It's All in the Packaging

 

QUESTION: I’ve been fascinated with food containers, especially old ones since I was a young adult. When I go to the supermarket, I’m amazed at the variety of the packaging. In that sea of colors and textures, I wonder how I find the items I need. I like to browse through antique cooperatives. Many of the booths selling old kitchenware also have a variety of old food containers—cans, boxes, and tins. What is the origin of food packaging? How did it develop over the decades? And how collectible is it?

ANSWER: Food containers have been around for over 200 years. At first they were basic but over time food packaging developed into a necessary form of distribution. Not only did the containers keep the food fresh, the labels on the outside helped to advertise the product on store shelves.

Because the focus of the Industrial Revolution was on mass production and distribution, food packaging had to be durable, easy to produce, and accessible. Food preservation was also a high priority, as new transportation methods allowed businesses to ship it further.

Back in 1875, French General Napoleon Bonaparte offered 12,000 francs to anyone who could preserve food for his army. This led confectioner Nicholas Appert to invent the first “canning” technique that sealed cooked food in glass containers and boiled them for sterilization.

Later in 1810, British inventor Peter Durand patented his own canning method using tin instead of glass. By 1820 he was supplying canned food to the Royal Navy in large quantities.

The second half of the 19th century brought further developments in manufacturing and production—among which included food packaging. In 1856, corrugated paper first appeared in England as a liner for tall hats. By the early 1900s, shipping cartons made of it replaced wooden crates and boxes.

In 1890, the National Biscuit Company, now known as Nabisco, individually packaged its biscuits in the first packaging to preserve crispness by providing a moisture barrier. Kellogg’s introduced the first cereal box for corn flakes in 1906, eighty-nine years after the first commercial cardboard box appeared in England.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented the first plastic, known as Bakelite, based on a synthetic polymer in 1907. It could be shaped or molded into almost anything, providing endless packaging possibilities.

Eventually, food manufacturers began using packaging containers that consumers were reluctant to discard. A tin of Sultana Peanut Butter, which came in a large pail with wire handles, made the perfect sand bucket to take to the beach in summer. Other similar containers included the log-cabin-shaped tin holding Log Cabin Syrup. People reused biscuit tins to hold everything from petty cash to old buttons and homemade cookies.

Lambrecht butter, found primarily east of the Mississippi, came packaged in an attractive gray or white stoneware tub with blue script while Kaukauna Klub cheddar cheese came in a clay crock with a heavy wire clamp.

By the dawning of the 20th century, package design was an important way to draw attention to a product. Manufacturers of drugs, paint, oil, as well as food items worked to establish a visual logo or trademark. Labels and magazines ads were the only means of communicating the goodness of a product.

One of the first national trademarks was the Uneeda boy, a little boy in a yellow slicker that represented freshness from the elements. Soon after came the Morton Salt girl, Aunt Jemima, Dutch boy, the Fisk Tire boy in Dr. Dentons holding a candle, and many other memorable logos. These symbols are all very collectible today. 

The widespread practice of packing food in tin cans and containers was a direct result of the public's acceptance of the Germ Theory of Disease. In the 19th century, many Americans were still oblivious to the research done by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in food preservation.  

Today, some people look down on those who eat canned or processed food as something people without access to fresh food eat. But in the late 19th century, food in tins was highly desirable. Consumers considered it more sanitary, and therefore healthier, than food offered in bins or barrels at the General Store. That’s when branding became particularly important; customers learned they could expect a certain level of quality from, say, Kellogg’s.

At first, manufacturers covered tinplate containers with paper labels, which had a product’s pertinent information and advertising stenciled or printed on them. Machines that could trim and stamp sheets of tin had been introduced around 1875, and between 1869 and 1895, manufacturers developed a process that allowed them to use lithography to transfer images directly onto the tin containers. Coffee and tea, as well as tobacco and beverages and snack foods came packaged in tins.

Today, all sorts of historic food packaging is collectible. In fact, it’s one of the most affordable and pleasurable of collectibles. 

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Forecasting the Weather in Vane

 

QUESTION: I’ve noticed that old weathervanes are bringing some pretty high prices at high-end Americana antique shows and in online antique auctions. Why are they so valuable? When I was a kid, my family lived in a rural area with weathervanes on a lot of the barns. What is the origin of the weathervane? And if I find one that isn’t too expensive, should I be concerned that it isn’t restored?

ANSWER: It doesn’t really matter how old a weathervane is, as long as it’s not new. Old weather vanes atop old barns are an American tradition and today are worth a good deal of money, even if they’re weathered.

Weathervanes have been blowing into the wind for as long as farmers and sailors needed to know the direction of the breeze, but they have traditionally performed another function as well. A weathervane was often an emblem that showed the profession of the person who mounted it---a dory for a fisherman, a cow for a dairy farmer, a locomotive for a railroad engineer.

The earliest known weather vane, dating to 48 B.C.E., was an image of Triton—a Greek god with the head and torso of a man and the tail of a fish—mounted on The Tower of the Winds in Athens.

Weather vanes didn’t gain popularity until English nobles during the Middle Ages flew banners from their castle walls emblazoned with their coats of arms. After the Normans conquered England, these "fanes,” as the banners came to be known, were made of iron with designs cut into them. Since what wouldn't bend might break, fane makers soon rigged them to turn with the breeze. By the English Renaissance, the fane had become a vane, a simpler and more functional device affixed atop a merchant's shop as often as on a knight's battlement.

The colonists who settled America brought their traditions with them, including the weathervane. While the first colonists crudely cut vanes from wood, iron ones could be seen topping several Puritan meeting houses by the late 17th century. Boston's Old State House, erected in 1713, had a swallow-tailed vane with an arrow, and by 1740, America's first craftsman of weathervanes, Shem Drowne, had begun fashioning copper vanes for Boston's public buildings.

Prior to the 1850s, blacksmiths created most weathervanes. And though they devoted considerable skill and imagination to them, forging iron vanes or beating them out of copper was largely a sideline, something a blacksmith did on request.

Blacksmiths in coastal New England towns, where watching the wind has always been vital, made vanes in the shape of ships for sea captains, cod and flounder vanes for fishermen, and leviathans for the whale hunters on Nantucket and at New Bedford. Inland, farmers sawed crude wooden vanes in the shapes of plows and farm animals, or found a blacksmith who could fashion more sophisticated weathervanes for their barns.

After the 1850s, metalworkers like Alvin Jewell, of Waltham, Massachusetts, began manufacturing copper vanes using templates and molds, a process that was faster than the ancient repousse method, in which they pounded copper into the desired shape. Speedier manufacturing processes meant lower costs, and Jewell found that his patterns sold quite well through mail-order catalogs.

L.W. Cushing, perhaps the best-known weathervane manufacturer of the 19th century. He added them to a collection of over 100 silhouette and full-bodied vanes in his catalog. Other weather vane companies soon opened for business, including J.W. Fiske and E.G. Washburne, both of New York City, and Harris & Company of Boston.

It was during the height of the Victorian Era when weather vanes became one of the most sought after items. They began appearing on everything from stables to gazebos. Prices ranged from $15 to $400 for the weathervane, its brass turning rod, a copper ball, and a set of brass cardinals indicating the points of the compass.

The boom in weathervanes didn't last long, only 50 years or so, but during that time people bought hundreds of designs throughout the country, including fire engines, Statues of Liberty, clipper ships, river steamers, cannons, even sea monsters and dragons. Still, the traditional designs—roosters, horses, and other animals—remained the most popular.

By the early 20th century, changing tastes and simpler home design—particularly the decline of the cupola—caused a decline in weathervane popularity.           

People began to be collect weather vanes as folk art about 40 years ago. Many sought vanes made by factories that originally sold them through catelogs, so handmade vanes weren’t even an issue. The highest amount ever paid for a weather vane was for a factory-made, copper Indian chief vane from 1900 that sold for $5.8 million at Sotheby’s in October 2006. Others have sold for prices from four figures on up.

Collectors prefer scarce and unusual weathervane forms, such as mermaids, cars, trains, and firemen. The most common ones, however, are horses, roosters, and cows which tend to fetch lower prices.

The majority of collectors like old copper vanes that have a green or verdigris patina which helps to date it.  But the biggest problem are the vanes made now from original molds from defunct factories. Though manufacturers generally don’t conceal the replicas’ origins, subsequent sellers often do.

The weathervanes that command the highest prices have not been restored. They have a patina—often noticeably different on one side thanks in part to prevailing winds and decades of exposure to sun, sleet, rain, snow and birds.

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Signs of the Times

 

QUESTION: I love old cars and have visited several antique automobile museums. Several of them, including the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, also have gas station signs on display. I’m also a big fan of the cable TV show American Pickers. One of the guys on that show had a real passion of old filling station signs. It didn’t take me long to purchase my first gas station sign. Now I have about a dozen. I buy and collect what I like, but I don’t know too much about why there were so many different signs used in early filling stations. Can you help me expand my knowledge?

ANSWER: Petroliana, the collecting of automobile and gas station memorabilia, is one of the hottest categories of collecting today. The signs used by these stations are just one of the many different items collectors love. While many were discarded after no longer being needed, many ended up stashed in old barns and garages. Signs from major oil companies 

, or antiques related to gas stations and the oil business, is a collecting area focused on advertising, with key subcategories being gas pumps, gas-pump globes, oil cans, road maps, signs, and major names like Mobil, Texaco, Standard Oil, Phillips 66, Shell, Sinclair, and Esso.

The first filling station was a city pharmacy in Wiesloch, Germany, where Bertha Benz, a German automotive pioneer, refilled the tank of her automobile in 1888. Other German pharmacies quickly entered the filling station business.

A filling station constructed at 420 South Theresa Avenue, Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1905 was the first filling station built to sell fuel and oil. Standard Oil of California built the second in Seattle, Washington, in 1907.

By 1910, over 500,000 automobiles roads highways and byways of the United States.  With that volume of cars on the roads, filling tanks from fuel barrels wasn’t efficient. Gulf Refining Company opened the first drive-in filling station in Pittsburgh on December 1, 1913.

Many early filling stations doubled as service stations and sold automobile-related products, as well as candy and soft drinks, and offered toilet services. 

In the early days of automobile travel, service stations were unfamiliar and often poorly lit at night. So lighted gas-pump globes and other oil company signage were key to reassuring and drawing in motorists. And since pumping gas was a new experience, early pumps allowed motorists to see if the gasoline was clean through a small glass window, and later to watch the price as they pumped the gas.

While some cities today have a gas station on every corner, complete with huge signs illuminating a variety of multinational oil giants’ slickly produced logos, the industry was a whole lot different when cars first appeared on the roads in the early 20th century. Gas stations were extremely rare, generally doing business only in larger cities and on the busiest highways.

In the 1910s, the market began growing, as did the competition, especially among lubricating oil companies. The first signs advertising lubricating oil, produced in a variety of materials, including baked enamel, sheet steel, and tin, appeared in grocery stores: Sign makers used lithography to print signs on tin and silk screen to print signs on sheet-steel.

These signs allowed a store to tell its customers which automotive products and brands it sold, which, in turn, lured customers inside. The signs were often clever and engaging. One particularly rare sign by Oilzum Motor Oils and Lubricants, for example, featured an attractive graphic of a man in a hat, along with this tongue-in-cheek slogan: “If Motors Could Speak we wouldn’t need to Advertise.”

In the 1920s, gas stations became more common, as did gas pumps, which brought about a new type of sign—the pump plate. Attached to gas pumps, they advertised the pump’s brand of gasoline. The plates came in a variety of shapes—round and otherwise—and a wide range of sizes, from as small as five inches across to more than a foot wide.

The Burdick Sign Company of Chicago produced the majority of these of porcelain, which made them both attractive visually and more durable in almost any kinds of weather. Porcelain signs remained common through the 1950s, despite a decrease in production during World War II.

People collect signs bearing a variety of company names, though the most coveted are often the smaller, regional brands—Signal, Gilmore, and Wilshire, with its distinctive Polly brand gas and parrot logo. Of course, signs from bigger brands such as Shell, Standard Oil----as well as its descendants, Mobil, Exxon, and Esso—and Philips 66 have large followings, as do signs from oil-and-gas brands like Sinclair, Pennzoil, Valvoline, Zerolene, Sky Chief, Tydol, Derby, Derby, Conoco, Union 76, and Frontier.

Aside from plate pumps, some people collect “lubesters,” the signs attached to oil and grease dispensers. Warning signs are also popular with collectors. “No Smoking Stop Motor” signs, for example, are one popular niche within this category. Finally, some of the rarest gas-and-service signs are those used at marine and aviation stations.

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Those Happy Waffle House Days

QUESTION: One of the happiest memories I have from when I was a kid were the Sundays spent at the local Waffle House. My dad took Mom and us kids there after church on most Sundays. If I close my eyes, I can still smell their delicious aroma, smothered in melted butter and warm maple syrup. It’s been a while since I visited a Waffle House—there aren’t too many around anymore. Today, I use a shiny stainless steel and chrome electric waffle iron when I want to indulge. But it’s just not the same. Recently, as I was browsing through an antique coop. I noticed a pile of old, neglected waffle irons. Now I’d like to know more about them. When did the waffle originate? Who invented the first waffle iron? Who came up with the idea to electrify them?

ANSWER: Reading about your waffle memories makes me want to go make one. To me, waffles have always been a treat, especially if smothered in fresh strawberries, syrup, and whipped cream.   

The origin of waffles is highly debated. Some historians believe the earliest waffle irons originated in the Netherlands in the 14th century. These consisted of two hinged iron plates connected to two long, wooden handles. The plates often imprinted elaborate patterns on the waffle, including coat of arms, landscapes, or religious symbols. The waffles would then be baked over the hearth fire. Though blacksmiths made waffle irons back then, historians are unsure whether they or their customers created the designs imprinted on the waffles.

In fact, waffles can be traced back to ancient Greece, when Athenians cooked obelios—flat cakes between two metal plate—over burning embers. The word waffle evolved from wafer, one of the only foods early Catholics could eat during fasting periods because they contained no milk, eggs, or animal fats. Monks were the only ones making these wafers until the late 12th century, when peasant bakers began making their own flour and water waffles, although some started adding eggs and honey to make them lighter and sweeter. 

Eventually, waffle iron makers molded the plates with religious symbols and the familiar honeycomb pattern, which was supposed to represent interlocking crosses. In 1270, bakers founded a special guild to train the street vendors who sold waffles. 

To use a traditional waffle iron, a baker poured batter between the plates then held it  over a wood fire to bake the batter poured between them, one side at a time. Knowing when to turn the iron took skill learned by trial and error since these early waffle irons had no temperature controls.

The Pilgrims discovered waffles while seeking asylum in Holland before sailing to America and brought them across the Atlantic in 1620. Later, Dutch immigrants popularized the waffle in New Amsterdam.

But the waffle wouldn’t achieve nationwide appeal in America until Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s as a souvenir. He had his cook make and serve them at the White House, which helped popularize "waffle parties." 

It wasn’t until 1869 that Cornelius Swarthout patented the first waffle iron in the U.S.. What made his waffle iron unique was that he joined the cast iron plates by a hinge that swiveled in a cast-iron collar.

Soon after the invention of electricity came the electric waffle iron. Lucas D. Sneeringer eventually designed the first electric heating elements that used a built-in thermostat to prevent overheating, a common pro with early versions. With his revolutionary design and General Electric funding, the first electric waffle iron rolled off the assembly line on July 26, 1911. 

While the first electric waffle iron did the job—the process of making waffles this way is a relatively simple one—it didn’t look very pretty. So designers began to make the exterior of their waffle irons more attractive. Other innovations, like an iron that could cook two waffles at the same time, soon followed.  Charles M. Cole invented the first twin waffle iron in 1926, but it wasn’t until 1939 when Karl Ratliff designed the "Twin-O-Matic" for the New York World's fair that it really caught on with the public.

By the time the New York World’s Fair rolled around, Art Deco design had influenced everything from dishes to utensils and small appliances. Some waffle irons, like the Hotpoint Waffle Iron by Edison General Electric, became works of art in themselves. Some resembled flying saucers, having lost their legs and taking on a lower, sleeker look. One of these was General Electric’s Diana, designed by August Propernick. Toastmaster and Sunbeam soon got in on the act and began producing their own electric waffle irons.

Because of the "teeth and gaps" of the waffle mold or "iron", considerably more of the surface area is heated and caramelized relative to the "pancake" -- thus, the waffle has more taste and a crispness that enables it to serve as a support for other foods. Even though the waffle makers have changed over the centuries, the basic waffle recipe----a blend of flour, milk, eggs, and oil—hasn’t. In the mid-1930s, brothers Frank, Tony and Sam Dorsa created a dry waffle batter that only required users to add milk. 

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Wonderful World of Oz

 

QUESTION: Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve enjoyed the story of the Wizard of Oz I looked forward every Spring to the televising of the award winning 1939 film. As an adult, I ran across a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at a book sale. I had no idea that the author, L. Frank Baum, wrote so many books about the Land of Oz. So I began to collect Wizard of Oz memorabilia, including copies of Baum’s books. Can you tell me where Baum got his idea for the Wizard of Oz? And how collectible is Oz memorabilia?

ANSWER: Most people associate the Wizard of Oz with the 1939 movie of the same name. But the character goes back even further in the works of L. Frank Baum. 

Children looked forward to birthdays and Christmases when they could unwrap their favorite gift—a L. Frank Baum book recounting magical places, especially the Land of Oz. Children couldn’t get enough of them. 

Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York. A prolific writer who wrote under six different pen names as well as his own, his first published book was a guide to raising fancy Hamburg chickens. When Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1898, no publisher would accept it. He insisted on color illustrations and publishers didn’t want to take a chance on the expense of that. In 1900, Baum finally paid the firm of George M. Hill in Chicago to publish it.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz filled the fairytale niche in American children's literature. Baum worked with the book's illustrator, W.W. Denslow, composer Paul Tietjens and Julian Mitchell to create a traveling musical stage play based on the book. Debuting in 1902, it brought its two leading men instant stardom. People flocked to see Fred Stone as the Scarecrow and David Montgomery as the Tin Man, in this production that featured chorus girls and songs about football. Imogene the Cow replaced Dorothy’s dog Toto.

After The Wonderful Wizard of Oz succeeded, children begged for more Oz books. Baum wrote at least one Oz book a year from 1904 on, at the same time completing other juvenile series. In 1910, he tried to end the Oz series with its sixth book, The Emerald City of Oz, by ceasing communication between Oz and the 20th-century world. Fortunately, the silence didn’t last. Baum published a new Oz book in 1913 and every year after until his final book appeared posthumously in 1920.

Despite success during his lifetime, Baum was unable to keep money in his pocket. He made a few bad business choices, including backing several Broadway flops, running a failed newspaper, and going bankrupt while working as a shopkeeper at his own Baum Bazaar in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He understood people having a hard time and gave everyone credit.

Following Baum's death in 1919, his publisher commissioned Ruth Plumly Thompson to continue the story of Oz from 1921 to 1939. The illustrator for the series, John R. Neill, wrote three Oz books, and more appeared off and on until the 40th book in 1963. 

The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, was a huge success and generated enough collectibles from 1939 to the present to keep the most ardent Oz collectors happy. The variety of Oz collectibles included such items as a metal lunch box with original Munchkin signatures, sets of playing cards, Tarot cards, movie posters, cookie cutters, bookmarks, character glasses, coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets, Oz T-shirts, dolls, nesting figurines, books, buttons, paper ephemera, records, games, Japanese Hallmark Christmas ornaments, collector plates, jewelry, and handmade tiles. 

There’s even edible Oz----a can of funnel cake mix bearing the Tin Man's face and a bag of rainbow-colored marshmallows.

Wizard of Oz so ingrained itself in popular culture, memorabilia can be found everywhere, almost every day. It appears in live and online auctions, on eBay, in antique shops and flea markets, or in one of several Oz-themed shops. 

Some Oz collectors with unlimited budgets vie to own a piece of the historic movie. The dress worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film, auctioned at Bonhams in London in 2005,  sold for the equivalent of $267,000 to a British collector. 

In August 2005, a thief stole one of four pairs of ruby slippers used in the 1939 film from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The slippers, on loan from a private collection in California, had an insured value of $1 million. 

One of the hottest collectibles is a little jewel box given out at the 100th showing of the movie that features a picture of the Cowardly Lion.

Learn more about the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz by reading "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Frame It!

 

QUESTION: I love collecting older works of art—not the type found in galleries and museums, but those found in flea markets, antique shops and shows. While some come with frames, many don’t. And those that do have frames often don’t look right in them. How can I tell what type of frame should go with a particular work of art? How have frames changed over the centuries? How does the age of a frame relate to the art work?

ANSWER: Most people who purchase older art works don’t bother to change the frames that come with them, even if they aren’t the best for the art works they surround. 

Most two-dimensional antique and vintage art works----paintings, posters, and prints---had frames, but it’s not unusual for them to be sold without them. Often the existing frame is an inappropriate replacement, or isn’t in perfect condition. While restoring a frame is often a simple procedure, finding the right one can be as time-consuming and challenging as discovering the work of art, itself.

An overwhelming frame on a delicate painting robs it completely of the experience of the delicacy, and conversely, a painting that’s strong and powerful, for example, will be  short-changed by a thin, delicate, fancy frame.

Quilts, tapestries, murals, wood and paper panels seldom need a frame. A frame is, however, an essential for any other art form which existed since the Middle Ages when the frame was integral to the art. Cabinetmakers, architects, gilders, and wood carvers made the first frames in 15th-century Italy. From Italy the craft of frame making spread throughout Europe. 

Some early settlers to America brought with them framed works of art, introducing the craft and frame designs of 16th- and 17th-century France, England, Holland, Spain and Portugal to the Colonies. The earliest frames were not only decorative, but also reflected the tastes and fashions of the time and often the artist's concept of what was right for his work.

During the American Federal Period from the late 18th- and early 19th-century, wealth increased for many who then sought the better things in life. The larger pictures that people hung singly and the groupings of smaller works were frequently completed with simply ornamented gilt frames that mirrored the understated furniture of the period.

Few homes were without pictures through the classically dominated Empire period from 1810 to 1830. Despite frequently being hung high above eye level, the paintings boasted elegant frames of gilt moldings, later in the period, when Empire furniture had become more elaborate and less graceful, frames, too, became extravagant featuring ornately carved plaster and lots of gilding. The exceptions were the narrow black frames used for prints. As the Victorian period embraced the American scene and became ever more ornate, frames followed suit.

By the middle of the 19th century, frame making had become a well-established industry in America. Most were mass-produced and lacked the fine quality and individual creativity of handcrafted ones.

For those seeking to collect works of two-dimensional art, a knowledge of frames— their history, styles, makers, design and material details—is very important. This can be accomplished by learning from dealers in fine frames, frames restorers, and museum curators, as well as doing a lot of reading and studying the art works in museums to see how and which frames have been used.

While choosing the wrong frame doesn’t physically damage a work of art, it damages it aesthetically. To ensure that a particular art work has the right frame, the date of the painting should match the date of the frame. During the late Victorian era, the preferred frames were wide and heavily embellished. During the years of the late 19th-century Aesthetic Movement, decorative frames continued to be used but were flatter. Another consideration should be the color of the frame appropriate to the date of the art work. 

The frame’s width depends on whether a work of art has a busy or a simple composition. Fancier frames complement busy art works while simple ones do the same for simple works of art. 

The frame should always complement or enhance the work of art it surrounds. It should never go with the style of the room that it’s in.. If the art work doesn’t fit in that room, it doesn’t belong there. 

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

More Than Roses, Apples, and Ivy

 

QUESTION:  My mother was living by herself and, as she was getting older, decided to move into a retirement community. So she needed to downsize. She gave me quite a few pieces of mid 20th-century, solid colored dinnerware that looked a lot like Fiesta Ware. But the pieces had a stamp on the back that said “Franciscan Ware.” I’ve always liked these dishes and would love to find pieces to make up a complete set. What can you tell me about Franciscan Ware? Is it possible to find additional pieces?

ANSWER: The dishes your mother gave you were the first pattern of Franciscan dinnerware, called El Patio, designed by Mary K. Grant in 1934. First introduced by Gladding, McBean and Company, it was available in six solid colors, accompanied by mixing bowls and casserole dishes.

For the next 50 years, Gladding, McBean and Company produced nearly 150 patterns of colorful dinnerware, kitchenware, and decorative pieces of earthenware in Glendale, California. The most popular patterns in the Franciscan line—known as Apple, Desert Rose, and Ivy— featured embossed, hand-painted designs created in the 1940s.

The name 'Franciscan^ was a tribute to the Franciscan Friars who had established missions in California in the 17th century. In 1936, the company changed the name of the line from Franciscan Pottery to Franciscan Ware to convey a sense of quality..

Glassing, McBean produced its Franciscan ware in three distinct types of body material. The first was "malinite,^ a cream-colored durable earthenware. Next high quality vitrified china wares, known as Masterpiece China in 1940 and Franciscan China in 1942.  And lastly, the firm also made Franciscan Ware in a whitestone ware, a white earthenware first used by Gladding, McBean in 1959.

Just as Franciscan body materials came in three categories, so did the patterns used to decorate them. The three were solid-color patterns, embossed, hand-painted patterns, and decided patterns, some of which came in either a glossy or a matt glaze Potters based the earlier patterns on Mexican and early American designs.

Solid-color patterns generally come in a single color, although the company also produced two-tone ones. The very first Franciscan dinnerware, El Patio, made from 1934 to 1953, came in 20 different solid colors and over 103 shapes. Cups and bowl handles had a distinctive, pretzel-like shape. A short-lived variation on this pattern, El Patio Nuevo, was manufactured in a two-tone pattern from 1935 to 1936. The interiors  and exteriors of all pieces came in different solid colors.

Another well known solid-color pattern produced around 1936 was Coronado, finished  in satin, matt, and glossy glazes. Also called Swirl for the swirling, spiraling shape molded into the pottery.

Gladding McBean's designer Morris Sanders created the Metropolitan pattern, originally produced in Ivory, Ivory and Coral, Ivory and Grey, and Ivory and Turquoise satin finish colors. for a New York industrial design exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In color combinations, potters used Ivory for lids and handles and as a liner. They also made Plum and Chocolate Brown patterns, each with Ivory liners. All of the vessel forms in Metropolitan were either square or rectangular.

The embossed, hand-painted patterns had decorative shapes embossed into the pieces. Decorators then hand-painted these raised shapes prior to glazing. Among these were the most beautiful and sought-after Franciscan patterns, including Apple, Desert Rose, and Ivy. The producers of both the Donna Reed and I Love Lucy T.V. shows used Apple and Desert Rose on their sets.

Introduced on January 1, 1940, Apple was Gladding, McBean’s first embossed, hand-painted pattern. It was popular for its bright red fruit, sturdy brown branches. By early 1942, Desert Rose, a pattern with pink wild roses, light brown thorny branches and green leaves, also became popular. Gladding, McBean then applied the Desert Rose pattern to previously existing vessel shapes. The finials on the lids, shaped like rose buds, were distinctive.

The company introduced Ivy in 1948, rounding out the trio of most popular Franciscan patterns. Ivy was originally offered with 27 shapes. Gladding, McBean added additional vessel shapes, including comports, a covered butter dish, a 12-ounce mug, a relish dish with three sections, a side salad, sherbet dishes and a TV tray, in the 1950s.

Besides its three main patterns, the firm produced decaled patterns—underglazed transfer printed patterns produced from the late 1930s right on through to the 1980s. The most popular of these patterns was the Starburst pattern. Introduced in 1954, Starburst featured large and small blue and yellow dots through which black lines radiated. The Eclipse vessel shape upon which Starburst appears was also distinctive.

Because of the volume of pieces produced by Gladding, McBean and Company, it’s possible to find many of them online at eBay and other sellers of antiques and collectibles. 

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