George Ohr—Just a Little Bit Eccentric

QUESTION: On a recent trip to New Orleans, I found and bought a quirky piece of art pottery in an antique shop. The dealer said it was by George Ohr, but I’ve never heard of him. I like the bizarre look this piece has and would like to find more. Can you tell me more about this potter?

ANSWER: George Ohr was a local potter that actually hailed from Biloxi, Mississippi. He was a real character and his personality definitely comes through in his pots.

In the early 1850s, Ohr’s parents moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, where his father opened the town’s first blacksmith shop. George worked with him and learned the trade. But when he was 18, Ohr left to seek his fortune in New Orleans.  There he worked at a ship chandler's shop for free room and board plus soap for washing. After three years, he was still getting free soap and only $15 per month. So he went back home to Biloxi where he worked as an apprentice in a file cutter's shop and in a tinker's shop.

Disenchanted with his situation, he returned to New Orleans to learn all he could about potting. As soon as he mastered enough technical skills, Ohr left and spent two years traveling to 16 states to observe other potters and their potteries.

He returned to Biloxi in 1883 with $26.80 with which he equipped his own pottery. He spent most of the money on bricks for his kiln. He did all his own work—digging the clay from a nearby riverbank, loading it in a wheelbarrow, and hauling it back to his shop, which he called the "POT-OHR-E." He called his creations "mud babies" and made over 600 pieces in his first  year. He exhibited some of them at the North Cotton Centennial Exposition, but someone stole them.


On Sept. 15, 1886 Ohr married Josephine Gehring of New Orleans. They had 10 children, but the first two died very young. To support his family, he began selling novelty pottery and souvenir items, such as flowerpots, ceramic hats, children's banks and plaques of Southern buildings at local fairs. He once said that if it weren’t for the housewives of Biloxi who have a constant need of flowerpots, water coolers and flues, the Ohr family would go hungry. Ohr hated to part with his "mud baby" creations, so he put high prices on his best works to see what the market would bear.



It didn't take Ohr long to get the reputation of being just a little bit eccentric. People began calling him “the made potter from Biloxi.” This was in part due to his bizarre appearance. Ohr had long hair that he knotted on top of his head with a brass pin and a long beard that was usually tucked into his shirt to keep it from getting caught in the potter's wheel. He often made a public spectacle of himself—from boasting about his artistic talents to zooming down the street on his bicycle with his 18-inch-long mustache tucked behind his ears. Ohr admitted that he acted "crazy" to attract tourists to his shop.

Although Ohr won a medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904, he became disillusioned with the pottery business because he didn't think people appreciated his work. So he abruptly closed his pottery in 1906 and became a motorcycle salesman and then an automobile dealer. Ohr died in 1918, still convinced he was the greatest potter who ever lived. He left his pottery to his children with the request that it not be sold until 50 years after his death. He believed the originality of his work would be appreciated in time.

In 1968, exactly 50 years after Ohr's death, James W. Carpenter, a New Jersey antique dealer, discovered over 7,000 pieces of Ohr's pottery in the attic of the Ohr Boy's Auto Repair Shop. He purchased all of them from Ohr's children and offered it for sale in the New York area. People soon recognized these works of an obscure turn-of-the-century potter as the creation of a genius ahead of his time and not just the works of "the mad potter of Biloxi."

Each piece of pottery created by George Ohr is totally unique. Although he made the usual bowls, vases, mugs, pitchers and teapots, no two were alike in shape or decoration. Ohr had a mischievous nature and enjoyed making unusual forms as well, such as puzzle cups for which the puzzle was how to drink from it without spilling the contents. He made a coffeepot with a lid that couldn’t be removed. The trick was to fill it from the bottom.

Some of Ohr's work showed the Art Nouveau influence of the time. He applied snakes, crabs, seashells, dragons and even the head of a wildcat. Today, these pieces sell for high prices.

Ohr was an expert on the potter’s wheel. He created eggshell-thin vessels of fine quality but wasn’t satisfied with their static quality. He dug his fingers into the moist clay and twisted, dented, pinched, squeezed and generally "tortured" the white and red local clays into amazing one-of-a-kind forms. Ohr designed his elaborate handles with curves and scrolls in the style of wrought iron, influenced by his work with his father as a blacksmith.

Ohr’s glazes, in deep and lustrous in shades of brown, red, bright pink, purple, cobalt blue, yellow and green luster, were as varied as his pottery forms. His colors were Many objects had a gunmetal or pewter finish. He experimented with volcanic, sponged, drip, blister, iridescent, tortoiseshell and pigeon feather glazes. And on some of his pieces, he flawed or sometimes even burned his glazes.

As he got older, he left his works in the unglazed bisque stage. He believed God put no color on souls, so why should he put color on his pots.

It wasn’t until Carpenter put the pieces he discovered up for sale in the 1970s that Ohr’s work found a market, and it was his bisque pieces that got the highest prices. It seems that some of the buyers then glazed these pieces in order to earn more money from resale.

Today, collectors seek Ohr’s twisted, tortured forms and colorful vibrant glazes. It’s what he would have wanted when he was making them.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my 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 the Victorians in the Winter 2018 Edition, "All Things Victorian," online now.  

The Rarity of Napoli

QUESTION: Recently, I discovered a glass biscuit jar at a regional antiques show. I collect art glass but have never seen anything like it before. What’s so unusual about this piece is that it seems to be painted on both the inside and outside. Can you tell me anything about it?

ANSWER: The only type of art glass that’s painted on both the inside and outside is Napoli glass, produced by the Mount Washington/Pairpoint Glass Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Albert Steffin, the head of the Mount Washington decorating department, patented Napoli glass on May 22, 1894. He had found a way to decorate clear glassware on both the inside and outside. In a way he used another method of glass decoration called “reverse painting,” which originated in Antioch around 200 A.D., as his inspiration. During the 18th and early 19th centuries, American and European mirror and clock makers used this type of decoration to ornament the tops of mirrors and the glass doors of wall clocks.

Steffin’s method began by first outlining the basic form on the outside of the glass in silver or gold metallic paint. This outline then served as a guide for producing the design on the inside using colored enamels. This decoration process produced a novel and almost three-dimensional effect unlike the decoration on any other type of glass.

But Steffin didn’t invent this type of decoration solely as a way to produce a unique type of glass. He actually was more concerned about the savings it would give him because with two different types of paint, each on a different side of the glass, he would only have to fire his pieces once, thus offering him a big savings on fuel. If he applied the two different types of paint on the outside, he’d have to apply and fire one, then do the same for other and firing again. Firing both types of paint separately also resulted in a brighter finish and correct coloration.

Workers at the Mount Washington factory produced the majority of Napoli glass pieces using the same forms as the firm’s other art glass lines—Verona, Royal Flemish, and Crown Milano.  But the Napoli pieces have an interconnected network of lines that looks like a spider web which makes them stand out from other kinds of art glass.

One unusual decoration on Mt. Washington glass depicts Brownie figures, created by author/illustrator Palmer Cox. Brownies were extremely popular within a few years after Cox published his first children’s book in 1887.

Of all the art glass on the market, Napoli is the hardest to find. At first glance, it doesn’t look like it would be particularly valuable, but its rarity drives the prices of pieces upward. Many pieces have gilt lines painted on the outside which makes them especially appealing to collectors.

Each piece bears a mark on the bottom in gold enamel. with the word “Napoli,” followed by the shape number.  If the mark is in silver, then the piece may also bear another mark of “MW” for Mount Washington. Common shapes include vases, punch cups, marmalade and cracker jars. Salt and pepper shakers are the rarest.

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Beauty in a Little Box

QUESTION: My favorite aunt left me a beautiful metal jewelry box that looks like tarnished silver. It’s got daisies on it and on the bottom it’s marked “N.B. Rogers.” I know that Rogers Brothers is famous for its silver flatware, but did they also make jewelry boxes? Also, what can you tell me about the design of this box?

ANSWER: Sorry to burst your bubble, but your jewelry box isn’t made of silver. It’s actually white metal, also known as “Britannia” or art metal and dates from the first decade of the 20th century. And the flower on it is a lotus flower, not a daisy.

The creation of mail order catalogs by Marshall Field, Montgomery Ward, Sears, Roebuck and Company, and Macy's in the late 19th century made it possible for the average middle class woman to purchase lovely fashions and accessories at affordable prices.

One of these accessories was the jewelry box—more popularly called the jewel box—a repository for her most precious jewelry and keepsakes. The growth in popularity of these "art metal" jewel boxes, also called jewel caskets or jewel cases, paralleled the growth of catalog shopping which promoted them as ' dainty gifts for Milady." Jewel boxes came in sizes ranging from the smallest ring box to large handkerchief and glove boxes.

Between 1900 and 1910, Art Nouveau, a French term meaning "new art" coined by Maison de 1'Art Nouveau, a Paris gallery which opened in 1895, was the predominant design style in the United States. A romantic style influenced by the art forms of Japan, it used many motifs borrowed from nature, including flowers, leaves, vines, and birds. It also became known for its curves and asymmetrical elements. Of the Art Nouveau jewel boxes produced in the United States, those with the floral motifs were the most popular.

The two most prevalent flowers used on jewel boxes were roses and poppies. Daisies, four-leaf-clovers, lily of the valley, pond lilies, violets, carnations, and a myriad of other flowers also decorated jewel boxes. This maybe due, in part, to the important role flowers played during the Victorian era.

The jewelry trade promoted the “Flower of the Month” concept during the early 1900s. Fueled by consumers’ desire for more decorative objects, the jewelry industry improved production, distribution and marketing methods. Little by little, the role of flowers as a decorative motif became the central theme. Manufacturers assigned specific flowers to birth months, decorating jewel boxes with roses of love for June, carnations for admiration for February, and holly for foresight for December.

The interiors of these jewel boxes were as beautiful as their exteriors. Linings of fine silk, faille, jacquard, and satin gave them a luxurious appearance. Because silk could be easily dyed, it came in a rainbow of colors, although jewel box linings used the pale hues of pink, green, and blue. Manufacturers trimmed trimmed the linings with a fine twisted-silk cording.

During the early part of the 20th century, many American manufacturers produced art metal wares, with jewel boxes being one of their most popular items. Many of these manufacturers have long passed into history but one, Rogers Brothers, still exists today. There were several "Rogers" brothers in business at the turn of the century, and the name gained national recognition due, in large' part, to the wide distribution of mail order catalogs. The name became so popular that other companies tried to adopt it, results in many lawsuits. Though the original Rogers family became known for its flatware, one brother, N. Burton Rogers; founded his own art metal company and produced many Art Nouveau jewel boxes marked “N.B. Rogers.”.

By 1915, the popularity of art metal jewel boxes had reached its peak: With the coming of World War I, production slowed. The earlier naturalistic, yet interpretive Art Nouveau flowers, leaves, and vines, had become "conventional" floral decoration. By 1925, the production of art metal jewel boxes had ceased altogether.

Stretched for Beauty

QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautiful plate at an antique show. The dealer said it’s stretched glass, but I don’t see how that’s possible since it’s a round plate. Can you tell me why my plate is called ‘stretched” glass?

ANSWER: Ever since it’s inception, the term stretch(not stretched) has confused people. It appears mistakenly on price tags in antique shops and in online descriptions. Because of the word “stretch,” People imagine a piece from the 1950s or 1960s that has been stretched to make it taller or wider, but stretch glass is entirely different.

Some people believe stretch glass is swung back and forth on a rod to make it stretch outward. Or, they think it looks like a strange type of Carnival or art glass, so it must be that. Neither is correct. Most of the time, people's first reaction is how beautiful the glass is, but they don't know anything about it.

On eBay there are over 28,000 listing for stretch glass and most are far from it. To collectors, stretch glass is iridescent stretch glass. It differentiates the glass from the common mistake of being considered swung glass. Forty to 50 percent of people think swung vases are stretch glass.

Created by several American glass factories from 1916 to the early 1930s, iridescent stretch glass is a pressed or blown molded glass. It’s shaped and formed—pressed or blown into molds—reheated and then sprayed with a metallic salt or dope, a procedure called  doping, while the piece is still hot. The glass blower then reheats the piece and this is when the stretch marks occur. The glass expands faster where the dope blower applied the dope, which causes a crackled, web-like appearance on the glass. Further shaping emphasizes these stretch marks. Some blowers often shape or "work" the glass a lot which emphasizes the stretch marks in the iridescence while others don’t work their pieces as much, resulting in finer stretch marks and are only satiny.

Collectors consider true carnival, stretch, and art glass with a shiny iridescence doped ware. The difference between them is when the glass blower applies the metallic salts to the glass. While glass blowers shape and form Carnival glass first and then dope it  to create a shimmering to slightly satin iridescent surface, they spray stretch glass  while the glass is molten hot, then reheat and reshape it to make the stretch marks. Another difference is that Carnival glass has a distinctive pattern in the glass mold, such as grapes, butterflies, or geometrical patterns on the inside, outside or on both sides of the glass. Stretch glass has little or no pattern and is very plain.

Confusion seems to set in when people are searching for stretch glass, especially since art glass also has both iridescence and stretch effects. Although art glass is from the same period as stretch glass, the chemicals in the glass make the difference. Additional stretch effects may be from doping the pieces and further shaping. Art glass is also much thinner and more delicate than stretch glass.

People also confuse freeform art glass, produced from the 1950s to the present and commonly posted on eBay, with stretch glass.

Companies that produced stretch glass included Central Glass Works of Wheeling, West Virginia, Diamond Glass-Ware Company of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Jeanette Glass Company of Jeanette, Pennsylvania, Vineland Flint of Vineland, New Jersy, and United States Glass Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The true difference between the stretch glass that different manufacturers produced was the unique colors. Tangerine is a popular color among collectors, along with red and ruby, which each cost more because of their popularity. Wisteria, a purple-colored glass is also popular. Opaque colors of stretch iridescent glass are rare and can be pricey.

The most common stretch glass color that can be found is celeste blue, as well as the topaz and pink. Blue was the  dominant color though, along with topaz, both of which were good selling items when they first appeared. Topaz was a good seller in the 1910s and 1920s because not everyone had electricity. This color catches the light and reflects it very well. There’s also a lot of Florentine green stretch glass out there as well and crystal stretch glass, which has a frosty white iridescence. With so many stretch colors out there including aquamarine, blue smoke, coral, custard, pink and white luster, beginning collectors are sure to find a favorite of their own.

Iridescent stretch glass not only comes in a variety of colors, but also a range of prices. Pieces that once sold for 25 cents to $1 can now be picked for $25 to $50, and even $10 to $15 for more common pieces.

High-end pieces, such as a Fenton No. 604 punch on a red stand, can sell into the thousands. One sold on eBay for $4,200. While the price may seem high, anyone can acquire a decent collection of stretch glass if they buy pieces in the $25 to $100 range.

The Age of Innocence - Part 1

QUESTION: My mother collected Hummel figurines for a long time. Now I have her collection. Frankly, I don’t know anything about these little figures of children, other than what little I’ve read or heard. Can you give me some background about my Hummels? I’d like to continue collecting them, but have no idea where to start.

ANSWER: You’re in the same boat as a lot of other people who inherit collections from their parents. Some sell them off because they have no interest in them, but others, like yourself, want to continue collecting. However, since you weren’t involved in the original collection, it’s hard to pick up where someone else left off. One thing you must remember: Your mother’s Hummel collection is now your collection. And the first thing you need to do is learn as much as you can about your Hummels, so you can make educated decisions when growing or culling your collection.

Hummel figures have long been one of the world’s top collectibles, though interest in them has waned a bit in recent years. The artist who created these endearing figurines, Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, was inspired by her love and understanding of children.

Born Berta Hummel on May 21, 1909, in the Bavarian village of Massing to Adolf and Viktoria Hummel, who owned a general store. She had two brothers and three sisters. When her father was young, he wanted to become an artist but gave that up to run the family business. To make up for it, he made sure that art and music were part of his family’s life. Berta’s mother gave her the nickname, “das Hummele,” which means the “little busy bee,” because Berta was always buzzing from one creative pursuit to another.

One of her teachers at the Massing Grammar School, Sister Theresa, encouraged Berta to pursue her art and helped her gain admission to the Institute of English Sisters, a boarding school in the town of Simbach, about 20 miles from her home. While there, Berta spent hours sketching the surrounding mountain countryside. It was then that her parents noticed the intensity of Berta’s commitment to her art work. 

From there Berta went to the Academy of Applied Arts in Munich in 1927. During this time, Germany was in political and economic upheaval. Although Berta’s attendance at the school placed great financial hardship on her family, she studied in one of the best art programs offered in Europe at the time. From the Academy, it was only a short walk to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the most famous art museums in Bavaria, where Berta discovered the old masters.

While Berta was living in the Holy Family Dormitory, she became close friends with two Franciscan sisters from a convent at Siessen,. near the town of Saulgau in the Swabian Alps. They told Berta about the art classes taught at the convent, and she began considering joining it.

Berta entered the Siessen Convent on April 22, 1931, where as a Franciscan postulate she taught art to young children. Berta Hummel received her habit of the sisters of Third Order of Saint Francis on August 20, 1934, and was given the name Sister Maria Innocentia. As a nun, the feelings of innocence would always be part of her artistic life.

Soon a small religious publishing house, ver Sacrum, became interested in her work that included religious illustrations with children. It was also at this time that people throughout Germany and the rest of Europe began noticing her work, due to ver Sacrum’s distribution of her art cards depicting children in religious scenes. She even collaborated on a children's book entitled, The Hummel Book, with Margareta Seeman, who wrote the verse.

Since Sister Maria had taken a vow of poverty, she had no interest in profiting from her art. Instead, the publishing house set up a trust fund to receive royalties, which could then be used by the convent to pay for religious activities. Ver Sacrum also agreed to give Sister Maria final approval on all items they produced, before production began.

The first M.I. Hummel figurines appeared on the market in March 1935. Her art appealed to the masses because people could see a little bit of themselves in her work.

But in 1937, the Nazis said  that Sister Maria’s art wasn’t consistent with their goals. But they let her continue to work on it, nonetheless. She continued to create art in her studio on the second floor of the Siessen Convent. However, in 1938 her health began to fail.

In October of 1940 the Nazis expropriated the convent and sent most of the nuns to their own homes and families. However, Sister Maria stayed behind with 40 other sisters. Food, living conditions and especially the heating of the convent buildings was less then adequate. And medical and art supplies  were nearly impossible to find.

During the fall of 1944, Sister Maria Irmocentia Hummel developed pleurisy, but she continued to live and work at the convent until the war ended. When her health would allow it, she would continue with her art. She provided inspiration to the other sisters who stayed on at the convent through those difficult times: The tubercular lung infection that took so much of her strength eventually got worse, and she became weaker. She died on November 6, 1946, at the age of 37.

Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel left a rich heritage of over 500 sketches and paintings. And her work lives on today in countless collections throughout the world.

NEXT WEEK: The other side of the story—the creation of the figurines, themselves.

Beauty and Collectibility Are in the Eye of the Collector

QUESTION: How do I determine an artist’s most collectible works? Are they the ones that sell for the most money? And, if so, are they the ones I should be collecting?

ANSWER: Collecting art can be tricky. More than any other collectible, the popularity of certain artists and their works ebb and flow with the trends in the art world. An artist that’s extremely popular one year may fall to the bottom of the heap the next.

An artist's most collectible works usually depict subject matter that has gained popularity among art collectors. If more people collect the works of a particular artist, those works will go up in price and value. In this case, outside forces play a large role in the determining what type of  subject matter looks like, not necessarily the artists, themselves. One year, it could be landscapes and seascapes, another year city scenes, abstracts, portrait, or interiors. The only way to discover  what an artist's most collectible works look like is by talking with dealers, collectors and others familiar with that artist's body of work.

The farther a particular work departs from favored subject matter, the less collectors of that artist’s works will be interested in it. You might compare this to a musician who becomes famous for one or two songs because his or her fans insist on hearing those songs over and over regardless of what direction that musicians career takes. That doesn't mean that artists or musicians have only one or two noteworthy moments in their careers, but rather that tunnel vision of fans affects what’s perceived to be popular or collectible. The same holds true for writers who become successful based on a particular style of writing or subject matter. When they deviate from that, their fans find someone else to read.

Art work featuring the best, most collectible subject matter usually sells for the most money. But determining whether or not a work falls into the "most collectible" category based purely on how much it sells for isn’t how the art business works. Instead, an individual piece of art must be evaluated by experts in terms of the artist's entire output, his career evolution, and with respect to what was going on around him at the time. Price does not enter into that evaluation—it’s the consequence.

Works of art can also sell for high prices even though they may not fall into an artist's"most collectible" category. For example, a piece might be valuable because an artist produced it during an important time in art history. It then becomes more collectible by fans of the movement rather than by fans of the artist.

As for what art work you should or should not collect, follow the golden rule of collecting— collect what you like. If your tastes center around pieces that don't have that "most collectible" look, fine. Go ahead and buy them. Just know the artist's market well enough so that you pay the going rate for that type of art, not the going rate for the most collectible types.

Also, pay attention to collecting trends in the art world. Subscribe to publications that offer news about recent auctions or sales of art. Know which artists are hot and which are not. And know if a scam may be afoot. One woman hid her late artist husband’s work from the public for a number of years so that it would appear to be rare and pristine—translation: never appeared on the market before. She thought that doing so would raise the prices of the works when they did appear. When she did begin selling his works, she did so in dribs and drabs, so as not to flood the market with his works, thus lowering the price.

A Word to the Wise

QUESTION: I collect teapots. Recently, I purchased a small one on which is hand-painted a saying, “Actions speak louder than words,” with a picture of a cottage on the other side. The mark on the bottom just says “Made in England.” Can you tell me anything about this teapot?

ANSWER: It seems you’ve stumbled on a piece of Torquay pottery, specifically Torquay Motto Ware.

Torquay is the generic name given to 20 potteries centered around the popular seaside resort of the same name in South Devon, England, that made red earthenware with slip decoration in the form of a picture. Many also sported brief sayings on them, thus the name Motto Ware. Of these potteries, Watcombe, Royal Torquay Pottery, Aller Vale, Longpark, Lemon & Crute, Torquay Terra-Cotta Company, and St. Marychurch are the most well-known.

The designs on the Motto Ware often depict cottages, flowers, animals, boats, and windmills. While the Torquay potteries produced these mainly as souvenirs, not all were souvenirs of Devon. 

In 1867, G.J. Allen discovered dark red clay around the town of Torquay. He had it chemically analyzed and found out that it exceptional for producing earthenware. He built a pottery which he named the Watcombe Terra Cotta Clay Company. Other potters soon followed suit and opened their own pottery works in the area. In 1897 the Aller Vale Company acquired the larger Watcombe Pottery, making Watcombe the largest of the pottery producers.

They began by making art pottery—classical vases and busts—popular with Victorians at the time. But as the demand for these pieces declined towards the end of the 19th century, they had to adjust and adapt or go out of business. Victorians loved to travel and bring back small items as souvenirs of their adventures, so the potteries began making stylized souvenirs for this new market.

Torquay pottery followed a number of themes, including the subject matter of cottages, place names,  florals, animals, and sometimes grotesque images. They also came in a variety of decorative styles—faience, barbotine, terracotta, and molded cottages. This allows collectors to assemble groupings by subject and/or style, and many of them seek out pots by specific decorators or potteries.

Motto Ware didn’t start in Torquay. It had been around for some time. In fact, the Romans often inscribed their pots with humorous sayings. There seems to be an endless number of mottos on Torquay pots, some are pearls of wisdom, others are humourous, and still others are classical quotations. Some potters even inscribed personal messages for their customers. Companies soon discovered that household items with mottoes on them sold best.

After forming basic shapes on the potter's wheel or in molds and allowing the clay to harden, workers dipped each piece into slip, a creamy mixture of white clay and water. After the slip set, artists hand-decorated each piece, using a nail to scratch proverbs or folksy sayings through the slip to the red clay, a technique known as sgraffito. They then fired the pieces in kilns, allowed them to cool, then glazed and re-fired them. Artists, paid by the piece, worked feverishly, engraving mottoes on up to seven dozen pieces an hour.

The earliest Torquay Motto Wares have a rustic individuality, with mottoes scrawled in childlike handwriting.  Besides famous quotations, motos also were humorous, such as “ "A hair on the head Is worth two on the chin," seen on a shaving mug. Some were a play on words, like this one: "A car on the road is worth two in the ditch.” Even Shakespeare didn’t escape Motto Ware. "The night is long that never finds a day," is a quote from his play “Macbeth.” While early Motto Ware had inscriptions written in normal English, companies later used an exaggerated Devonshire dialect to appeal to the tourist trade.

Today, collectors seek sugar bowls and creamers, teapots, jugs, candlesticks, perfume bottles, cookie jars, tobacco jars, vases, plates, and children's dishes in prices ranging from $2 to $500, depending on the item’s condition. Advertising and commemorative wares, featuring the name of a hotel, city, or special occasion, are especially popular.

The Art of Human Hair

QUESTION: My grandmother left me several items, one of which is a little round porcelain bowl that’s about four inches wide with a lid that has a 1½-inch hole in the top. Can you tell me what this might be?

ANSWER: The covered bowl you have is known as a hair receiver. Back in Victorian times, women used to save the hair from their brushes—most had long hair that needed to be brushed at least once a day to keep it clean—and also from trimmings.

Victorian women’s dressing tables often had a hair receiver as part of a dresser set consisting of receiver, powder jar, hatpin holder, brush, comb, nail buffer and tray. Many carried on the tradition into the early 20th century. They would comb the hair from their brushes and push it through the hole in the receiver. Later, they would stuff it into pillows or pincushions. Since women—and men--- didn’t wash their hair but once a week, they would apply oils to add scent and shine to their hair. This oil helped to lubricate straight pins and needles, making them easier to insert into fabric.

These women also used the hair they saved to make “ratts”—a small ball of hair that they inserted into a hairstyle to add volume and fullness. They made this by stuffing a sheer hairnet with the hair from the receiver until it was about the size of a potato, then sewing it shut. Women most likely used tangled hair from their hairbrushes to make these. A Victorian woman considered her hairstyle the epitome of style and took great pains to make it stand out.

But the most well-known uses for hair was to make remembrances of deceased loved ones. And though many people believe this practice originated in the mid 19th century, it actually began in the mid 17th. Even at that time, people wanted to have personal keepsakes of their loved ones, but since photography hadn’t been invented yet, they turned to jewelry made of human hair.

In the 1600s, people created medallions in the form of initials in gold laid on a background of woven hair set under crystal. Women wore these as memorial jewelry, usually in the form of brooches.

After this type of jewelry went out of style in the 18th century because women thought it grotesque, it once again appeared in the mid 19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria. Instead of the gold initials of the deceased, women used seed pearls and watercolors along with enamels to create a more elaborate picture under the glass. Often, they spread the hair out to look like a weeping willow tree.

To make keepsakes for a deceased loved one, women cut the hair from the deceased's head.
Prior to the 1850s, they stored the hair in cloth bags until they had enough to make a piece. Unlike the tangled hair used for making ratts, women preferred using cut hair to make their keepsake pieces. In the last half of the century, porcelain and ceramic manufacturers began to produce storage containers specifically designed to hold hair.

While most of the jewelry made of hair was for mourning purposes, some women made pieces to give to their living loved ones. Some made watch chains woven from their hair to give to their husbands and boyfriends to take into battle during the Civil War.

The popularity of hair jewelry peaked in the 1850s but after the Civil War another trend took hold. Instead of creating keepsake jewelry, women began producing works of art from human hair. They employed different colors of hair to create pictures and mosaics under glass domes or frames. Sometimes these mimicked famous paintings. At other times, they created stilllifes of flowers. They also gave the popular family tree new meaning by making one using the hair from each family member, plus pictures of the family, ribbons, dried flowers, butterflies, and even little stuffed birds.

Primarily made in porcelain and ceramic, manufacturers also made hair receivers of glass, silver, silver plate, wood and celluloid. The glass types often had brass or silver tops. While the round ones seemed to be the most popular, there were oval ones as well. And though some rested on little legs or pedestals, most had flat bottoms. Skilled workers painted many of the porcelain ones with floral or Oriental designs on both the receiver and top. Others had simple gilt borders around the edge of the top. Companies such as Limoges, Noritake, O.& Prussia, R.S. Prussia and Wistoria all made hair receivers.