The Jewelry of Royalty

 

QUESTION: I recently saw an exquisite brooch made by Cartier at a charity antique show. I always associated Cartier with fine watches. Can you tell me more about Cartier and how the company got its start in the jewelry making business?

ANSWER: While most people associate the name Cartier with fine watches, the company actually began repairing fine jewelry and later creating it. 

Louis-François Cartier founded Cartier in Paris in 1847 when he took over the workshop of his master, Adolphe Picard. In 1874, Louis-François' son Alfred Cartier took over the company, but it was Alfred's sons, Louis, Pierre and Jacques, who set up their own design and manufacturing operation and established the brand name worldwide.

Louis ran the Paris branch, moving to the Rue de la Paix in 1899. He was responsible for some of the company's most celebrated designs and exotic orientalist Art Deco jewelry, including the colorful "Tutti Frutti" jewels.

Cartier has had a long history of sales to royalty. King Edward VII of Great Britain referred to Cartier as "the jeweler of kings and the king of jewelers" For his coronation in 1902, Edward VII ordered 27 tiaras and issued a royal warrant to Cartier in 1904. Similar warrants soon followed from the courts of Spain, Portugal, Russia and the House of Orleans.

The firm had always had an illustrious clientele, including Henri and Maurice de Rothschilde, Ira Nelson Morris, Florence Blumenthal, Daisy Fellowes, Mrs. Cole Porter and Barbara Streisand.

The Cartier style was diverse, encompassing fashion accessories, as well as jewelry. It was a style which owed less to the prevailing design trends and more to the global travels and interests of the Cartier brothers and their intrigue with novelty. Their pioneering use of the much stronger platinum instead of silver, as a setting for diamonds made it possible to work in such a thin gauge that the diamonds seem to float in space in an intricate embroidery.

Attention to detail saw even the ring bolt catches studded with minute diamonds, and seed pearls on a tasseled pendant exquisitely graded in size.

But Cartier made its jewelry to be adaptable. One diamond fern spray brooch could also be a long corsage, a necklace or a tiara. A central jeweled motif could be removed from a necklace and placed in a brooch setting which, with a tiny screw-driver, was packaged beneath the velvet of its padded box. Long necklaces, known as sautoirs, sometimes contained pendant watches and could be lengthened or shortened, even turned into Brooches were made to be divided, if desired, for wearing on each shoulder.

Pierre Cartier established the New York City branch in 1909, moving in 1917 to 653 Fifth Avenue, the Neo-Renaissance mansion of Morton Freeman Plant (son of railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant) and designed by architect C.P.H. Gilbert. Cartier bought it from the Plants in exchange for $100 in cash and a double-stranded natural pearl necklace valued at the time at $1 million. By this time, Cartier had branches in London, New York and Saint Petersburg. 

By 1910, Cartier had found another medium to work with-pieces of rock crystal, a colorless, hard stone which was carved with foliate scrollwork. Always open to experimenting with materials, the jewelers began using blackened steel as a setting for rubies and diamonds in 1913. 

When the firm started to design its own jewelry, the Art Nouveau style of flowing, floral lines was at its peak. But Cartier chose to look back to historical Renaissance or Neoclassical architectural ornamentation for inspiration. A pendant in the form of an Ionic column, for instance, with scrolls from ancient stonework, is a good example. Cartier had a simplicity of design work with geometric patterns.

A trip to St. Petersburg in 1914 through 1915 and the popularity in the west of Faberge, inspired Cartier's Russian period. The trip was essentially to sell diamond and platinum jewelry and to purchase Russian enameled, gold objets d'art, but a year later Cartier had produced its own Russian style pieces and began exhibiting regularly in Russia, selling pieces to Russian nobility.

After the Russian Revolution, many of Faberge's American and European followers switched to Cartier, and this style continued to be produced until the 1920s.

The overseas influence set a trend in Cartier design. The brothers' admiration of the past led to ancient designs from Egypt, Persia, India, China and Japan being reworked in a modern way. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 unleashed worldwide Egyptomania. Cartier produced pieces, such as a vanity box in the form of a sarcophagus. Designers looked to source books and museums, such as the Louvre and the British Museum, for inspiration. 

The collecting instincts of the Cartiers was evident in the way they included ancient fragments in their pieces, such as in a winged scarab brooch which included blue glazed wing pieces which would have been found on the chest of a mummy.

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

Breaking Out the Best for the Holiday Table

 

QUESTION: As the holidays approach, I get out my Oneida silver flatware and polish it up for another joyous season. Beginning with Thanksgiving dinner, I use a setting for 12 that’s been in our family for four generations. Except for the classic beauty of this tableware, I know very little about it. Can you please tell me more about Oneida?

ANSWER: The holidays, especially Thanksgiving, are all about traditions in many families. Your use of your Oneida family heirloom is no exception. But Oneida didn’t always make silver flatware. In fact, at one point early in the company’s existence, it made grizzly bear traps.

Oneida, Ltd. actually began as a utopian religious commune in 1848. At that time, there were several such communities that existed in the northeastern United States. Oneida was one of them. 

John Humphrey Noyes and his followers founded the Oneida Community in Oneida, New York. Members of this Protestant, religious sect referred to themselves as Perfectionists because they believed that spiritual perfection could be achieved by them in this world. This was a common concept among 19th-century utopian communities. Much like the Shakers, members contributed all their worldly goods to the community when they joined it. The community held all possessions in common, and it provided for everyone's needs. They called this practice "Bible communism.''

But the Oneida Community is best known for its unconventional family arrangements. Members practiced what Noyes called complex marriage—every man was married to every woman, just as every woman was married to every man. Although neighbors surrounding the community saw this as "free love,” the Perfectionists defended complex marriage as noble and unselfish, since all were expected to be loving to each other. It discouraged individual relationships. During its early years, the community also discouraged child bearing, but by 1869 when the community had become more prosperous, its elders selected couples with desirable qualities and encouraged them to bear children. John Humphrey Noyes himself fathered several, including sons who were later very active in the affairs of the future company. Oneida, Ltd.

At first the Perfectionists tried to support themselves by farming and by preserving and selling fruits and vegetables. But this didn’t provide sufficient income, so they branched out into several industrial activities. An 1890s ad offered a booklet which told how the community came to make such interesting and incongruous things as delicious preserved fruits and traps for catching grizzly bears, fine sewing and embroidery silk, d steel chains, and beautiful flatware. Let’s face it, not many silver companies started out making traps for grizzly bears.

By 1877, when the Wallingford, Connecticut, branch of the community started making tin-plated spoons, the original Oneida Community was beginning to break up. In 1879, Noyes moved to Canada and members abandoned the concept of complex marriage. In 1880, the assets of the community were distributed to its members in the form of stock in the newly formed corporation, Oneida Community, Limited, making it one of the earliest joint-stock companies in the United States.

The new company, under the leadership of P.B. Noyes, one of the sons of the founder, first moved its silverplate production to Niagara Falls, New York, and later to Sherill, New York, within walking distance of the original Oneida Community property. It began production of silver-plated flatware and hollow-ware in 1899 using the "Community Plate" mark. 

When the community became a corporation, some members found it difficult to adjust to the new business practices and divided into factions, each competing to control the board of directors. But the younger Noyes remained in control and moved the company into manufacturing higher quality wares in sterling silver, including a flatware line called Avalon in 1901. In 1929, it purchased the William A. Rogers Company began producing a lower-quality line of products using that company’s mark. In 1935, the firm changed its name to Oneida, Ltd.

By 1961, Oneida, Ltd. began producing stainless steel flatware. And by the 1980s, Oneida made at least half of all flatware purchased in the United States. At the end of the 20th century, Oneida fell upon tough economic times, becoming the last remaining U.S.-based manufacturer of flatware, knives, forks, and spoons. The resulting economic troubles resulting from 9/11 forced it to close or sell off most of its factories.

It filled for bankruptcy in 2006, and after finally stabilizing, Monomoy Capital Partners, an equity fund based in New York City, acquired it. Today, it services much of the food service industry with both china and flatware.

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

Is Nemadji Pottery Calling You?

 

QUESTION: On a trip out West I traveled through southern Colorado. I stopped at an antique shop and saw a unique vase covered with swirls of what looked like colored paint. The dealer said the vase was an example of Nemadji pottery and that it had been made by Native Americans but wasn’t sure from what tribe. What can you tell me about my vase?

ANSWER: Nemadji pottery originated in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota and is touted to be Native American pottery. But there’s nothing Native American about it. In fact, some antiques dealers sell this pottery under the belief that it is Native American.

Nemadji pottery is unglazed rustic pottery with colorful swirled designs on the outside. No two piece look alike. They all have unique colors and come in a variety of forms. Reminiscent of ancient Indian pottery, it's not surprising the colorful swirl pots became one of America's hottest tourist collectibles.

Clayton James Dodge founded the Nemadji Tile and Pottery Company in Moose Lake, Minnesota, in 1923 to make Arts and Crafts ceramic tiles. He shipped its trademark "fire flash" earthenware tile made from regional clays by railroad to destinations across the country. During its peak years, the demand was so strong a crew of 30 men worked three shifts to produce the colorful tile for homes and churches. But the Stock Market Crash of 1929 put an end to sales.

Determined to ride out the Great Depression, Dodge developed an inexpensive tourist pottery that could be mass-produced and shipped from his Moose Lake factory. But to create it, he needed to find a master ceramist. That person was Eric Hellman, a Danish immigrant who had earned a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering at the Technical Engineering Institute in Copenhagen. Hellman had previously worked at porcelain houses in Copenhagen and Meissen, Germany. But by the time he met Dodge, he had given up throwing pots for fear the clay dust would destroy his lungs. The promise of steady work and a paycheck changed that.

Within the year Hellman developed a line of hand-thrown pottery for Dodge using the colorful clays taken from the hanks of the Nemadji River northeast of Moose Lake. He created molds from these original pieces, then taught unskilled laborers to recreate them by the slip cast method. Hellman also introduced a "cold striped painting process," which gave Nemadji pottery its distinctive look as no two pots were alike.

To apply the paints, workers filled a galvanized wash-tub with water and a dash of vinegar. They then gently floated onto the water small droplets of oil-based enamel paint. By blowing gently across the paint, workers caused the droplets to merge creating colorful bands of paint. Blowing down into the middle of these floating bands created a circle of clear water into which a pot. was lowered by hand. When the blowing stopped the paint returned to the center of the tub. The worker then lifted the pot out with a twisting motion creating a swirl design.

 Pottery created between 1929 and 1972 was made with red to buff colored clays found near Moose Lake. Workers treated the interiors of these early pots with a quick swish of shellac, recycled from pot to pot, creating a beautiful patina. 

Once Hellman had created this unique pottery, he left the company. That's when Dodgers began promoting the pottery in earnest. He realized he had a good product but needed a hook to grab a share of the tourist market.

For that, Dodge sought to tie his pottery's to Minnesota's Indian Country. A practicing attorney, Dodge used his knowledge of the law and talents at creative writing to carefully create a legend describing the geology of Minnesota's Arrowhead region, its first primitive ancestors, and the remnants of ancient Native American pottery discovered there. While he never said Indians made Nemadji, Dodge drew a dotted line between the Ojibwa tribe and his pottery. And shopkeepers and tourists connected the dots.

The legend Dodge created went something like this .”The name "Nemadji" is the Ojibway word for “left-handed.” Nemadji pottery is made by skilled craftsmen whose deft hands throw pieces of clay on potters' wheels just as the Chinese centuries ago turned their pottery, which is today priceless. These craftsmen are under the three-thin of a skilled ceramist whose life has been spent in the production of pottery of an artistic type. Nemadji pottery expresses the soul of the Redman, who, though long since gone to the Happy Hunting Ground, still haunts our shores and woods."

Dodge had his legend printed on a pad of paper and sent with his pottery to trading posts and tourist stops, including the famed Wall Drug Store in South Dakota. When a pot sold, the shopkeeper tore a printed legend from the pad and gave it to the customer. Eager to purchase a small token of their trips to “Indian Country” and the Wild West, many tourists didn't hesitate to exchanged their nickels and quarters for a piece of Nemadji "Indian" Pottery with documentation of its noble history.

Since Nemadji sounded like an Native American tribal name, most people thought it was genuine Native American pottery. Dodge was clever enough say his pottery was “inspired” by Native American designs. And the tourists loved it. 

Dodge created rubber stamps to mark each pot. One of the earliest stamp marks features the image of a Native American arrowhead encircled by the words “Nemadji Pottery Moose Lake, Minnesota.“ Another early stamp reads handmade “Nemadji Indian Pottery from Native Clay.”

Most marks carry the words Nemadji Pottery or Nemadji Indian Pottery. Some are stamped with the words “Badlands Pottery of Nemadji Blackhills Pottery,.” used on pieces sold at Wall Drug in South Dakota during the 1930s and 1940s.

After 1950, pottery marks included the words Nemadji potting and the image of either an Indian head or an Indian in a canoe.

Over time, people misplaced the small pieces of paper from the pad and memories faded_ Eventually the owners of Nemadji referred to it simply as "Indian Pottery" and the Indian myth became reality.

But myths die hard, and today Nemadji pottery often appears for sale in antique stores and on the Internet as Indian-made, ancient Indian, or as rare Ojibwa pottery.

Legends aside, Nemadji commands moderate prices in the collectibles market. And as the interest in this true American tourist pottery increases, so do the prices. Small hand-thrown Nemadji pieces made by Eric Hellman in Moose Lake in the early 1930s have recently sold in the $100 range. Nemadji pottery produced before World War Il using red clays dug from the banks of the Nemadji River command prices ranging from $75 to $95.

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

Are Coffee Tables Antique?

 

QUESTION: I just purchased an antique coffee table and would like to know more about it. What can you tell me about my table? Is it a valuable antique?

ANSWER: I hate to burst your bubble, but your table isn’t an antique. In fact, coffee tables are a modern invention. No one knows exactly where they came from or who designed the first one.

The current definition a coffee table is a low, wide table placed in front of a couch or sofa to receive drinks, TV remotes, magazines, ashtrays, and miscellaneous other items, including feet. Yes, some people do prop their tired feet up once in a while. But a quick look back in time doesn't show many similar tables in our Western history. Old photos of late Victorian room settings show taller tables, often placed behind a sofa to receive cups and glasses when not in use. The only other table offering close to the service of a coffee table was the parlor table, often placed in the middle of the room with a gas lamp on it. Here, the lady of the house could serve coffee or tea to guests.



During the latter half of the 19th century, wealthy people became interested in the exotic furniture of Turkey. They would set up a special corner or an entire room using pillowed benches and ornately carved, low, round tables from which they drank strong Turkish coffee and tea.

Americans became especially fond of Japanese design after the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. They particularly liked the idea of sitting on pillows on the floor and eating at low tables like the Japanese do. When the Aesthetic Movement took hold in the 1880s, furniture designers blended Eastlake and Renaissance Revival styles with Turkish and Asian ones.

While some sources note the production of low tables in various Revival styles during the last decade of the 1800s, no one has ever seen any.

The coffee table appeared in the 20th century, most likely in the 1920s and 1930s. As Americans began to purchase parlor sets, consisting of perhaps a couch, two chairs, and several small tables, the coffee table idea became more popular.

In 1903, F. Stuart Foote founded the Imperial Furniture Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He had learned the furniture business from his father, E. H. Foote, who had founded the Grand Rapids Chair Company in 1872. Foote claimed to have invented the coffee table himself while helping his wife prepare for a party. He simply lowered the legs on an existing table, and a new type of furniture came into being. Unfortunately, so far this hasn’t been proven.

Prohibition may have also played a role in the development of the coffee table. From 1920 to 1933, America was legally "dry." That led to a shortage of well blended, smooth tasting liquor. “Bathtub gin" and "white lightning" to the place of traditional spirits but both had quite a kick.  To soften that kick, people began mixing fruit juices and other beverages with the hootch which eventually led to the invention of the "cocktail."

During Prohibition, people often used this low table to serve coffee to their guests. But with the repeal of the law, they could once again legally serve cocktails, so it became known as a “cocktail table.” Sales for these low tables soared even during the Depression.

To make them seem older than they were and thus more elegant, many furniture manufacturers began producing their coffee/cocktail tables using stylized designs of the past. This was a direct result of the appearance of the Colonial Revival style of the early 20th century which encouraged furniture makers to create pieces in supposedly “colonial” styles. All of a sudden coffee tables appeared in the Queen Anne, Chippendale, Federal, and even Jacobean styles. Thus, many people today are fooled into thinking that their coffee tables are really antiques.

The only way to have a truly antique coffee table is to cut down an existing antique table as F. Stuart Foote did in 1903. And while your coffee table will be a true antique, it won’t be worth very much.

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

Stirring Up the Witch’s Brew

 

QUESTION: One of my favorite times of the year is Fall because it brings with it Halloween. And my favorite Halloween motif is the witch—riding her broom through the crisp night sky. For years, I’ve collected all sorts of items having to do with witches. Recently, I visited Salem, Massachusetts, site of the infamous Salem witch trials. The place was just brimming with all sorts of Salem witch souvenirs. I almost went nuts. Can you tell me how witches got to be so popular? And are any of the souvenirs sold in Salem collectible?

ANSWER: Witches haven’t always been a popular fun motif. For centuries, being accused of being a witch often meant death by some horrible means—often being burned at the stake. Superstition ran rampant in past times when science was in its early stages and religion and mysticism ruled.

Though hunting down witches had been going on for centuries, it really got a kick start in 11th-century Europe when accusations of witchcraft fell upon anyone who did any sort of perceived evil deed. This was especially true of persons, usually women, who made herbal medicines and recipes for spells to cure the sick. 

The Puritans came to the New World to escape persecution and ended up being more intolerant than anyone. They brought with them all the superstitions they had lived with in their home countries. And that included their belief in witchcraft.

Salem was a depressing place in 1692. Neighbors bickered continuously over boundary lines and politics. The strict demands of Calvinism allowed no frivolity and little joy. Work lasted six days a week and on the seventh, people spent their day listening to dire warnings of Satan's nearness by harsh, punitive ministers. One of the most evil of temptations was sexuality. Fear and repression filled the Puritans daily lives. The settlers feared attacks by Indians and had only recently recovering from a smallpox epidemic. Any activities that stimulated mental or physical excitement were deemed sinful. So it’s easy to see how a group of teenage girls with an excess of energy and pent up emotion, coming in direct conflict with severe repression, could become obsessed with their own wild imaginings, and sexual fantasies.

But scientists and historians now believe that the hysterical girls were victims of either a poisonous fungus found in the bread made and eaten in the settlement or from hallucinations they suffered from the hemp they chewed to make it pliable for making rope. But the stage had long ago been set for the tragedy that was to befall those girls. Historians believe that over 9 million people, nearly all of them women, were the victims of witch hunts and burnings for five previous centuries.

In Europe, witch hunting was a profitable business. Local nobles, bishops. judges, magistrates and others all received a share of the wealth created from the picked pockets and stolen property of arrested citizens. Local government officials charged victims for the ropes that bound them and the wood that burned them. It wasn’t much different in Salem. Those who were jailed had to pay the jailer for food and the chains that held therm. Officials confiscated personal property to pay increasing debts. Some people who were later released fought for years to reclaim their stolen property.

Though original artifacts from this time period are rare, memorabilia such as Jonathan Corwin's trunk, accused Mary Hollingsworth English's sampler, Philip English's chair, cane and bottle and John Proctor's brass sundial do exist. There are also 552 documents related to the trials, known collectively as "The Salem Witchcraft Papers," including arrest warrants, examinations and death warrants. Also in this collection are the witch pins, claimed by the accusers to have been used by the "witches" to torment their victims. 

Victorians of the latter part of the 19th century loved to travel. And visitors wanted to take home souvenirs of their journeys, either natural or manmade. Daniel Low, the owner of a gift and silver shop in Salem, decided that the town could benefit from the types of souvenir pieces he had seen during trips to Europe. He first created a silver spoon with a witch design, complete with a broom and the word “Salem.” Low marked it "D Low Sterling" and a circle D for Durgin Silversmiths on the reverse side. Its popularity soon encouraged him to create another. As his spoons began selling wildly,  the witch image quickly became Salem's symbol. Low was the first to make souvenirs for tourists in the U.S.

Low patented his witch design on Jan. 13, 1891. The second spoon pattern, introduced in 1893, was much more ornate, having in its design a witch on a crescent moon, a cat, the three pins, the date of 1692, a hemp rope and a handle of a witch's broom. The design twines around the back of the spoon and shows the frayed end of the rope.

The success of these spoons was so enormous they began a souvenir craze across the country. Low then began a line of items for the Witch City trade that would he imitated by towns and cities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. He offered quality sterling silver souvenir items that included tea strainers, bookmarks, perfume bottles, matchsafes and dishes. Soon tourists insisted on more items at a moderate price. 

Other companies jumped an the souvenir bandwagon, creating items of china, glass, pottery and celluloid. Souvenir manufacturers presented dishes, sewing equipment, household implements, dresser items, and jewelry, for sale to eager tourists. 

Photography had come into its own by the last decades of the 19th century and postcards became a popular souvenir item. Tourists snapped them up. In fact, Jonathan Corwin's home where the trials took place, called the Witch House, has been pictured on postcards so often over the years, that postcards eventually documented changes in the site. So many publishers and printers have produced cards of this structure that prices are low because they are so common. They usually range between $1 and $6.

A variety of Salem witch souvenirs, including pins, spoons, plates, sheet music, and postcards sell for $40 or so at auctions. Spoons can sell for $150 or more, depending on their condition. 

While most people are familiar with the Salem witch trials, few know that the Salem witch memorabilia associated with the trials helped to launch the American souvenir industry.

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

Knock on Wood

 

QUESTION: Before the pandemic, I had been going to antique shows, especially those that featured more primitive pieces. One of the things that caught my eye was the variety of wooden objects, utensils, and containers on display. I’ve always liked the look of natural wood and think that I might start a collection. But there were so many different items that I don’t know where to start. Can you help me/

ANSWER: As with any type of collection, it’s important to collect what you like. A way to narrow this down a bit might be to think about what you like to do. Are you an avid cook that delights in all sorts of kitchen gadgets? Do you like unique containers? Do you like to work with woodworking tools? Once you decide what category of wooden items you’d like to collect, then, and only then, should you begin purchasing items for your collection. Also, it’s important to set a budget limit—know what you can afford—especially in the beginning. 

Woodenware generally consists of utilitarian items used in the everyday lives of 18th- and 19th-century Americans. Also known as treenware, from the word "treen," an old usage for "from trees." Wood was the component in the construction of many necessities in early American life.

Craftsmen used pine, a soft wood that was east to work with, for making woodenware and boxes. Dough boxes, trenchers—large oval or rectangular serving or preparation bowls---and small boxes made of pine are a favorite of collectors. They also used cherry, poplar, and butternut but didn’t use oak very often.

Fine examples of handmade, early American burl bowls can reach prices of over $1,000. A burl is an abnormal growth on a tree, occurring on a limb or the trunk. It’s harder than the normal wood of the tree. Due to its hardness, woodworkers often burned the piece of burl in the center, than dug it out with tools, finishing it to form the implement. Heavy and tough, the burl exhibits a beautiful and unusual appearance, becoming even more attractive over time when a patina forms. Burl items seem less likely to crack over time than the items made from normal wood. Some larger wooden-ware items may exhibit a partial burl in their construction.

Probably the most common examples of woodenware found were made for food preparation and storage. Family members fashioned many of these items by hand, but unfortunately, they discarded them when they were no longer usable. Hand-planed and carved marks are sure signs of handcrafting, as is a non-symmetrical design. Bowls and dry measures are probably the most common pieces of early manufactured woodenware. But finding a maker’s name on an item is rare.

Butter molds and stamps are another type of woodenware often seen. However, plates, utensils, and cups are scarce and command higher prices. Though handmade bowls sell well, manufactured bowls from the late 1800s and early 1900s are more common and affordable. Most desirable of the manufactured bowls tend to be the unusually large examples, of over 18 inches in diameter.

Designed to hold all types of dry goods, such as flour, cornmeal and other grains, pantry boxes are popular among woodenware collectors. They especially like the covered oval boxes with finger lapping made by the Shakers. The finger lapping helped the boxes keep their shape over time. Makers usually painted many of these. Like most items, it these boxes retain their original paint, the value increases dramatically.

Woodenware also includes items, such as shovels, buckets, tools, and barrels, used in daily life. Coopers made staved buckets and barrels. They constructed the majority of them with iron bands, and occasionally used wood bands.

Grain shovels, hay forks and rakes were some old farm implements made from wood. 

Makers cut early pieces from one piece of wood, with the grip, handle and shovel constituting one piece. Later, they made them from two pieces, joined with nuts and bolts  Farm implements, like rakes, forks and shovels, received a good bit of hard use, and often exhibit wear and tear.

Staved firkins, or sugar buckets, used to hold sugar and other dry goods, and had a  cover, swing handle, and wood bands. Wider at the base than at the top, these buckets came in several sizes. Painted examples are the most valuable. Other utilitarian pieces included sap buckets, used for collecting sap for maple syrup making, kerosene buckets, and drop handle water pails.

Woodenware was made to be used, often strenuously and regularly. Wear and use marks not only add to the intrigue of the piece, but also help in differentiating it from a recently made one. Chop marks usually cover the interior of bowls and trenchers. Stir sticks will be stained from soups and jams. Farmers scraped grain shovels thousands of times against barn floors. In addition, the wood has probably been exposed to a wide range of weather conditions over the years, as people often stored pieces in barns, attics, and cellars. And because some of the earliest pieces of American-made woodenware were quite thin, cracks and breaks were inevitable.

Woodworkers used different finishes on various types of woodenware. They left kitchen implements natural, though the exteriors of bowls and trenchers may have been painted or stained. Cooking oils and fats gives them a smooth, rich patina. Constant handling of the item also contributed to a well-worn look. Original finishes and paints add to woodenware’s value. Old red, blue or mustard paints are especially desirable. 

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

The Mysterious Peach Blow Craze

 

QUESTION: My grandmother collected antique glass. Of all the pieces she had, which I inherited after her passing, one stands out. It’s a small multi-colored vase that fades from a rose pink at the top to a white toward the bottom. It’s devoid of decoration, has a simple shape, and a matter finish. Can you tell me what type of glass this is and a bit about its history?

ANSWER: It seems that you’ve inherited a piece of Mt. Washington “Peach Blow” glass. Of the three distinct types of Peach Blow, pieces produced by Mt. Washington are the rarest.

Peach Blow glass was a craze in the third quarter of the 19th century. The sale of a single 8-inch porcelain vase in 1866 changed the glassmaking industry for the 20th century and beyond. It belonged to Mary Jane Morgan, widow of shipping magnate Charles Morgan. Mary Jane lived a frugal life until her husband’s death in 1878, but she then began a shopping spree that lasted until her death in 1885. The media and the public at the time focused on a single porcelain “Peach Blow” vase that sold for $18,000.

The glass industry was quick to embrace the fad. A new craze developed for anything Peach Blow in color. Unlike most categories in glass collecting, Peach Blow isn’t characterized by color, transparency, the number of layers or decoration. The term was nothing more than a gimmick to sell the glass. Peach Blow glass had no single identifying characteristics, thus its appearance could vary widely. It can be pink, peachy, red, lined or unlined, decorated or undecorated. Plus, it came in just about all ceramic shapes.

So what makes it Peach Blow? The only way to tell is by the original maker’s name. Peach Blow is Peach Blow only if a manufacturer called it that. So collectors must learn who made this type of glass,  and learn to recognize each company’s product.

Public demand for this glassware led to the production of souvenir interpretations for major public events like the 1893 Worlds Fair. The Libbey Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio, successor to New England Glass, set up a working glass factory at the Fair to make Peach Blow souvenirs on site. These pieces shaded from rose pink to white and isn’t lined. Pieces were either matt or glossy and decorated or undecorated and is paper thin.

There were 17 different makers, thus 17 different types of Peach Blow.  They include Mt. Washington, Hobbs, New England, World’s Fair, Webb, Stevens & Williams, Carder/Steuben, Gundersen, Pairpoint, Guernsey, Italian, Pilgrim, Kanawha, Fenton, L.G. Wright, Imperial, and Intaglio. If a piece didn’t originate from one of these lines, it isn’t Peach Blow. And while all of them differed from one another in the colors that fade, the number of layers, and whether they’re lined or not, all can be generally classified into three groups— Wheeling Peach Blow, Mt. Washington Peach Blow, and Webb Peach Blow. 

Made by Hobbs, Brockunier & Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, starting in 1886, it shaded from a rich, mahogany red to a deep golden orange and had a creamy white lining. It came in both matt and glossy finish and its was only decorated with a band of amber found on some pieces. Prices can range from three to four figures. A Hobbs Morgan vase with its amber glass stand can sell for $500 to $2,500. 

Like Wheeling Peach Blow, Mt. Washington Peach Blow was produced from about 1886 until 1888 in both matte and gloss finishes and was originally called "Peach Blow" or "Peach Skin." Unlike Wheeling Peach Blow, Mt. Washington Peach Blow wasn’t lined. Paper thin, it looks as if someone dusted it with rose and blue powders from opposite ends. Due to the very limited production, Mt. Washington Peach Blow is the rarest of the three distinct types of Peach Blow glassware with the average price being around $2,000. But a rare decorated cruet can cost $10,000.

In England, Thomas Webb & Sons produced an English Peach Blow reminiscent of the Hobbs Brockunier production, lined on the inside and shading from a deep red to a lighter yellow. Webb Peach Blow is also referred to as "Peach Bloom" and has more reddish hues than the Hobbs version which is more orange by comparison. This is the only Peach Blow not technically called “Peach Blow” by the manufacturer. It can be found in both satin and glass finishes and can be decorated or undecorated. Most pieces sell for an average of $400 each.

To identify period Peach Blow and the three major variations, pay close attention to the shading of colors from top to bottom and whether the piece is lined or not. Pink satin glass is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Peach Blow as well. 

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