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.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Ancients" in the 2021 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Pottery Marks and What They Tell Us

Mark showing pottery name, factory,
country, date, and pattern.

QUESTION: I go antiquing with a long-time friend. Inevitably, whether we’re browsing the tables at a local fleamarket or browsing in an antique shop or show, he always picks up a piece of pottery or porcelain and turns it over to see the mark. What do these marks say about the pieces besides who possibly made them? And are there any other marks from the making of the piece and what do they tell him?

ANSWER: An experienced collector of pottery can tell a lot about a piece’s origin by reading the manufacturers' marks on the bottom of each piece. These marks tell the pottery's name, its location, its company symbol, and often the pattern name or the name given to the body shape of the piece. 

Stamped mark

But there may also be other, less obvious, marks that indicate the method of production or factory flaws that show the level of quality control used by the firm. Collectors familiar with these signs can quickly distinguish between factory flaws and more serious indicators of damage and wear inflicted upon that same piece once it has left the  factory. Knowing the difference allows the experienced collector to purchase pottery with confidence.

While most manufacturer’s marks, which may he printed, incised, impressed, stamped, or applied as paper labels, usually contain the pottery’s name, initials, symbol and location---or some combination of these—some are rather sparse and may only contain a letter within a geometric shape or a crest. 

In the case of the larger firms, a pottery mark also has publicity value and shows the buyer that  a long-established company with a reputation to uphold has made a piece. Such clear name- marks include Wedgwood, Minton, Royal Crown Derby, Royal Doulton, and Royal Worcester in Britain and Bennington, McCoy, and Hull in the U.S.

Though these marks are one of the best and easiest ways to identify ceramics, the shear number of them makes it impossible to every mark. Additionally, many small firms either saw no reason to use marks or sometimes used marks that haven’t been identified because of the short life span and limited production of the company.

Metal stamped mark into clay

To the collector a pottery mark can also identify the manufacturer and help establish the approximate date of manufacture and in several cases the exact year of production, particularly in the case of 19th and 20th century wares from the leading firms which employed private dating systems. With the increasing use of ceramic marks in the 19th century, a large proportion of English and American pottery and porcelain can be accurately identified and often dated.

Pottery’s added marks to their wares in several ways. They could incise them into the soft clay before the piece air dried, in which the mark will show a slight ploughed-up effect. Potters often do this to handmade pieces. Some manufacturers of quantity pieces, such as Wedgwood, impressed a mark into the soft clay using a metal or clay stamp or seal. 

Many pottery manufacturers used painted marks—usually containing their name or initial—added over the glaze at the time of decoration. Some used stencils.

Engraved transfer printed mark

Lastly, most 19th-century pottery makers used printed marks transferred from engraved copper plates at the time of decoration, often in blue under the glaze when the main design is also underglaze blue.

Pottery marks weren’t always universally used. In 1890, President William McKinley introduced the McKinley Tariff Act that imposed tariffs on many imports, including pottery, so that American manufacturers could more easily sell their products. The Act required that all such imports show the name of country of manufacture, such as “England,” “Germany,” “Nippon,” or “France.” In 1921, an amendment to the Act required that the phrase “Made in” precede the country of origin, such as “Made in England” or “Made in Japan.” However, some foreign companies began using the phrase as early as 1898. This is a great way for collectors to date foreign-made pieces.

Underglaze marks

Beginning pottery collectors often miss marks or flaws from manufacturing and instead focus only on the maker’s mark. These marks give clues to the quality of the ceramic bodies each maker used. Potteries used different firing techniques for different grades of ceramics and the distinctive marks each technique left behind, once known, help to establish the quality of a piece.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.