection, she didn’t focus on value as much as she did on what she liked. She passed away last year, and I inherited her teapot collection. I, too, love to drink tea. I think I’d like to enhance her collection, now mine, by focusing on unique or unusual teapots, culling out the ordinary and focusing on the extraordinary. Recently, I bought an unusual teapot at a flea market. The dealer said that it was a “nightlight” teapot. I had never heard of such a thing, but she said she really didn’t know much about it. What exactly is a nightlight teapot and how does it differ from an ordinary one?

ANSWER: First, let me congratulate you on planning to enhance your mother’s teapot collection and take it as your own. Too many people who inherit someone else’s collection either sell it off or stash it away. They become the caretaker of the collection, not the curator.

I, too, never heard of a nightlight teapot until recently. Basically, it’s a bedside porcelain teapot that sits on a warming stand. The light from an oiled wick or tiny candle not only kept the tea warm but also served as a nightlight since the light from the flame flickered through the vents and through the porcelain, itself.

During the 18th century, like now, people often enjoyed sipping warm cups of tea just before retiring for the night. So bedside porcelain teapots became wedding gifts. In the days before electrical lighting, they served a dual purpose. They not only allowed people to take some sips of warm tea at bedtime but also emitted a soft diffused glow. People referred to these teapots as veilleuse-theieres.

The earliest veilleuses, used as food warmers for porridge, soup, or an invalid's drink in sick rooms or hospitals, had a bowl instead of a teapot on a stand. Later, the teapot replaced the bowl and veilleuse-theirres came into use. The French used them as a way of brewing and serving tisane, an floral or herb tea, to restless babies during the night. Not only did they offer a warm liquid for a restless infant or sick person, but also  afforded a night light in the sick room long before electricity. Most were translucent, making them useful as well as ornamental.

People filled a small boat-shaped or rounded vessel known as a "godet" with nut or vegetable oil, then floated a wick on top. Not only was the porcelain translucent, it also had been tempered to withstand heat for a long period.

By 1830, veilleuses made for the wealthy began to be more ornate and decorative, with some in the form of figurines or personages and others with insignia or crests.

Between nine and twelve inches tall, some of them looked exactly like what they were—teapots seated on warriors, fine ladies poised with fans, and monks clutching wine bottles. Others had smooth facades decorated with historical and literary scenes.

Although made for 100 years, between 1750 and 1860, information about veilleuses is hard to find. Most references simply document where someone purchased them, not their place of manufacture. Most of the factories that produced them didn’t place identifying marks on the bottom, making them extremely hard to identify.

Veilleuse-théières reveal ingenuity, attention to detail, and their creators’ sense of humor. Noses of the grotesques serve as spouts, as do the upraised hands of some figurine-styled pieces. One teapot made to look like a cottage had a cat perched on the roof that served as its handle.

Because of their fragile nature and their continual use, few veilleuse-theieres have survived.

Veilleuse-theieres sometimes mimic their origins. A delicate, skylark green, fluted teapot and pedestal veilleuse, translucent as an oriental lantern, hails from Hong Kong. A brown slated “roof” teapot tops a veilleuse-theieres that, down to its French advertisements, resembles a Parisian kiosk. A white and gold laced Gothic style veilleuse-theiere recalls windows of the great French cathedrals. Other architectural veilleuse-theieres include a towering turret, a quadrangular Normandy house, and a Spanish windmill.

Veilleuses also came in the shapes of all sorts of animals. A gold encrusted Spanish pig grotesque, its snout poised to pour, displays a scroll depicting scenes of Hades. A Siamese elephant, dashing in candy striped pants and blue waistcoat, pours from his nose. A tasseled Tunisian camel rests en route, while his mistress peeks out from her curtained howdah.

Many veilleuse-theieres are figural, bearing no outward resemblance to teapots at all. Some are pure whimsey. A rosy cheeked cupid, draped in blue splendor and cradling a golden pitcher, for example, sat astride a long-haired goat. A maiden straddled a fearsome, multi-colored dolphin.

Other figurals, however, appeared more realistic. A Turkish turbaned warrior twisted his mustache while fingering twin daggers in his cummerbund. An inscrutable, mustachioed Chinese Mandarin proffered a china tea cup on high. A courtesan, enticing in gilded and ruffled petticoats, fluttered her fan. All of these, at first glance, are simply exquisite porcelain creations. Yet somewhere underneath their cunning and fanciful features, lay utilitarian teapots combined with night lights.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "EArly Americana," online now.

Did Someone Yell Fire!

QUESTION: My father was a fireman for most of his life. During that time he acquired a modest collection of firehouse memorabilia. When he passed away last year, I became the keeper of the flame, so to speak. And while I appreciate the history of these items, I don’t really know much about them. What can you tell me about firehouse collectibles? What is the market like for them today and are they readily available should I wish to expand his collection.

ANSWER: Firehouse memorabilia is one of those very specialized areas of collectibles. Not everyone is into them. In fact, many of the collectors of these objects are or were firefighters and, therefore, have a nostalgic attachment to them. And while fire fighting today is very much high-tech, it wasn’t always that way. The days of throwing buckets of water on a fire are not that far long gone.

To understand what firehouse memorabilia collectors seek, and why, it’s helpful to know something about firefighting history. Man has been struggling to control fire ever since its discovery. In 24 B.C., the emperor Augustus Caesar established groups of watchmen to stand guard, watching for fires in the city of Rome. If and when one of them spotted a fire, he would alert the local residents who would work together to fight the blaze.

The regulation of building construction, as well as restrictions on the building of intentional fires, became an integral part of many future legal codes. Until the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666, individuals were responsible for rebuilding anything damaged by fire, a responsibility shared with their neighbors. As a result of this shift in responsibility, insurance companies established fire brigades of their own, consisting of hired crews of firefighters.

American colonial cities relied on these fire brigades to protect their insured properties. Building owners prominently displayed fire marks, symbols of various insurance companies, on their buildings to indicate to firemen those buildings that fell within their realm of responsibility. Not only did firemen refuse to fight fires not covered by their sponsoring insurance companies, but they often hindered the progress of competing fire brigades.

While Benjamin Franklin founded the first volunteer fire brigade in 1736, it wasn’t until  April 1, 1853, the country's first full-time paid fire department was established in Cincinnati, Ohio. The introduction of the steam fire engine, which provided steam-powered pumping, coincided with this.

But what sparked the interest in firefighting collectibles. Mostly it’s a fascination with personal courage and pride in this special brotherhood.

Some firefighting collectibles are becoming scarce. Fire alarms are of particular interest. Prices for them have increased dramatically over the years. Alarms can sell for as much as $10,000. Other items collected include hand lanterns, engine lamps, uniforms, axes and hoses, fire marks, nozzles, apparatus adornments, as well as presentation items, such as trophies, pocket watches and plaques—the list is seemingly endless.

To collect firehouse memorabilia is not only to pay homage to the men who fought fires,  but also to appreciate the increasingly sophisticated tools they used. However, the collecting field isn’t limited to firefighting tools alone. It also includes non-firefighting memorabilia, as well.

The earliest American firefighting collectibles aren’t related to those who fought fires, but to those who alerted others of the imminent danger. People used rattles, resembling large wooden noisemakers, at the first sight of smoke or flames. Those  commonly used between 1658 and the early 1800s are less than a foot long and have a paddle-like rattle attached at a right angle to a round wooden hanger.

Collectors also seek leather buckets. Typically holding three gallons of water or sand, they’re generally made of cowhide stretched over wooden frames and were individually marked to ensure safe return to their owners following the fighting of a fire. It’s these identifying marks that make them particularly appealing to collectors.

Other collected items range from fire-fighters' hats and helmets to actual fire engines,  including steam pumps as well as red fire trucks. Collectors also seek certain badges and ceremonial items like trumpets. Ephemera collections often turn up firehouse-related articles, as well.

Because it’s getting more and more difficult to find good items, collectors are paying more for what they do find. Many have broadened their collections to include fire insurance memorabilia. And then, of course, there are the modern-day firehouse collectibles like caps and T-shirts.

As with any category of collectibles, collectors need to be wary of reproductions and fakes. The best advice is for you to limit your purchases to well-documented items from reputable sources.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

A Question of Value

QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautiful old armchair from a consignment shop. It looks a lot like a Philadelphia Chippendale chair but I can’t be sure. Also, how do I determine the value? Can you help me?

ANSWER: This is a common question. Since the Antiques Roadshow first appeared on the air on PBS, people have been obsessed with knowing the value of their belongings. In fact, that’s the first question most people ask, not what is it or how old is it?

In the case of this chair, knowing what it is and how old it is makes all the difference in its value. Looking closely, you’ll notice that the carving on the knees of the chair is rather shallow. That tells you that this chair was made in a factory and not by hand in a cabinetmaker’s workshop the way authentic 18th-century Chippendale chairs would have been made. Also, the wood is dark-stained to look like mahogany. In Colonial times, cabinetmakers would have used real mahogany wood and then given it several coats of varnish to bring out the smooth surface shine.

This chair is most likely from the early part of the 20th century and not even 100 years old, so technically it isn’t an antique. As a used pieced of furniture, its value will depend on what the buyer wants to pay for it.

While the answer to the question of value may seem simple, in fact, it’s far from it. What type of value–retail value, insurance replacement value, fair-market value, auction value, or cash value? In the end, each of these values will be a different amount. Other factors determining value are age and condition. So where to begin.

Let’s start with retail value. This is the price for which an antiques dealer expects to sell an item after marking it up from the price the dealer paid for it in order to make a profit. This amount can be anywhere from 20 to100 percent of the dealer’s purchase price.

The amount of money it would take to replace an item from a antiques shop or online if it were lost, stolen, or damaged is called the insurance replacement value.

The price that an item would sell for on the open market between a willing buyer and a willing seller is known as the fair-market value. This is also the value that’s used when an item is donated to a charity or is part of someone’s estate.

And when someone puts an item up for auction, the price that an appraiser feels the item should bring at auction, based on comparison of like items and recent other auction sales, is known as the auction value, but has nothing do with the actual value of the item.

However, being told something is worth a specific value is meaningless if the appraiser doing the appraisal has no knowledge of the item itself or the market for it. And auction prices, such as those eBay are not an indicator of true "worth," since many of these sales prices are inflated many times over in the heat of bidding up an item. And a verbal appraisal is worth nothing without a written appraisal to back it up, especially in the case of settling an estate. Only a written appraisal is legally binding in case of damage or loss.

To learn more about how to value your antiques and collectibles, read my article, “What’s It Worth?,” in The Antiques Almanac. 

A Romantic Tale

QUESTION: Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved the look of Blue Willow china. My mother had a set that she brought out for special occasions. I used to love to clean my plate so I could see the delicate Chinese blue decoration on the white plate. Recently, I bought an older pink plate made by Homer Laughlin here in the U.S. This is the first time I’ve seen this pattern in another color. What can you tell me about the origin of the plate’s design and about other colors of glaze used to produce it?

ANSWER: The Blue Willow pattern has been in existence since the late 18th century. For over 200 years, it has been one of the most popular china patterns ever made. These mostly blue and white dishes could be found in many households, from the mansions of the wealthy to the more modest homes of the middle class. Today, the pattern can even be purchased in supermarkets.

Many people have looked at the three figures going over the bridge, the pagoda, the boat, and the two birds hovering above the willows and wondered what story inspired  the scene.

The pattern featuring this scene became popular when English ceramic artists combined and adapted motifs inspired the hand-painted blue and white ware then imported from China. In developing the Blue Willow pattern, English potters were finally able to produce a dinnerware to compete with the Chinese imports. At the same time, a new decoration technique using engraved tissue paper transfers allowed potteries to cut costs and mass produce china to sell at a reasonable price.

English potteries produced many different Chinese-inspired landscape patterns using this process, both on bone china and porcelain wares, and on white earthenware. The Blue Willow pattern became the most popular and has remained in production ever since. The majority of pieces have a white background with blue images, but some potteries have used other colors in various pastel tints.

No one knows exactly when the pattern first appeared, but during the 1780s various engravers including Thomas Lucas and Thomas Minton began producing Chinoiserie landscape scenes based on Chinese ceramic originals.  These included scenes with willows, boats, pavilions and birds which artists later incorporated into the Blue Willow pattern. In 1793, Thomas Minton set up his own studio in Stoke-on-Trent, from which he produced willow patterns for Spode and other potteries. Most historians agree that Minton probably produced the Blue Willow pattern known today for Spode around 1790.

Normally, the pattern fills a circular or oval area on a piece of china, surrounded by a decorative border. The waterside landscape represents a garden in the lower right side, in which a large two-story pavilion stands. Approached by steps, the lower story has three large pillars with arched windows or openings between. The roof and gable, shown in three-quarter perspective, is surmounted by a smaller room with a similar roof, and there are curling finials at the gables and eaves. Bushes and trees with varied fruit and foliage, including a large tree rising behind with clusters of oranges, surround the pavilion. The roof of another pavilion appears among the trees to the right and a smaller pavilion stands to the left projecting from the waterside bank. A path through the garden leads to the front of the scene and a fence of diapered panels set in a zigzag fashion crosses the foreground.

On its left side the garden forms an irregular and indented bank into the water. In the  foreground of which a large branching willow tree with four clusters of three leafy fronds leans out. From this point a bridge, usually of three arches, crosses left to an island or bank with a house having a tall arched doorway, and a small tree behind. There are usually three figures on the bridge going away from the garden. Above and beyond this the water forms an open expanse, with a boat at the center left containing two little house-like cabins, propelled by a figure with a punt-pole. In the upper left quarter is a distant island or promontory with pavilions and trees, including a fir. Above the scene in the center is a pair of flying doves, one turning and one descending, their heads and beaks turned closely towards one another in amorous conjunction.

Though there are variations, the Blue Willow pattern always includes the bridge, the garden fence, the central pair of birds, and the particular details of the pavilions and surrounding trees

To promote sales of Minton's Willow pattern, Spode created stories based on the elements in the design.  The most popular is a romantic tale of a wealthy Mandarin who had a beautiful daughter Koong-se. She fell in love with Change, her father's servant. This made her father angry because he wasn’t of the same social class as Koong-se. He dismissed the young man and built a high fence around his house to keep the lovers apart. The Mandarin planned for his daughter to marry a rich merchant, who arrived by boat to claim his bride, bearing a box of jewels as a gift. The wedding was to take place on the day the blossom fell from the willow tree.

On the eve of the daughter's wedding to the merchant, Chang slipped into the palace unnoticed. As the lovers escaped with the jewels, the alarm sounded. They ran over a bridge, chased by the Mandarin, whip in hand. Eventually they escaped on the merchant's ship to the safety of a secluded island, where they would have lived happily ever after. But one day, the merchant learned of their refuge. Hungry for revenge, he sent soldiers, who captured the lovers and put them to death. The gods, moved by their plight, transformed the lovers into a pair of doves. However, early plates lack the doves, suggesting that Spode added this detail to the story later on.

Some people, including author Allan Drummond would have readers believe that the pattern was the result of this story, but in fact, it was the other way around. The romantic story was a marketing tool that Spode used to sell its wares—nothing more, nothing less.

Some Things to Occupy Your Time

QUESTION: My mother has a large collection of figures stamped “Occupied Japan”—at last count over 200. Over the years, collecting them has become an obsession with her. What makes these figures so special and why do people like my mother love to collect them?

ANSWER: Some people like the innocent look of Occupied Japan figures while others collect them as part of the nostalgia of Post War America. But to truly understand what they’re all about, it’s necessary to look at the history of the time.

The surrender of the Japanese occurred on Aug. 11, 1945, and the signing of a treaty to finalize the ending of the war took place on the battleship Missouri on Sept. 3, 1945. The War took its toll on the once mighty Japanese Empire. Faced with damaged and destroyed buildings and factories, the country faced real hardship unless something could be done to restore its economy. Harry Truman assigned General Douglas MacArthur to oversee this process as well as the reestablishment of trade. The period in which this took place became known as the American Occupation of Japan and lasted until April 11, 1952.

Using what few buildings and little equipment that they had, the Japanese exported items beginning in the late 1940s, ranging from a majority of poorly made merchandise to high quality goods. It was the poorer quality goods that gained Japan a reputation for producing junk wares.

The U.S. Customs Service required that all Items entering the United States from Japan be marked "Made in Occupied Japan." However, no one common mark existed and manufacturers utilized more than 100 of them. Customs officials inspected the goods, and if they saw no mark, they often used a rubber stamp to add one. Some pieces made it through with no mark or simply with "Made in Japan." These items have little value for the collector of Occupied Japan collectibles. In order to be considered a collectible in this category, the item must have the "Made in Occupied Japan" mark.

Figurines were one of the most prolific items to come out of Japan during this time. Artisans produced them in a variety of shapes and sizes, from large porcelain likenesses of Colonial men and women to small ones of children and animals. . Figurines also served as lamp bases or candleholders.

One of the most popular figurine styles was the single man and single woman. These single figures came in all sizes and often depicted musicians. Since many talented Japanese artisans died in the War, the ones working in the Post-War factories copied many popular styles of porcelain figurines, including Dresden and Delft. Another type of single figurine depicted an Art Deco-style woman wearing a large hat and long, flowing skirt. At first glance, it’s often hard to tell the difference on the better-made pieces, but the poor quality ones lacked the fine detail of authentic Dresden pieces, for example.

Japanese artists also introduced figures of couples. Common scenes showed a man playing an instrument for a woman. Other pieces portrayed 18th-century couples dancing. Another common motif was the woman sitting and the man standing. Like other figurines, these pieces came in all sizes. The amount of facial detail differentiates the finer pieces from the poorer ones.

Though most of these figures were bound for the United States, the artisans also produced ethnic figurines, creating Siamese, Japanese, Mexican, Dutch, and African-American figures in single and couple combinations. These figurines, available in porcelain and bisque, showcased the ability of artisans to create colorful examples of dancers and musicians.

The presence of American servicemen served as an important influence for Japanese craftsmen. They began to emulate the familiar look of Western faces in their figures. Bisque and porcelain figures depicted American Indians in full costume. Cowboys also became popular subjects. .

Figures of children were big sellers. As the Japanese emulated the work of other artists to appeal to American consumers, they chose the Hummel style for many of the figurines of children. Bisque and porcelain figures portraying seated boys with bamboo poles became popular as adornments for the sides of fishbowls. Unfortunately, many of these fishbowl items haven’t survived intact and locating one is rare.

Hundreds of animal figurines first appeared in dime stores and cost mere pennies. A majority of the animals were small and intended to be decorative items for shelves. Many of these pieces showed animals in motion. In some cases, the animals took on human characteristics and artisans portrayed them playing instruments. Another example of the Japanese attempt to appeal to Americans came through the imitation of Staffordshire-style dogs which appeared in both bisque or porcelain.

The great variety of Occupied Japan figurines available is what drives most collectors. Post-War Japanese factories produced them in great quantities to fill the store shelves of American retailers.

A Bedroom Necessity

QUESTION: I found and fell in love with and bought this nightstand from a thrift store for $60.00. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: What you have is a nightstand which probably dates to the 1930s or 1940s. Nightstands are a new type of furniture. Back when people used didn’t have indoor toilets, they sometimes kept a porcelain potty in a cabinet in the lower part of a similar piece of furniture. This came to be known in America as a commode. It allowed a person who had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night to use it in the privacy of their bedroom and not have to go out to the outhouse. When indoor plumbing became more common, furniture manufacturers kept the piece of furniture but replaced the cabinet in the lower portion with drawers.

But to fully understand how the nightstand evolved, we have to go back to the Middle Ages. During that time, people used a simple setup consisting of a tripod stand or stool that could hold a washbasin. They would have placed a chamber pot either under the tripod stand or inside the stool for easy access.

By the 18th century, the washstand, also called a basin stand or washhand stand, had become more a necessity in the bedroom, not just for washing up, but for storage of a chamber pot to be used in the middle of the night when necessity called.

Cabinetmakers made some to fit in a corner, with a bowed door in front and flaps extending upwards from the sides to protect the wall from water splashes. These were simple pieces. By the 19th century, they had increased in size, becoming heavier and more substantial that often came with a marble top and drawers in front and a cupboard below in which to store a chamber pot.

More high quality washstands appeared in the second half of the 19th century. These were usually a part of a bedchamber suite, consisting of a bedstead, dresser, wardrobe of some sort, and bedside commode.

Wealthier people with servants could also use their bedroom for bathing. First, there was the convenience of a commode near the bed, a washstand with warm water supplied by the maid or even a nice hip bath set near to all the bedroom furniture and accessories that a person would have used for grooming and dressing. By heating the bedroom and perhaps an adjoining dressing room, a person could take care of all of his or her bathing needs at once in one warm area. This was especially true in big houses in cold weather.

The washstand, itself, became an essential piece of bedroom furniture. It came in varying designs which could easily accommodate a large basin, a pitcher, a toothbrush jar, and various other toilet accessories, frequently including a chamber pots housed in a cupboard at its base. Furniture makers usually used white marble for the top and the “splash back” set into a wooden frame. Sometimes, they cut a hole in the top so a basin could be suspended in it. They often used a special type of French marble known as “St. Anne’s,” as it resisted the action of the alkali in soap.

Basic washstand accessories included a seven-piece washstand set, consisting of a ceramic bowl and pitcher, chamber pot, toothbrush holder, shaving mug, soap dish, and comb and brush tray. People would often hang a mirror on the wall behind the washstand. Another common accessory was a wooden towel rail known as a “towel horse.”

Commode washstands served the same purpose as a simpler table washstand, made like a chest with a bottom cupboard to hold the chamber pot and a jar for dirty wash water.  Furniture makers added drawers in some models to store a razor, soap dish and towels. The top of some washstands could be lifted to reveal a well in which the wash basin and pitcher could be stored when not in use.

So how did washstand evolve into the nightstand? These convenient pieces of furniture are part of every modern bedroom set. Before indoor flushing toilets became commonplace, the main function of a nightstand was to store a chamber pot. As a result, early nightstands often had small cabinets below with a drawer above them. The enclosed storage space below may also have been covered by one or more doors. Americans eventually started called this bedside cabinet a commode, which after the installation of indoor bathrooms, they also called them.

The Luck 'O the Irish

QUESTION: I have two chairs that I’ve been told are Irish Chippendale. Both feature lion mask carvings on the knees of the front legs. Are these lion mask carvings rare on Irish furniture?

ANSWER: Before tackling whether your chairs are rare or not because of their lion mask motifs, let’s first define exactly what “Irish” Chippendale furniture is?

Most people think Thomas Chippendale designed and built his famous furniture. He definitely designed it and built some for wealthy clients, but mostly he’s known for his famous Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, a catalog of furniture patterns which included detailed drawings of all of his furniture design ideas, plus variations. Cabinetmakers all over the world bought the book and created their own versions of his designs based on the materials available in their locale and on the wishes of their wealthier customers.

Although Irish Chippendale is somewhat of a misnomer, the name which attaches to that peculiar style as well as its general contour comes from Thomas Chippendale It was the work of cabinetmakers in Ireland, and of those who made furniture for the Irish market at a time when Chippendale was influencing the furniture produced by his contemporaries. It was, however, apparently formulated to some extent independently, and even earlier than it was possible for the influence of Chippendale to have spread so far afield.

Chippendale based his designs on those of Queen Anne pieces, especially the cabriole leg. Since Ireland was under British rule in the 18th century, it’s possible that some of the wealthier Irish families imported pieces made by Chippendale in England. The evolution of the Irish Chippendale style was a gradual one. It didn’t just happen overnight. Eighteenth-century cabinetmakers all looked to each other for ideas, incorporating many of them into their designs. In addition, their clients often asked for particular features and motifs on the furniture they commissioned. The wealthy traveled and most likely experienced Chippendale’s designs where they visited, creating a demand for a Chippendale-related style in Ireland sooner than the popularity of the English cabinetmaker’s work would otherwise have done.

Whatever may have been the origin of the Irish Chippendale style, whether made in Dublin or in Irish provincial towns, such furniture had a sufficiently characteristic style running through it which gave it an individuality all its own. Some decorative arts historians believe that the Irish Chippendale style had a Dutch influence which shows in the somewhat heavy foliated carving of the rail, chiefly shown on the edge of tabletops.

Irish cabinetmakers captured the "spirit " of Chippendale in their designs, but for the most part they wrongly interpreted it. Also, many of the pieces show the features of the earlier Queen Ann and Jacobean styles. This indicates that many of the Irish cabinetmakers were unfamiliar with the Chippendale style as such and just added the features requested by their clients to their existing furniture designs.

The lion mask, a motif used from antiquity as an emblem of strength, courage, and majesty, is one such feature. The lion mask holding a ring in its mouth for a handle derives from ancient Roman furniture and continues to be popular as doorknocker even today. From the early to mid-18th century, the lion mask enjoyed popularity as a favored motif for furniture ornament, used as an arm rest support or to decorate the knee of a cabriole leg. Occasionally, a lion's paw or pelt appears alongside the mask. Thus the lion mask was a common facet of Irish Chippendale design.

Unlike other examples of furniture made in the Chippendale style, those pieces made in Ireland feature lion masks prominently in their design. Because much of Irish Chippendale furniture dates a bit before Thomas Chippendale published his catalog of furniture patterns, your chairs are most likely slightly older than furniture made in the traditional Chippendale style during the last half of the 18th century and not a rarity as you originally asked.

To learn more about Thomas Chippendale and his style of furniture, read "Chippendale---The Royalty of Antique Furniture" and "Chippendale Changed the Way Furniture Looked."