The Unlucky Pottery

 

QUESTION: While out antiquing recently, I came across a beautiful hand-painted porcelain water pitcher decorated with bright red cherries at the back of a shelf. The price was $25, so I figured for that I could afford to buy it. It stands about 11 inches tall and has “BBC/CHINA” stamped on the bottom in black. I’ve never saw a mark like this before and the pitcher like a copy of more expensive Haviland china.

ANSWER: It seems that you’ve stumbled upon a rare piece of china made by the Bell Pottery Company of Findlay, Ohio. Due to a string of unlucky occurrences, the company  only produced fine china rivaling French Haviland and Limoges porcelain for five years, from 1901 to 1906, making pieces scarce. 

Located in northwestern Ohio, Findlay was better known for its glass. But at the end of the 19th century, the city basked in the glow of a natural gas boom. City fathers used the seemingly endless supply of natural gas to entice factory owners to build there. In 1888, they advertised for a high quality pottery factory to locate there. They offered free land, free natural gas and a$10,000 bonus as incentives.

Although he had no experience making pottery, William Bell, a glass jobber from  East Liverpool, Ohio, accepted the offer. He teamed up with his brother, Edwin Bell, and  Henry Flentke to build a pottery factory which they called Bell Brothers and Company Pottery. They had high hopes for their business, but problems plagued them from the beginning.

Even before they built their factory, the Bells had trouble convincing reluctant railroad officials to build a side track to the new facility. Once the track was approved, workers faced the difficult task of clearing land for the factory and constructing its four brick  buildings and six kilns. Finally, in August of 1889, all was ready and production began with 150 employees, including hand-decorators.

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

The first problem occurred in January, 1891, when all the employees went on strike when the owners tried to reduce wages. The city's rapid industrial growth had created a shortage of adult workers. In desperation, the pottery company's owners turned to orphanages, hiring girls as young as 14. By July, the Bells and Flentke settled the labor dispute and most of the old hands went back to work. 

By the following years, troubles of a different sort had begun to brew when the city's gas supply dwindled, forcing the Bells to pay $100 a month for gas. They also sued the city's gas trustees for not paying the promised $10,000 bonus. Because of the unreliable supply of gas, the company had to convert to coal in 1893 to keep the factory operating. Unfortunately, just when things seemed to be looking up, a severe storm ripped the roof off the decorating room and damaged six kilns, causing over $8,000 damage. In August 1893, the plant announced a partial shutdown due to a lack of orders.

In April 1894, the partners began to disagree and with the dissolution of the partnership, the court ordered the property to be sold. Flentke, then living in Evansville, Indiana, stopped the sale of the pottery. He resolved the differences between himself and the Bell brothers before the sale date, enabling the pottery to resume operations in August 1894, after a year of standing idle. But the peace lasted only two years, and in January of 1896, the court once again ordered the property sold for no less than $30,000. The  Bell brothers purchased the pottery for 36,450 and paid Flentke $7,295 for his share. 

In 1898, the Bell brothers incorporated the firm as the Bell Pottery Company.

In August 1899, Bell Pottery announced that it would begin producing hand-decorated white china, employing about 25 decorators. Common decorative motifs included currants, roses, blackberries, chestnuts and hops. Decorators painted portraits of people and still life pictures of flowers and fruit on pottery vases, tankards and other pieces. 

By December, they had spent $40,000 on repairs to three kilns and improvements including the installation of an oval dish jigger to enable the production of footed dishes for use as nut bowls or candy dishes. They also installed electricity for the first time. But the good times didn't last long. In April of 1900, fire destroyed the factory's south wing including the packing room, decorating room and offices. Two months later, lightning struck the factory, toppling both smokestacks for the decorating kilns.

Although insurance only partially covered their loss, the Bell brothers didn't give up. The following year, the Bells issued additional stock, intending double the pottery’s capacity, employing 400. Their intention was to produce fine china that rivaled Haviland.

They rebuilt the factory and revived their business again. In addition to their regular pottery products, they diversified into the manufacture of tubes used to run electrical wiring through brick walls. Things were going so well, they built another factory in Columbus. Tragically, about the same time the new plant opened in 1902, William Bell died unexpectedly following surgery. Edwin continued to run both factories.

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

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  Vernacular Style" in the 2024 Winter 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.

Festive Fiesta Ware

 

QUESTION: My aunt had a large collection of Fiesta dinnerware which she left to me. I added a few pieces that I found at flea markets over the last few years, but now I want to sell it. Is this pottery worth much and where would be the best place to sell it?

ANSWER: Depending on what pieces you have, your collection of Fiesta dinnerware could be worth a small fortune. But before you get dollar signs in your eyes, there are a few things you should know about it.

The style and bright colors of Fiesta dinnerware look very 1950s. But actually it appeared during the Great Depression in the mid-1930s. Englishman, Frederick Hurten Rhead, designed the simple Art Deco shapes while chief engineer Victor Albert Bleininger fabricated the colorful signature glazes. Both worked for the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell, West Virginia.

Originally, the company offered 37 different affordable pieces, ranging from candle holders and ashtrays to large serving dishes, each in five bright colors: red-orange, yellow, green, cobalt blue, and ivory. It added turquoise in 1939 for a total of six basic colors.

Homer Laughlin pioneered a whole new concept in dinnerware with Fiesta. When it first introduced the dinnerware at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1936, its line was the first widely mass-marketed, solid-color dinnerware in the country. It was also the first dinnerware that consumers could purchase by the piece instead of in complete sets, as was the custom at the time. This allowed customers to mix and match, perhaps choosing a different color for each place setting, or have all their dinner plates one color, their cups and saucers another, and so on. This concept became instantly popular with the public, and soon Fiesta dinnerware became a runaway hit.

At its introduction, Fiesta dinnerware consisted of the usual place settings of dinner plates, salad plates, soup bowls, and cups and saucers, plus occasional pieces such as candle holders in two designs, a bud vase, and an ash tray. A set of seven nested mixing bowls ranged in size from five to twelve inches in diameter. The company also sold basic place settings for four, six and eight persons. But the idea from the start was to create a line of open-stock items from which the consumer could pick and choose based on their personal preference.

The Homer Laughlin Company quickly added several additional items to their line and eliminated several unusual items—a divided 12-inch plate, a turquoise covered onion soup bowl, and the covers for its set of mixing bowls. The Fiesta line eventually consisted of 64 different items, including flower vases in three sizes, water tumblers, carafes, teapots in two sizes, five-part relish trays, and large plates in 13- and 15-inch diameters. 

But with the onset of World War II, the company was forced to reduce the number of items in the Fiesta line as public demand declined and companies cut back non-war related production. By the end of the war, Homer Laughlin had reduced the items in its Fiesta line by one third. 

The design of the original dinnerware pieces remained unchanged from 1936 to 1969. However, the company did change its colored glazes to keep up with home decorating color trends. It introduced four new colors—rose, gray, dark green, and chartreuse, replacing the original blue, green, and ivory. Yellow and turquoise continued in production.

By the end of the 1950s, sales again dropped, so the company reduced its offering of items and changed the glaze colors once again. This time, it introduced a medium green, to distinguish it from other green glazes which the company had produced. This shade of green is in high demand by collectors, and certain pieces in this color command extremely high prices.

Homer Laughlin removed the original red-orange color, the most expensive glaze to produce, before 1944 because it contained uranium oxide which the government needed to construct the atom bombs. Therefore, red pieces also usually command a premium price in today’s collectible market.

By 1969, the company restyled the finials on covers, handles on cups, bowl contours and shapes to give them a more contemporary style. 

Fiesta dinnerware became popular once again as baby boomers began establishing their own homes. Not long after Homer Laughlin discontinued the brightly colored dinnerware line in January 1973,  collectors began buying up what remained at garage sales and second-hand shops. Prices for it hit the roof and by the mid-1980s, prices of Fiesta items reached $100 for scarcer pieces. 

Generally, serving pieces such as casserole dishes, carafes, teapots, and water pitchers almost always have higher values than normal place setting pieces. As mentioned earlier, certain colors are also priced higher, no matter what the piece.

It’s also important to look on the back of each piece for the familiar “Fiesta” backstamp,  followed by 'HLC USA', 'MADE IN USA' or 'H.L. CO. USA.' You may also discover some pieces with the word 'GENUINE' stamped near the Fiesta signature.

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 old-time winter objects in the 2022/2023 Winter Holiday Edition, with the theme "Winter Memories," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Ruby---The Color of Christmas

 

QUESTION: My mother had a collection of ruby glass that she left to me. She would always display it around the Christmas holidays. To this day, I still take out select pieces to dress up my holiday table. What can you tell me out this beautiful glass?

ANSWER: Ruby glass is the dark red color of the precious gemstone ruby. This popular Victorian color never went out of style, and it’s still cherished today as it was then. 

Ruby glass has been around since Roman times. But the secret of making red glass, lost for many centuries, wasn’t rediscovered until the 17th Century in Brandenburg, Bohemia. Johann Kunckel, a chemist from a glass-making family, re-discovered how to make gold ruby glass around 1670.

To make gold ruby glass, include gold chloride, a colloidal gold solution produced by dissolving gold metal in Aqua Regia (nitric acid and hydrochloric acid) in the glass mixture. Tin (stannic chloride) is sometimes added in tiny amounts, making the process both difficult and expensive. The tin has to be present in the two chloride forms because the stannous chloride acts as a reducing agent to bring about the formation of the metallic gold. Depending on the composition of the base glass, the ruby color can develop during cooling, or the glass may have to be reheated to ‘strike’ the color.” Today, glassmakers use selenium to make ruby glass.

Over the years, the number of companies making ruby glass has diminished. Since the EPA has come down hard on these manufacturers, it became too costly to make ruby glass.

Other than its inherent color and possible shape, ruby glass pieces aren’t easily identified. Most Royal Ruby glass wasn’t marked or signed. The glass usually came from the factory with a sticker identifying the ruby color. During the 1940s, ruby glass manufacturers began using stickers which eventually got washed off or pulled off.

Major glass companies such as Sandwich, Cambridge, Mount Vernon, Gadroon, Blenko, Paden City, Hostmaster, Glades, Fenton, and Fostoria all made ruby glass in all the popular Depression glass patterns—Old Cafe, Coronation, Sandwich, Oyster and Pearl, Queen Mary, Manhattan.  

One company, Anchor Hocking, became synonymous with the manufacture of ruby glass. They initially began making and promoting it in 1938. Anchor Hocking's glass, which the company called Royal Ruby, unlike most handmade ruby, used a formula in which the principal colorant was copper. The result, an evenly colored, dark red glass. The amount of Royal Ruby in existence today is tremendous, far more than the amount of red glass from other manufacturers.

Anchor Hocking’s first made Royal Ruby in 1939 in round plates in dinner sets. Since this color became so popular, the company produced pieces of other patterns in this ruby color, including Oysters and Pearls, Old Cafe, Coronation, Bubble, Classic, Manhattan, Queen Mary, and Sandwich. However, difficulty in obtaining copper during World War II, halted production until 1949, after which Anchor Hocking began making an assortment of novelty items— apothecary jars, cigarette boxes, powder boxes, and such—sometimes combining it with crystal.

Footed and unfooted sugar and creamer sets, jam jars with crystal bottoms and ruby lids, plus assorted glasses--ribbed, old café, gold rimmed tumblers, and footed wine goblets—were among the myriad of pieces made in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Ice tea sets with large ice-lipped pitchers and six to eight tumblers were especially popular. 

Overall, ruby glass has appreciated in value because, like most glass items, breakage causes scarcity. But many items still sell in the affordable range of $15-65.

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 militaria in the 2022 Fall Edition, with the theme "After-Battle Antiques," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Fish, Lizards, and Snakes---Oh My

 

QUESTION: I’ve had a ceramic plate with fish in relief swimming on it. I originally bought it at an antique show because I liked the funky decoration. I’m not necessarily a collector, although I have some antiques. I’ve never seen a plate like this since. Can you tell me anything about it?

ANSWER: I believe what you have is a piece of French Palissy ware from the 19th century.  Palissy ware usually depicts realistically colored, aquatic landscapes teeming with stalking lizards, swimming fish and slithering snakes amid a rich variety of luxuriant foliage.

Named after the great French, 161h-century, Renaissance potter, Bernard Palissy, who referred to his works as rustique, meaning “in the rustic style.” developed a distinctive style of earthenware. In creating naturalistic scenes of plants and animals and finishing them off with polychrome glazes inspired by nature. He called his three-dimensional creations of lifelike flora and fauna “Art of the Earth” and “rustique,” and they came to be known as “rustique figurines.” Recognizing his talent, the queen of France, Catherine de Medici, brought Palissy to Paris and bestowed upon him the title “The King’s Inventor of Rustic Figurines.”

Palissy wares were so realistic that the creatures he depicted seem ready to hop, slither, or crawl from whatever piece on which they lay. He sculpted each scale on a snake, each rib in a fish’s fin, each vein running through a leaf. He often cast each creature from master molds created from the creatures themselves. The wares often exhibit extraordinary detail and complexity. Although we may see closely matched pairs of urns, vases, or platters, subtle differences in glazing, placements and textures, assure each piece is unique.

The use of many individual molds for components means creating Palissy style wares is far more complicated than many other ceramics. Each piece can take as long as 10 to 15 days over a period of two to three months to complete because of drying time. Artists use individual molds to create each element, which then becomes part of the composition. 

It wasn’t until 250 years after his death in 1590, that French ceramist,Charles-Jean Avisseau from Tours, rediscovered Palissy’s lost secrets and started a revivalist movement lasting 50 years.

Avisseau joined a Tours pottery where he learned the art of ceramics, painting and sculpture. In 1825 he was hired to supervise the ceramic works of Baron de Besenval.

Once. during a visit to the Baron’s home, Avisseau was shown a ceramic piece attributed to Bernard Palissy and became so enraptured by its brilliant enamel and delicate workmanship that he decided to devote his life to the rediscovery of Palissy's secrets-For more than 15 years, he researched the chemistry and fusion of leaded enamels to recreate and then surpass the work of "Master Bernard:' After he exhibited his work at the Great Universal Exhibition of London in 1851 as well as in the 1849 and 1855 Exhibitions in Paris, his fame grew.

Avisseau created clocks, fountains, dishes, candle-sticks. fish baskets and mirror frames, all sought by wealthy collectors, statesmen, aristocrats and museum curators. 

Even though he became successful at producing Palissy ware, Avisseau shared his knowledge willingly with other ceramists. 

Joseph Landais, who was himself a skilled potter, left his family while quite young to work in an earthenware factory. In 1843, he joined Avisseau's workshop for a few months, then established his own shop, claiming that he, not Avisseau, had rediscovered Palissy's secrets. The feud continued throughout Avisseau's life. Landais also exhibited his works at the 1851 Great Universal Exhibition of London, at which he received a meritorious award. He produced a variety of vases, platters, plates, pitchers, mirrors, urns, as well as some monumental works.

Leon Brard painted marine still lifes. He experimented with different clays and glazes during his 10 years in Paris, producing a variety of plates, plaques and platters. In 1859, Brard met Avisseau during a visit to Tours, moved there, and became a frequent visitor to the master's workshop while employed at a local pottery. Two years later, Brard opened his own shop. With an artistic and original style, he became known for his trompe l'oeil works on white faience surrounded by a cobalt blue border in the style of Rouen. At first glance, these works appear to be an artful presentation of fresh fish as might be served in the restaurant.

 reputation encouraged other ceramists to emulate his works. Victor Barbizet established a pottery workshop in 1845 to produce ordinary household ceramics and later Palissy ware. Around 1850, Victor and his son, Achille, moved to Paris and began to mass-produce Palissy ware. Over a period of about 30 years, the firm became very successful, employing approximately 60 workers at its peak.

However, the best known ceramist to follow the Palissy ware tradition was Alfred Renoleau, who lived and worked in and near the town of Angouleme in western France. His factory flourished for nearly 40 years and employed up to 40 workers. 

And like Avisseau, he marveled at the works of Palissy which he saw during a  visit to a decorative arts exhibition in Bordeaux. At night the young Renoleau practiced making ceramics using a homemade kiln in the attic of his house. Later, he persuaded his father to let. him work for one year in a nearby pottery, and promised to return if the craft disappointed him. Needless to say, he didn’t return home. He often signed his earlier pieces “Falder,” an anagram of his first name. In 1889, he moved to nearby Roumazieres at the Polakowski and Company factory where he produced some of his finest work. In 1891,he opened a small factory in Angouleme, but later moved to larger quarters.

While these ceramists made Palissy ware with the same type of clay and glazes as other forms of majolica, Palissy ware usually features darker colors and a more varied palette of brilliant enamels. Palissy ware is best distinguished from other majolica ware by its subject matter of fish, snakes and lizards recreated in realistically depicted pond life_

Because Palissy ware was decorative and non-utilitarian, pieces have survived in extraordinary condition. Unlike Victorian majolica which was made in production quantities, Palissy ware is unique. In most cases an artist working made his pieces alone, with no two being identical. Palissy ware hasn’t been produced for over a century.

Some ceramists marked their Palissy ware while others did not, and some marked their wares sometimes, but not always. Many scratched their signatures or monograms on to their pieces.

The pricing for 19th-century French Palissy ware runs from a few hundred dollars to several thousand or mare. Small works ranging from 2 to 3 inches generally run between $150 and $300 depending on condition and maker. Small pieces include goblets, cache pots, and bud vases. Larger versions, measuring about six inches, often sell for double. Medium size plates measuring 8 to l0 inches in diameter by such ceramists as Barbizet often sell for $1,000 to $2,500. And platters ranging in size from 12 to 18 inches can sell for $2,500 to $5,000. 

Finding Palissy ware is easier in France than in the United States, however, U.S. antique dealers who specialize in majolica often carry it.  

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 Sparkling World of Glass" in the 2021 Winter 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.

Fall is Cranberry Season

QUESTION: Every year at Thanksgiving, I bring out a set of eight sparkling pink glasses that used to be belong to my great-grandmother. They seem so festive and add a holiday note to our dining table. Can you tell me anything about these glasses?

ANSWER: Your glasses are made of cranberry glass, a very special type of glass favored by Victorian hostesses, especially around the holidays. Not only is this glass appropriate for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but it’s also a popular collectible. In fact, some pieces are worth too much to be used for fear of breakage.

Although glassblowers had been making colored glass since ancient Egypt, it was Johann Kunckel, a 17th-century German chemist from Potsdam, who came up with the red color by adding gold chloride to the clear crystal. During the 19th century, English and American glassblowers experimented with adding less gold choride, resulting in a pink glass which the Americans called “cranberry.”

And thanks to the virtuosity of these glassblowers there seems to be an endless variety of shapes and patterns of this glass on the market. In addition to tumblers and water pitchers, there are salt cellars, sugar shakers, cruets, jars, jugs, decanters, celery vases and finger bowls. Among the widely used patterns are "Swirl," "Coin Dot," and "Daisy & Fern." Some of the most rare and expensive items found from this time period are beautiful lamps and other lighting fixtures.
         
As with any collectible, cranberry glass can also be an investment. Pieces that sold for less than ten dollars a generation ago are now worth hundreds of dollars. Because of the natural fragility of glass, antique cranberry glass has become relatively scarce, though it does turn up in thrift and antique shops,  flea markets, and auctions.         

Although cranberry glass had peaked in popularity by the end of the 19th century, manufacturers produced it in quantity through the 1930s. The last two companies to make this unique glass—The Pilgrim Glass Corporation and Fenton Art Glass —went out of business early this century. Pilgrim Glass Company produced beautiful blown cranberry glass ranging from various vases and baskets to candle holders and sold them in department stores and gift shops around the country until 2001. At the time if the company's closing, cranberry was its most popular type of glass. Fenton Art Glass marketed new cranberry glass, featuring opalescent decoration with coin dots, daisy patterns and numerous other styles, through retailers around the country until it closed in 2011.

Cranberry glass has always been made in craft production rather than in large quantities, due to the high cost of the gold and the delicate mixing process required. Glassmakers dissolve the gold chloride in a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, known as “aqua regia.” Gold in the batch reacts with intense heat to create the beautiful cranberry color. A glassworker called a “caser” attaches a “bud” of this glass mixture to a blowpipe. Then the glassblower stands on a platform with the mold below his feet and blows the molten glass into the mold to create the desired shape. Afterwards, another glassworker places the piece in a “lehr” or annealing oven where it slowly cools to room temperature. Most cranberry pieces are hand blown or molded and often contain small bubbles and striations.

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 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.