Product Premiums—An Idea Whose Time Had Come

QUESTION: My grandmother has what she calls a “Larkin” desk. It doesn’t look like a normal desk but more like a tall oak bookshelf with a drop-down writing surface. She remembers her parents acquiring it around 1911.  Can you tell me more about it?

ANSWER: One of the most popular items from the Larkin Company was the drop-front combination bookcase/desk, also known as the Chautauqua desk. This desk became a common piece in homes at the beginning of the 20th Century.

In 1875, John D. Larkin opened a soap factory in Buffalo, New York, where he made two products— a yellow laundry soap he marketed as Sweet Home Soap and a toilet soap he called Crème Oatmeal. He sold both products using wholesalers and retailers. Larking originally sold his Sweet Home Soap to street vendors, who in turn sold it to customers along their routes. By 1878, he had expanded his product line to nine types of soap products.




His brother-in-law, Elbert Hubbard, the eventual founder of the Roycroft Arts and Crafts Community, came up with what he called "The Larkin Idea"—door-to-door sales to private residences. To establish brand identity, Hubbard, inserted a color picture with the company's logo into every box of soap as an incentive for customers to buy more soap. Housewives accumulated and traded these picture cards, and eventually the cards became more elaborate. This concept of offering a gift directly to customers was a new approach to marketing. And by the 1890's, Larkin’s premiums had become an overwhelming success and a vital part of the company’s   marketing plan.

The premiums Larkin offered included handkerchiefs with toilet soap, towels with soap powder, or one-cent coins. Eventually, Larkin inserted certificates into the packaged products which could be redeemed by mail at the company’s Buffalo headquarters. A $10 order of soap resulted in the awarding of a premium with a retail value of the same $10. By 1891 he placed his first wholesale order of items to be given as premiums, $40,000 worth of piano lamps. The next year he acquired 80,000 Morris chairs and 100,000 oak dining chairs—all to be given away with the purchase of soap.

Larkin and Hubbard knew the key to mass merchandising was to eliminate the sales force and sell directly to the consumer via direct-mail catalog. Larkin realized he would be better off if he made not only the products he sold, but also the premiums he distributed. His pitch was that since he manufactured the products he sold, unlike Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward and sold them directly to the consumer, he was eliminating the "middleman" and giving the customer better value for the money. The Larkin Company motto became "Factory to Family." By the end of the 19th century, catalogs jammed people’s mailboxes.

The plan worked. Both his product line and his premium line expanded. By 1893, the Larkin Soap Manufacturing Company was sending semiannual catalogs to 1.5 million customers.

His first venture was the furniture assembly plant in Buffalo that made furniture from parts cut and milled in Tennessee. Here for the first time was a major catalog distributor who actually made the furniture they shipped. Furniture was one of the company’s primary premiums. Since Larkin was appealing to the mass market, he made sure to offer furniture premiums that appealed to ordinary people and not the wealthy.

His most famous premium was his oak drop-front desk with open bottom storage, first appearing in the 1901 catalog, that the company gave as a premium for a $10 purchase of soap. Constructed of either cold or quarter sawn oak plank, assembled with nail and glue construction, with a golden finish, each desk featured applied ash or maple molding and trim and back panels of three-layer plywood. Better desks also had stamped-brass escutcheons and brass hinges on the drop panel. Cheaper ones had iron-butt hinges. A somewhat oval French beveled mirror finished off each piece. Variations included a glass front case with a drop-front desk attached to the side, two glass front cases with a desk in the middle, or simply a drop-front desk with a small open bookcase below the drop and candle stands above it, with a mirror in the high . This small desk reflected the taste and style of the Golden Oak period of American furniture in a form modest enough fit into any middle-class home.

This type of desk became "Everyman's" desk and was a common item in most homes of the period. It became a trendy decorating item and remained so for many years. People began to associate Larkin's name to the form, even though his wasn’t the only company to manufacture them, and so evolved what has become known as the "Larkin Desk." Today, Larkin desks sell on eBay for around $400 and sometimes higher.

John Larkin and Elbert Hubbard not only provided the means for a growing American population to stay clean at a reasonable cost, but they also helped them furnish their homes for free.

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 Industrial Age n the 2020 Winter Edition, "The Wonders of the Industrial Age," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Identification of Antique Pottery Begins with the Mark

QUESTION: I have what I believe to be an English ceramic plate with a mark that looks like a diamond with a bunch of letters and numbers in it. Can you tell me what that means?

ANSWER: The stamp on the back of your plate is known as a mark. Manufacturers of English pottery used this particular design between 1842 and 1883. The letters and numbers indicate the dates of the plate’s design registration with the British patent office. You can easily decipher this alpha-numeric code by checking the chart found on the Phoenix Masonry Web site or in Kovels' New Dictionary of Marks - Pottery & Porcelain: 1850 to the Present by Ralph and Terry Kovel (Crown Publishers, New York).

Pottery makers replaced this diamond-shaped registry mark with a sequential numbering system prefaced by the abbreviation Rd. No.  in 1884. Over the years, they modified the arrangement of the numbers several times, so it can be confusing. If you need specific information, you can contact the British Designs Registry Patent Office for dates registered in and after 1909 and the British Public Record Office for dates registered prior to 1909.



Sometimes, pottery and porcelain makers used word indications that spelled out the date. If the mark shows the country of origin, this means the piece dates after 1891, according to the U.S.  McKinley Tariff Law.

Often manufacturers worldwide employed words to describe their wares. These usually had start and end dates, making it easy to figure out the approximate date of a piece. For instance, the term "Nippon,” the Japanese name for Japan, indicates that piece of Japanese porcelain dates from 1891 to 1921 while "Made in Occupied Japan" shows that the piece dates from  1945 to 1952. "Semi-vitreous" means the piece appeared on the market after 1901 while "bone china" indicates that the piece dates generally from the 20th century.  The phrase "oven-proof' appeared on pottery and china after 1933, but "dishwasher proof ” didn’t appear until after 1955. Sometimes a location, such as "East Germany" can indicate a time period, which in this case extends from 1949 to1990.

If a piece of pottery or porcelain has a mark showing a design and/or maker’s name, this information may also help to date it. You’ll find loads of resources, both in print and online, to help you identify early English, European, and Asian pottery and porcelain marks.

In the United States, makers stamped patent numbers on the backs and bottoms of their pottery pieces. A patent number represents the very earliest an article could have been produced. For example, a patent number of 16,388 indicates the piece appeared after Jan. 1, 1857 but prior to Jan. 1, 1858. Therefore, it dates from 1857, the year of its patent registration. Should you discover several sequential patent number sets on one piece, you should look up the final set on a patent date chart to date the piece.

Marks on furniture, glass, and silver are another story. When a maker uses his name or logo, you may have enough information to track the date of manufacture. Often during the course of the run of a piece, the maker will use different names. Quimper pottery is a good example. As the companies consolidated the marks changed.

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 "Coffee--The Brew of Life" in the 2023 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Antiques or Not—That is the Question

QUESTION: How do I find out if items I have are really antiques?  Do dealers need pictures to come look at my pieces? How do I find honest reliable ones?



ANSWER: Many people ask themselves these same questions. Unless you’re an antique lover and collector, it’s often hard to figure out what’s an antique and what isn’t. First, let’s tackle what is an antique.

To anyone who browses antique shops these days the question "What is an antique?" seems to have many answers. Side by side with ancient-looking furniture and old-fashioned china, you may find souvenir spoons and colorful carnival glass. The problem bewilders not only buyers but dealers, too.

In 1930 the U.S. Government ruled that objects had to be at least a 100 old to be classified as antiques, so they could be admitted duty free into the U.S. But that was a legislative  tax decision. Since then antiques have often been defined as objects made before 1830.

Here in the U.S., dealers and collectors count among their antiques both items made by machine as well as those made by hand. Most of these are later than 1830. That date does, however, serve as a dividing line between the age of craftsmanship and the machine age. As the 21st century moves on, objects from the early 20th century are now reaching the 100-year mark, thus technically making them antiques. But if you talk to a high-end antique dealer, he or she will probably consider them just used goods.

A fine antique comes with a provenance or written pedigree. This isn’t just what your Aunt Milly says is an antique. It’s proven to be one through a detailed history of its creation and ownership.

But while the personal associations of heirlooms add to their interest, they can’t be relied upon to place their date and source. Not every old piece has a pedigree or a maker’s mark or label, but every one has characteristics that identify it which make it valuable to someone else. The secret of where and when and by whom it was made is in its material, its design, and its workmanship. So an antique is what the collector knows or perceives it to be. Nothing more.

Collectibles are items that usually have a less-than-100-year history, although not always. You could collect Limoge porcelain boxes from the 18th century and consider them collectibles. But for the most part, collectibles are objects from popular culture—old detergent boxes with the soap powder still in them, old bottles, old souvenirs.

So begin by determining, if you can, what it is that you have that’s an antique or just a collectible. Do Image searches on Google for your items and see if any photos come up that are like what you have or similar, then click on the photos to go to the Web sites where the photos have been posted to learn more about the item. Go to your public library and check out an antique encyclopedia or other books that have pictures of antiques. See if you can find objects like yours.

Once you have a good idea of whether an object is an antique or collectible, take some good digital photos of it. And, yes, dealers really appreciate seeing a photo or two of an item before they’ll make the trek to your place to see it. This applies even more to dealers you may find online. Take an overall shot, perhaps several from different angles, as well as a couple shots of details—carvings, signatures, hardware, etc. If you’re going to make the rounds of local dealers, you’ll want to get your photos printed. Small 4x6-inch photos will do nicely.



Asking where you can find honest reliable dealers indicates that you assume all antique dealers are scoundrels. They’re not. In fact, most are honest, hard-working business people. They’re in business to make money, so don’t expect that any of them will pay top dollar for your pieces. The most you can expect to get is half the value, on a good day.

One way to tell a dealer who may be less than honest is to see if the pieces in his or her shop are priced. An antique store is a retail business and all retailers price their items for sale. A dealer who doesn’t price their items may be planning on taking advantage of you—deciding what to charge for an item on how you’re dressed or how much you seem to know about antiques. Avoid shops that are piled high with goods in which the shopkeeper says, “Have a look around and let me know what you like, and I’ll give you my best price.”

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 Industrial Age n the 2020 Winter Edition, "The Wonders of the Industrial Age," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Tiny Collectibles from World War II

QUESTION: I love to go to flea markets and root around in the cases of small items that some dealers have on their tables. I never know what I’m going to find. A few months ago, I stumbled upon a bizarre brass pin in the shape of a gas mask with the inscription “Britain Can Take It” cast into it below the mask. Naturally, I had to have it but can’t find anything on it. Do you have any idea what this pin could have been used for and perhaps how old it is? Because of the gas mask design, I’m thinking it’s probably from around World War I.

ANSWER: You happened on a very unique collectible from World War II—a piece of war relief jewelry. Most people have never heard of it, let alone seen one. This particular pin was a fur/dress clip produced around 1940 by Silson for Bundles for Britain.

Jewelry, started in 1937 by Victor and Jack Silberfeld, both Britains, who later changed their last name to Silson and their company name to Silson Inc. of New York, produced two of the most emotionally charged war relief pins---the "Britain Can Take It" gas mask brooch or dress clip and the 'Battle of Britain" bomb fragment pin. Both pins seemed calculated to bring the reality of "the European war" home to the American public. They mainly produced costume jewelry for the American market. Victor was the main designer, but George Stangl and Samuel Rubin also designed pieces for Silson.

Silson manufactured the first pin, shaped like a British gas mask, in both sterling silver and copper-painted pot metal versions. The company made the second pin, sold an behalf of BAAC, of an actual bomb fragment, gilded or painted black, with "Battle of Britain" engraved across the front. Both of these brooches are rare and highly valued by RAF and British home front collectors. Silson made costume jewelry for a little over 10 years.

Jewelry makers like Cartier, Coro, and Accessocraft produced World War II war relief brooches to fill both political and humanitarian needs. Politically, buying and wearing a war relief item showed support for the Roosevelt Administration's anti-isolationist stance. As Hitler's Blitzkreig continued to devastate one European country after another, humanitarian agencies began popping up in the U.S. to help the victims of Nazi aggression. They began by sending money and food through the Red Cross. Soon, refugee children and women’s knitting groups began producing first sea boot liners for British sailors, then sweaters for civilian bombing victims.

Various means, from penny-a-punt contract bridge parties to glittering benefit halls, funded these relief efforts. Many organizations produced "emblems,” made into brooches or attached to compacts, which local chapters and better department stores sold to the public. Depending on the item and the organization, 10 to 90 percent of the purchase price went directly to relief work.

Dealers and collectors often mistake these emblems for European pins, as they incorporate patriotic images from the country they support. The pins can he found in rhinestones and vermeil—gold plate over sterling—as well as brass and enamel. The brooches produced toward the end of the war used cheaper materials and construction methods because brass, silver and gold were necessary for the war effort.

In early 1940, the Allied Relief Fund asked Cartier to design an emblem for them. The company responded with a gold-plated brooch featuring the ram-pant lion of England against an elaborately enameled Union Jack shield, bearing a banner showing the organization's name. When the ARF joined the British War Relief Society in December 1940, Cartier changed the banner on the brooch to reflect this. The Allied Relief Fund version is rare, since they were manufactured for less than a year.

The British War Relief Society and Bundles for Britain were the most successful sellers of war relief jewelry. The British war relief emblem, based loosely on the coat of arms of the British royal family, depicting a rampant lion surrounded by the phrase Dieu et moo Droit (God and My Right) and hacked by bunting. An early use of  the "branding" concept so popular in marketing today, it was reproduced on everything from press releases to playing cards.

Accessocraft made the jewelry, which was sold at benefits, local branch workrooms and Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. The brooches are commonly marked "Official BWRS and BB by Aeeessncraft," BWRS and BB indicating British War Relief Society and Bundles for Britain, respectively. They sold for $l for the small one and $2.75 for the large. Accessocraft also manufactured pins in a number of other designs for these organizations.

War relief pins with the initials of the Royal Air Force were particularly popular with the public and are among the items dealers, and even World War II jewelry experts, most often misidentify. The RAF section of Bundles for Britain commissioned a wing pin from Monet. It is 24k gold-plated and was produced in three varieties. The BWRS had a gold-plated RAF wing pin created by Accessocraft in two sizes. The brooch sometimes he found with a chain to connect it to another pin, a popular design in the 1940s. The


British American Ambulance Corps was perhaps the most prolific of the RAP pin sellers. Coro produced wings for them in two versions—the larger of brass, the smaller of sterling silver—and various color combinations.

One of the BAAC's RAF pins is an enameled roundel pin produced in conjunction with their "Thumbs Up Cavalcade" fund-raising campaign. The roundel is the bull's-eye mark that identifies the nationality of a plane. Neither is marked British American Ambulance and so are commonly misidentified as RAF uniform or sweetheart pins.

Also on behalf of the BAAC, Bloomingdale's sold a set of sterling silver pins shaped like garden tools with the theme "Gather the Tools of Victory." The set cost $1.50, with 10 percent going toward relief work. Today, these tool pins are rarely found as a set and, as was common with many of the war relief items, their identification as such was only indicated on the backing card.

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 Industrial Age n the 2020 Winter Edition, "The Wonders of the Industrial Age," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.