Tile It

QUESTION: In the last few years, I’ve begun to buy decorative tiles from the early 20th century. I buy what I like and not because a particular company made them. One I purchased recently supposedly came from the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Since I live in the Midwest, I haven’t had an opportunity to visit the Tile Works. What can you tell me about this tile?

ANSWER:  Go to any Arts and Crafts auction and you're sure to find art tiles, ranging from $20 to several thousand dollars. But what makes one tile worth more than another? And what makes these late 19th/early 20th century tiles any different from the ones we see today at our local home renovation store?

Combine the rise of the Aesthetic Movement, the desire to get back to basics, and a variety of unique techniques, and tiles can represent some of the most interesting objects made during the heyday of the Arts & Crafts Movement." It’s these "art" tiles that are of real interest to collectors, and these are the tiles that command the highest prices. Commercial production tiles, while they're old, even when made by a well-collected maker, are usually only valued in the $20-$30 range.

Although a large number of American potteries made tiles, six are most popular with collectors and/or the most historically significant---American Encaustic, J.G.Low, Grueby, Rookwood, Batchelder, and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works.

Henry Chapman Mercer, an archeologist and antiquities collector, founded the Moravian Tile Works in 1898. His intent was to bring back the medieval craft of tile making and established the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works on his family's estate in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Mercer chose the name Moravian to represent the German immigrants who brought tile making to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

Although Mercer designed all the tiles, using patterns derived from European an Middle Eastern ones, as well as photographs of ones from Mexico, he trained a crew of men to produce them by pressing wet local clay into handcarved molds. Workers slow fired these molds in a wood burning kiln, painted the bisque ware with glaze, and fired them again.

Mercer gained a reputation as a serious proponent of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Many of America's top tile makers, including Grueby and  Batchelder, copied his tile designs. Mercer also produced several lines of four-inch molded tiles representing tall ships, zodiac signs, and farming. He also used them to build items like inkwells and bookends. For more elaborate installations, Mercer produced cookie-cutter-shaped paving tiles referred to as “brocades.”

Mercer remained active with the company until his death in 1930. The company remained in business until 1964, and in 1969, it opened as a museum.

The reproduction tiles made today come from Mercer's original molds, locally dug clay, and have properties similar to those of Mercer's slips and glazes that follow his final formulations, although some have been modified to reduce the lead and heavy metal content to less toxic levels. The manufacturer of reproduction tiles began in 1974, but there’s no danger of deceit. When the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Department of Parks and Recreation took over the Tile Works as a working museum, they insisted that all the tiles made at the museum bear the mark of a stylized "MOR," the words "Bucks County," and the year of manufacture.

Today, collectors can expect to pay from $30-100 for common tiles, $35-250 for brocades, $300-3,000 for “built items” made from tiles, and $1,000-5,000 for the more unique medieval-style tiles.

You can find some of the largest collections of Mercer tiles at John D. Rockefeller's New York estate, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Casino at Monte Carlo. Your tile represents "Virgo," a sign of the zodiac.

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.

Asleep in Luxury

QUESTION: My mother-in-law, who is 97, has just moved into a retirement home. Her Aunt Margaret was married to Charles Tuckett, the son of Charles Elias Tuckett, founder of Tuckett Tobacco and one time mayor of Hamilton, Ontario. Charles inherited the original Tuckett Estate and when he passed away Margaret was left owning it. Charles and Margaret had one child but the child died. When Margaret died her family inherited the estate. My mother-in-law inherited a lot of the furniture, but I haven’t found  much help regarding the manufacturer and value. Can you help me?

ANSWER: Your mother-in-law now owns two fine pieces of
furniture. Not only are they of massive scale, but the carving on them looks to be made by hand, something that wasn’t common in the late 19th century when most factories made manufactured most furniture.

These two pieces together make up a ‘bedchamber suite,” a more formal version of bedroom suite. Earlier suites consisted of just two pieces—a bed, commonly referred to as a “bedstead” and a dressing case, what most people call a dresser. Both came in all shapes and sizes and in one of seven different major revival styles. This suite is a fine example of the massive Renaissance Revival style, preferred by wealthy Americans. Later on, a second type of suite appeared, one with a bedstead, washstand, and bureau. These were smaller in scale—ideal for middle class homes and Victorian cottages—and less ornate and expensive than their bigger cousins. The concept of selling furniture “en suite” was novel in the 1880s and 1890s. Today, we this for granted.

Not only did the size show off the wealth of the suite’s owners, it also fit the enormous rooms with 12-foot high ceilings common in Victorian Italianate mansions of the time.

Suites with dressing cases from the Victorian period were more expensive than the bureau type, and more elegant as well. Sometimes their tall mirrors seemed to extend from floor to ceiling and had ornately carved frames that featured small bracket shelves for candle-holders or small lamps. Drawers varied in number and size. What people now describe as a well or step-down generally separated the parallel series of drawers. Cabinetmakers treated all three levels alike, topping them with either wood or marble. Some pieces had full-width drawers at the bottom of the well. Sometimes, the mid-section below the looking glass reached down to the floor, but this wasn’t common. To achieve individuality, customers could order their own mirror frame, and select from 16 different carved drawer pulls.

In the 19th century, the word "toilet" referred to personal grooming, thus a mirror became a  toilet or plate. An oval "plate" is now called a wishbone mirror, since the frame in which it is suspended is shaped roughly like a fowl's wishbone.

During the 1870s, people referred to the two small drawers that sit across from each other on the top of a bureau as decks. Today, they’ve become known as handkerchief boxes. Much less common were the petite boxes with hinged lift lids that sat on top of the dresser.

A projection front refers to the part of a dresser that hangs out over the base. A drawer or two may project or overhang the others. Slipper drawers had no handles and appeared to be the apron on a dresser. Not surprisingly, owners stored their slippers in them. Some dressers even had hidden compartments for jewelry.

This particular dressing case has all the features of the American Renaissance Revival style and then some. Not only does it have the small drawers, but also smaller cabinets with carved fronts with what look to be magnolia flowers. How magnolia flowers got to be on a piece of furniture made in Canada is a mystery. Burl walnut veneer decorates the fronts of the larger panels. And both the dresser case and the bedstead feature a large carved medallion with a dove of peace.

It’s believed that this bedchamber suite was originally in The Towers, an Italianate mansion built by George Elias in the 1870s, the second manion on his property. Today, renamed The Scottish Rite, it’s the home of a Masonic Lodge. When George Elias had The Towers built, he commissioned a local cabinetmaker, Joseph Hoodless, to not only create the mansion’s fine woodwork, but also some custom pieces of furniture, including this bedchamber suite. At the time, Hoodless had the reputation of being the finest furniture maker of his time. One of his bedchamber suites won gold metal at the Toronto Exhibition.

Because this is so customized a piece, value is hard to determine. Similar bedchamber suites have sold for upwards of $10,000 or more.

To learn more about Victorian Revival furniture, read "The Victorian Era---An Age of Revivals."

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."

Beauty Is in the Eyes of the Beholder

QUESTION: Recently, I purchased a pressed glass plate that seems to be painted red and gold on one side. The paint is in pretty good condition, although some of it has flaked off. Did someone purposely paint this plate. I don’t want to scrape off the remaining paint until I know for sure. What can you tell me about this plate? And was the paint applied at the time of its manufacture?

ANSWER: As the old saying goes, “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” You bought the plate because you liked it, but the paint on it does make it look like someone was doing a bit of their own decorating. Fortunately for you, you asked about it before scraping away the paint. Your plate is what’s known as “Goofus” Glass. Sounds goofy, doesn’t it. In fact, some people call it tacky, some call it ordinary, and, yes, some call it beautiful.

Manufacturers didn’t originally call it "Goofus" glass. They had no designation of Goofus glass in their  salesmen's catalogs. They didn’t even recognize it as a specific classification of glass. Goofus glass, at its inception, was just a variety of pressed glass.

The term "Goofus" refers more to the use of unfired “cold” painted decoration to a piece of pressed glass, rather than to the glass itself. Many people believe the first users of Goofus noticed how easily the painted decoration on this glass wore away and felt that it was "goofy" or that someone had tried to "goof us."

Pressed, or pattern glass was, by the end of the 19th century, a substitute cut glass by the middle class. So the demand for pressed glass rose tremendously. To keep up with the demand, a number of new factories appeared, mostly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana due to the availability of natural gas to fire their furnaces. The most prominent of these was the Northwood Glass Company, founded in 1887 in Martin's Ferry, Ohio.

One of Northwood’s original owners, Harry Northwood, later founded his own company, H. Northwood and Company in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1901. Within five years, his company had developed a reputation as America's finest glassware manufacturer.

Always innovative, Harry Northwood was probably the first to make what has come to be known as Goofus glass and, a few years later in 1908, Carnival glass.

Other companies, such as The Imperial Glass Co. of Bellaire, Ohio, focused immediately on Goofus glass. Soon others joined them, including the Crescent Glass Co. of Wellsburg, West Virginia, Lancaster Glass Company in Lancaster, Ohio, Westmoreland Glass of Grapeville, Pennsylvania, Dugan Glass Company. of Indiana, Pennsylvania,; McKee Glass Company of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, and Indiana Glass Company of Dunkirk, Indiana, which produced more Goofus glass than any other manufacturer.

Somewhere along the line, the idea to paint pressed glassware with bright colors— usually red, but sometimes green, pink, brown, orange, silver, and always some gold—gained popularity with the buying public, who scooped it up in large quantities. This popularity glass peaked between 1908 and 1918.

Manufacturers marketed Goofus glass with names evoking faraway exotic places and   wealth. Some of these included Egyptian Intaglio, Egyptian Art, Khedive (meaning "viceroys of Egypt"), Golden Oriental, Artistic Decorated, and Intaglio Art.

Because it was mass-produced and relatively cheap, retail shop owners bought it to give as a premium for buying their goods. Goofus glass was given away by every sort of business—furniture stores, car dealers, even at WW1 Bond drives. A person could buy a house and get a complete set of dishes. Or buy a new suit and get an intaglio fruit bowl. Or buy an engagement ring and get a vase or a set of dishes. Fair owners even awarded it as prizes for winning games. It was the first Carnival glass, preceding the iridized glass known as Carnival glass today.

Glass companies produced plates, bowls, vases, oil lamps, dresser sets, salt and pepper shakers and candle holders. Many of the Goofus patterns feature flowers and fruit, especially grapes, among other motifs, raised out of the surrounding glass as seen in vases, powder boxes and lamps. The pattern could also be pressed into the glass from beneath the surface providing an intaglio effect as found in Goofus plates, baskets and candy dishes.

Because of the extensive use of red, green, and gold paint, Goofus glass became known as “Mexican ware” because the colors reminded buyers of the colors in the Mexican flag.

Workers decorated the glass in one of two ways: They either covered one side or the other of the piece completely with paint, known as “All Over Decoration” or “AOD,” or they painted just the distinguishing pattern on the glass, leaving the remainder of the glass  untouched, known as "Pattern Decorated" or "PD." The more frequently seen surface textures are various "basket weave,” "fish net," and "stippled."  

By the beginning of the Great Depression, Goofus glass production had come to an end.

It’s difficult to find a piece of Goofus glass in perfect condition whether the paint was applied to the outside or the inside of a piece. The worn paint became so unsightly it was washed away by the original or subsequent owners.

Collectors pay more to own pieces made for special occasions or to commemorate a World’s Fair or another event than other nondescript pieces. They also look for complete sets such as a large berry bowl with matching smaller bowls. Goofus collectors seek out rare oil lamps complete with glass shade and matching base. Of course, Goofus glass in all shapes and forms in great condition with very little paint wear will bring a much better price than a piece with considerable paint loss.

Portrait of a Songbird

QUESTION:  I have this bust of a woman and was wondering if you can tell me anything about it. It's approximately ten inches high and appears to be made of marble. The name “Patti” appears under the bust.

ANSWER: Your bust isn’t made of marble but is a fine example of Parian Ware, a bisque-type porcelain invented to simulate marble so that upper middle class 19th-century homeowners could decorate their homes with beautiful things much like the wealthy.  The woman depicted in this late 19th-century bust is the renowned opera singer Adelina Patti.

First, let’s take a look at the bust’s material. Unlike marble, which is a stone, Parian is actually a form of ceramics made of white clay and feldspar. Minton, one of England’s leading ceramics makers, named it in 1845 for the Greek island of Paros, renowned for its fine-textured, white marble of the same name. Copeland, another leading ceramics manufacturer, called their version Statuary Porcelian. Parian’s advantage over marble was that it could be prepared as a liquid and poured into molds, cutting production costs and making it cheaper to buy.

Used mostly for figurines and busts, Parian at first simulated famous classic sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome. But later on, after it caught on, artists sculpted busts of famous persons of the times. This bust of Adelina Patti is one of hundreds produced during the peak of Parian’s popularity.

Although eight primary English manufacturers produced Parian, Minton and Copeland were the largest and produced some of the finest examples.

Born on February 10, 1843 in Madrid, Spain, the last child of Italian tenor Salvatore Patti and soprano Caterina Barilli, Adelina Juana Maria Patti was a famous 19th-century opera singer. She first sang in public as a child in 1851, and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914. Along with two other songbirds, Jenny Lind and Thérèse Tietjens, Patti remains one of the most famous sopranos in history because of the purity of her lyrical voice. The composer Giuseppe Verdi, writing in 1877, described her as being the finest singer who had ever lived.

She made her operatic debut at age 16 on November 24, 1859 in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Academy of Music in New York. When she was   18, she appeared at London’s Covent Garden Opera House in the role of Amina in Bellini's La sonnambula. She had such success at Covent Garden that she purchased  a house in Clapham and, using London as a base, went on to conquer the famous opera houses of Europe.

In 1862, during an American tour, she sang John Howard Payne's “Home, Sweet Home” at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Lincoln. Moved to tears, the Lincolns requested an encore of the song in honor of their dead son Willie. Patti later performed it many times as a encore at the end of her concerts.

Patti had a tremendously successful career. She sang not only in England and the United States, but also in Europe, Russia, and South America, receiving critical acclaim wherever she went.

Patti was a true diva. She demanded to be paid $5000 a night in gold, before the performance. Her contracts stipulated that she receive top billing and that her name be  printed larger than anyone else in the cast.

She last sang in public in October 1914, taking part in a Red Cross concert at London's Royal Albert Hall that had been organized to aid victims of World War I. She lived long enough to see the war end, dying on September 27, 1919 of natural causes at Craig-y-Nos Castle, her private residence in Wales. In her will, she requested that she be buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris to be close to her father and favorite composer Rossini.

When she was a child, her parents moved the family to New York City where Patti grew up in the Wakefield section of the Bronx. Patti sang professionally from childhood, and developed into a coloratura soprano with perfectly equalized vocal registers and a surprisingly warm, satiny tone. Patti learned how to sing and gained understanding of voice technique from her brother-in-law Maurice Strakosch, who was a musician and impresario.

For more information on Parian Ware, read my article in The Antiques Almanac.

Biscuit Tins Never Get Stale

QUESTION: I’ve inherited my mother’s collection of English biscuit tins. She had been collecting them since she made a trip to England at the end of the 1960s. Her collection includes over four dozen tins, some are fancier than others. I love these old tins and want to continue collecting them. When my mother began collecting, she had to buy them during several trips to England. But today, I figure I can purchase them online. Can you tell me more about their history? Also, do you think I can add to her collection?

ANSWER: Biscuit tins are a fascinating part of British cultural history. They’re even tied to the monarchy. And while today manufacturers don’t make them as fancy as some of the ones from the early part of the 20th century, they’re still very popular with collectors. The peak of biscuit tin production ran from the late 1890s to the 1930s. Though originally meant to hold biscuits—the British term for “cookies”—they eventually became collectible works of art in themselves.

The history of the biscuit tin began with the passing of the Licensed Grocer’s Act of 1861 which allowed groceries to be individually packaged and sold. This coincided with the removal of the duty on paper for printed labels, so printing directly on to tinplate became common.

The bakery of Huntley & Palmers pioneered the use of metal tins. In 1832, Joseph Huntley’s son, who founded Huntley, Boorne & Stevens in an ironmongers opposite the bakery, began handcrafting large square seven- to ten-pound tins with glass inset tops for retailers. Grocery store clerks would measure out the amount of biscuits from these tins and place them in a paper bag for the customer. However, they didn’t stay fresh for very long once the customer returned home.

So Joseph Huntley began creating smaller tins without the glass insets so that customers could purchase their biscuits in a container to keep them fresh which they could take home. The tins were of such excellent quality that people began to reuse them to hold other things. The tins needed decoration but the only way to do that at the time was to paint them by hand.

In the early 1860s, all that changed with the invention of direct tin printing. This was a complicated and time-consuming technique. Then along came London printer Benjamin George George (That isn’t a typo.), who invented the lithographic transfer method.

In 1868, Huntley & Palmers commissioned the first lithographically decorated tin using George’s method from the London firm of De La Rue. Buckingham Palace granted the bakery permission to supply biscuits to the Royal Family. In order to create an appropriate design befitting the Royal Family, they hired Victorian designer Owen Jones to create a pattern which they could use on the biscuit tins using George’s new method. The result was a richly decorated oblong tin with the Royal Coat of Arms on the lid, now known to collectors as the “Ben George tin.” 

But George’s direct lithographic process, which involved laying an inked stone directly on to a sheet of tin, made it difficult to line up the colors. The breakthrough in decorative tin plate production was the invention of the offset lithographic process in 1877, which consists of bringing a sheet of rubber into contact with the decorated stone, and then setting-off the impression so obtained upon the metal surface. With this method, printers could use any number of colors, position them correctly, and apply the design to an uneven surface if necessary. Thus the elaborately embossed, colorful designs that became a hallmark of late Victorian biscuit tins became technically possible.

It became possible to make tins in almost any shape imaginable. Biscuit lovers bought baskets, windmills, cars, locomotives, globes, tables, and even mailboxes as much for their decorative qualities as their contents. Between 1868 and the outbreak of World War II, Huntley & Palmers issued around 400 tin designs with a lots of variations.

The most exotic designs appeared in the early years of the 20th century, just prior to the First World War. In the 1920s and 1930s, costs had risen substantially and the design of biscuit tins tended to be more conservative, with the exception of those targeted at the Christmas market and intended to appeal to children.

One of the most unique and most popular of biscuit tin designs resembled a stack of books held together with a belt. This 1901 Huntley & Palmers tin, known as “Literature,” was so realistically done that the covers and spines of the books appear to have been deeply tooled and inked and the page edges convincingly marbled and swirled in a rainbow of colors.

Most popular, however, were the tins shaped like vehicles. It was no coincidence that car, train, airplane, and boat tins bore a striking resemblance to similar toys sold at British department and toy stores since toy companies often crafted them from the same molds they used for their products. An example is Carr & Co's double-decker bus tin, made especially for them by Chad Valley and virtually identical to Chad Valley's toy bus except for the internal clockwork mechanism and different advertising.

But Huntley and Palmers were by no means the only company that made unusual biscuit tins. Some of the other famous biscuit tin sellers were Carr & Company., William Crawford & Sons, MacFarlane, Land & Company., and Peek, Frean, and Company. 

During the Second World War, all production on biscuit tins stopped so that factories and materials could be used for the war effort. When the war ended in 1945, production resumed but the tins weren’t as popular as before the war.

Peek, Frean, and Company, McVitie’s, and Jacob’s all became household names but for collectors Huntley & Palmers stands out. Collectors are particularly attracted to the decorative novelty tins. Condition is of prime importance, perhaps even more so with biscuit tins since they rust easily. Many also become worn or dented, giving the novice collector an opportunity to acquire interesting examples relatively cheaply.

Today, biscuit tins range in price from $10 to $200 online. However, the prices of those in British antiques shops are climbing into the stratosphere. This is due mostly to the antiques tourist trade. The most expensive tin sold at auction for over $20,000.

We've Come a Long Way Baby

QUESTION: I discovered an unusual bottle in a box lot I bought at a local house sale.  The bottle is about six or seven inches long, pale green, and oval but doesn’t have a flat bottom, so it must lay on its front or back. Do you have any idea what this little bottle would have contained or been used for?

ANSWER: Believe it or not, your little bottle once held baby’s milk.
           
The development of baby bottles took centuries to transform into the sterile plastic throwaways in use today. As knowledge of germs and hygiene developed, so did the infant feeder. While parents of earlier times sensed that babies who were breast fed had a better chance at surviving, it wasn't until the early 20th century that mothers and bottle makers realized that clean, sterile feeders were necessary to protect a baby's health.

Before then, bottle makers created a variety of feeders—from tiny coffeepot-shaped ones of tin to china submarine-shaped flasks decorated in Flow Blue and transferware patterns. Glass bottles didn’t come on the scene until the mid-19th century.

Nipples, made of wood, ivory, bone, sterling, pewter, leather„ rags, sponge, rubber, and yes, a pickled cow's teat, were nothing like those in use today.

Much like today, bottles were necessary because some mothers couldn’t breast feed, and, unlike today, it wasn’t always fashionable to nurse. When a friend asked Queen Victoria if she intended to breast feed, she reportedly said she had no intention of making  a cow of herself.

One manufacturer immortalized Victoria’s image on a stoneware bottle that’s now prized by collectors. But the queen hated that her likeness appeared on a nursing bottle.

Besides a dislike, of nursing, there were other reasons for women to use baby bottles. Many women thought that nursing would destroy their figures. It also inhibited them socially since they couldn’t travel and leave the baby at home.

Fathers weren’t too keen on breast feeding, either, because doctors and midwives often advised mothers to refrain from sex during nursing.

Wealthier families employed wet nurses, usually young women who had a child and could nurse another. Since parents believed that a milk giver’s personality traits could be transferred to an infant through their milk, choosing the right one was important.

The ideal wet nurse was a plump rosy-cheeked young woman. Many people believed that red-headed girls gave bitter milk and produced ill-tempered babies. They even suspected animal milk, believing that infants took on the attributes of the cow or goat. French nobles gave the title of “contessa” to a wet nurse so that their infants could be nursed by milk of noble origin. Those who couldn’t afford to hire a wet nurse, turned to a variety of infant feeders, many of them unsafe by modern standards.

Though a china submarine-shaped bottle with blue transferware is beautiful, being completely opaque it was hard to clean. Fermenting milk curds could be lodged in the corners and mothers would never see them.

Charles M. Windship of Roxbury, Massachusetts, developed the first glass baby bottle, a small turtle shell-shaped: feeder, in 1841. Women thought the shape would fool their infants into thinking it was a real breast.

To use the Windship bottle, a woman wore it on a harness on her breast. It was probably difficult to use because girls with tender, post-childbirth breasts wouldn’t want to place any weight on their on top of them. Because of its shape, the Windship bottle became known as a mammary bottle. Today, they’re highly prized by collectors and sell for nearly $500 each.

But the Windship bottle wasn’t safe for the baby. The Windship and some subsequent bottles came with a long rubber tube, topped off with a rubber nipple. The tube allowed for hands-free feeding for mothers. These devices also had their problems. Dried formula would clog the tube which was too small to be cleaned, so bacteria blossomed. This feeder became known by the onerous name of the “murder bottle.” New York State banned them in 1906, and other states rapidly followed suit.

The turtle-shaped bottles, begun with the Windship model, remained in use from around 1860 to 1910. The bottles had vents, sometimes on both ends, so that air bubbles wouldn’t enter the milk. A nipple went on one end and a tiny cork on the other.

Most bottles became cylindrical by the beginning of the 20th century. Sterilization also became routine. And by the 1930s, bottle makers began embossing their glass bottles with puppies and kittens. These continued to be used until the invention of the disposable plastic bottle.

Valentines from Across the Seas

QUESTION: While vacationing in Nantucket last summer, I came across some beautiful souvenirs made of shells. The shop owner said they’re called “Sailor’s Valentines.” While the one I purchased is newly made, I saw others in the Nantucket Whaling Museum a few blocks away. What is the history behind these things of beauty? Who made them and where did they come from?

ANSWER: Most sailor’s valentines date from the early 19th century. Beginning in 1830, whaling ships set sail from Nantucket and later New Bedford, Massachusetts in search of mighty whales, from which they extracted whale oil used to grease the machines of the Industrial Revolution.


While Nantucket was the center of whaling in New England–at its height nearly 400 ships called the island port home—these weren’t the only types of ships that sailed the oceans of the world. Sailing ships, later known as clippers because of their fast speed, sailed to all the major ports of the world. From the early to the latter part of the 19th century when steam-powered ships took over the seas, the sailors aboard them spent years aboard in search of whales and moving cargo from one port of call to the next, often gone from home for several years. When they stopped to exchange cargo or gather provisions, they went ashore, discovering unique souvenirs to take home to their wives and girlfriends. Besides objects decorated with scrimshaw, which they, themselves, made, they found some unusual octagonal wooden boxes filled with seashells in shops on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean.

Between about 1830 and 1880, residents of Barbados made and sold what came to be known as Sailor’s Valentines to the lonely English and American sailors.

From the 1630s to the end of the 19th century, Barbados was an important port of call for sugar, rum, lumber, and fish. Because of this, a number of shops catered to the souvenir trade. The Victorian love for collecting and displaying exotic objects from afar possibly fueled the industry and contributed to the popularity of the valentines.

Historians believe that most of the sailors' valentines came from the New Curiosity Shop on McGregor Street in Bridgetown, Barbados, owned by two English brothers, B.H. and George Belgrave, who hired locals to make the valentines.

The local valentine makers constructed the special octagonal, hinged boxes, ranging in size from 8 to 15
inches across, using mahogany veneer for the sides and native cedar wood called cedrella, for the bottoms. Then they lined the insides of the boxes with colored paper, most often pink, onto which they placed cotton batting. Next they glued hundreds of colorful tiny seashells in intricate symmetrical mosaic designs incorporating hearts and flowers, which often featured a compass rose centerpiece. After gluing down all the shells, the maker placed a piece of glass over the design to protect them. They called these double valentines.

Sometimes the makers incorporated a special sentimental message that a sailor would request into the design, thus the name Sailors’ Valentines. Sentiments typically appeared only on the smaller 9½-inch double valentines, which often displayed a heart motif on the opposite half. Some of the more popular ones were “To My Sweetheart,” “To My Love,” “Home Again,” and “From a Friend.” The larger 13½- to 14-inch valentines rarely had sayings, but instead had more intricate shell-work designs on both sides.

Today, Sailors’ Valentines command high prices at auctions and antique shows. Some of the best, however, are part of the collections of the New Bedford and Nantucket Whaling Museums, and the Peabody Essex Museum, all in Massachusetts. Collectors value antique sailors' valentines for their beauty and unusual qualities. But their high prices make it difficult for most beginning collectors to acquire the originals. A small double valentine that twenty years ago sold for $350 to $600, now sells for $500 to $1,500, and the price for a large double valentine has jumped from $1,000 to between $2,500 and $10,000—that is if either can be found.

Plus, a thriving business making new sailors’ valentines has emerged on Nantucket Many of these have frames that have been faux finished to imitate the original woods and their designs copied to imitate the originals. Beyond the souvenir shops, collectors must be vigilant because many of these imitations have been sold as antiques.

A Box for Gentlemen

QUESTION: I recently attended an upscale antiques show in my area. While there, I came across a beautiful wooden box filled with little jars with silver lids and other containers. The dealer called it a “Gentleman’s Box.” I had never heard the term before. In fact, the box looked like a deluxe traveling toiletry box. Can you tell me where the term Gentleman’s Box originated? Is it the same as an early men’s toiletry box?

ANSWER: Some antiques dealers lump all sorts of men’s traveling boxes into one category—the Gentleman’s Box. However, like the word “vintage” that’s so often misused on eBay and in many middle-market antique shops, it doesn’t apply to every box used by gentlemen in the 18th and 19th century.

A true Gentleman’s Box refers to a wealthy man’s dressing case, which carried toiletries and other small personal items a gentleman might need when traveling. Sometimes, the term can also be applied to fancy wooden boxes containing small bottles of liquor or wine. 

Towards the end of the 18th century, upper class gentlemen carried dressing cases with them when they traveled. These cases were originally utilitarian but they’re fine design and craftsmanship showed off their owners’ wealth and place in society, as at that time, only the very wealthy could afford to travel.

Gentleman’s dressing cases contained bottles and jars for colognes, aftershaves, and creams as well as essential shaving and manicure tools. As these boxes became more popular, makers came up with other items to include in them. By the early Victorian era, when ladies began to travel, the exteriors, veneered with exotic woods, such as  calamander, rosewood, burl walnut, satinwood and mahogany, and often was inlaid with contrasting wood or mother-of-pearl, or abalone. 
           
The Gentleman’s Box had an expensive fitted interior, often set in tiers with pull-out drawers and many compartments. The top, removable tier often contained cut-glass toilet jars and bottles with engraved silver mounts and covers. There were also separate holders and layers to hold the toilet accessories, such as scissors, steel nail-files, buttonhooks and penknives.

The inside of the cover sometimes had a framed mirror, and the base had a secret drawer released by a spring catch or button on the top of the box inside. Few people  could have been deceived by this,  however, since it was really meant to prevent the drawer from opening while the box, itself, was closed. An alternative to the brass button or catch was the use of a chained brass pin which slid into a retaining hole for the secret drawer.

Most of these boxes were around 12 inches wide and 10 inches deep. The height varied, as some had multiple drawers that made them look like miniature chests. The more luxurious ones incorporated a writing box and a sometimes a compartment to hold basic tea-making equipment.

Weight and size were unimportant, for not only did gentlemen travel with their servants on coaches and trains, but there were plenty of porters waiting to help at railway stations.

A mother-of-pearl or brass plaque in the center of the lid was usually engraved with the initials of the owner. Wealthy gentlemen often purchased these boxes as status symbols of their wealth rather than as actual traveling pieces.

Gentlemen’s Boxes are usually pricey, selling for upper four figures. Most have been kept in very good condition or have been professionally restored.