Page 42 - JOA_ 0720_ONLINE_REV

By Terry Kovel and Kim Kovel

eramic artists mentioned in auction descriptions or reports are almost always Collecting Tip:
the ones who shape the piece, a dinnerware designer or an artist who creates
Cunique pieces by modeling clay or developing unique glazes. But that wasn’t Coffee or tea stains can be removed from a cup by
always true. In the 1700s and 1800s, there were artists who decorated porcelains with scrubbing with salt on a sponge. Terry Kovel
paintings of gardens, flowers, portraits, religious scenes or buildings. Another artist
made the ormolu mounting to complement the painted picture. Q. I recently bought a collection of painted lead figures that includes five animals
In the early 1900s, housewives began painting ceramics. Amateurs and artists
bought marked plain white porcelain from Germany, Japan, England and other coun- and seven standing figures of people, including farmers, workmen, a cowboy, a hiker
and a fisherman, each 2 inches tall. I would estimate they are 100 years old.
tries, and then decorated them in the United States styles. Magazines featured instruc-
tions and designs for this hobby. Special paints could The standing figures are marked. At least one of them is marked “Made in
England, Britains Ltd., London.” What do you think they are worth, and where can
remain permanently on a glazed vase or dinner plate
even when washed. Unfortunately, the paint will not I sell them?
always survive the heat of a modern dishwasher, and the A. Germany was the leading producer of lead toy soldiers and other figures in
art can disappear. One of the most famous professional the early 1800s. In 1893, the English toy manufacturer Britains became the first
decorators was John Bennett (1840-1907), born in company to make hollow-cast lead figures. The company stopped making lead
Staffordshire, England, and worked at Doulton & Co. figures in 1967 because of the danger of lead poisoning and began making
He moved to New York about 1876 and started his plastic figures. If your Britains figures are solid lead, they are over 50 years old.
own business. In 1882, he retired, moved to New Jersey If the figures are brightly painted, they are probably not 100 years old. If you
and decorated pottery that he stamped “W. Orange-N. bought the figures recently, the price you paid is a good indication of what you
J.” His ceramic paintings were asymmetrical designs of can sell them for. There are auctions that specialize in toy soldiers, but they
colorful flowers and nature. His work is expensive usually want full sets. People who sell lead figures on eBay and other online sites
today. This very large covered urn, 16 1/2 inches high, might buy them. The military figures are the most popular and most pricey.
is signed “Bennett.” Rago Arts and Auction Center sold ***
it for $5,000 plus buyer’s premium. Q. My great-grandmother started my addiction to postcards when she bequeathed
to me her small collection. Over 1,000 cards later, all from before 1910, I am
The decoration on this lidded urn made in the late 1800s still in the dark about 23 of them. They are metal framed, 3-inch-by-4-inch
is what made it worth the $6,100 paid by a bidder at a postcards. The paper part is thicker than the regular postcards of that era. Most
Rago auction. John Bennett was the painter.
include a foldout easel on the back. I can’t seem to find any like them anywhere,
nor any info about them. Are they rare?

his is not a bookshelf full of books. It is an antique tin box that held cookies A. Postcard production grew in leaps and bounds in the late 1800s and
(“biscuits”) in England about 1905. Grocery stores were very different then. early 1900s. They were popular because they were a quick and easy way for
TThe use of automobiles, starting about 1910, changed the way folks shopped. individuals to communicate. The divided back of the card, giving room for a
Before 1900, grocery shopping was done at a street where farmers gathered to sell message on the left and the address on the right, were made from 1907 to
their produce. Then the markets moved into large buildings that rented space where 1915. The front of the card had a picture. There were thin metal frames made
farmers and customers bartered for food. Some farmers moved to residential suburbs for postcards. The frame had a piece of glass for the front, another for the back,
and opened small grocery stores. They sold staples like flour, sugar, and tea, as well as and a chain to use to hang the card on a picture hook. Today, deltiology, or
fresh food. Clerks took the order and packed it. the collection of postcards, is a popular hobby. Only a small number of post-
In 1916, the first supermarket was built in Memphis, Tennessee, and customers cards sell for high prices. Most sell for 25 cents or less. Inexpensive postcards
were able to choose their items, put them in a cart and take it to a cashier. That led to sell online in groups of 25 to 30 postcards for about $7. Framed cards sell for
branding with eye-catching packaging and the modern chains of grocery stores. several dollars but are hard to find.
Huntley & Palmer, an English bakery, created tin boxes by the 1850s to ship and ***
sell their boxed cookies, called biscuits, so they wouldn’t get broken. They started Q. My mother bought an Autumn Leaf wall pocket for me. I think it was part
making the figural—and now very collectible— of the reproduction’s resurgence and not the original 1930s to ‘40s Autumn Leaf.
tins in 1894 and made hundreds of different Can you tell me what it might be worth?
shapes. The bookcase tin was made in 1905, and
this top-quality example sold recently for $270. A. Autumn Leaf pattern was made by several companies. It was made exclusively
for the Jewel Tea Company, a home shopping service, by Hall China from
There are hundreds of different figural tin boxes made 1933 to 1978. Some kitchenware and teapots were reintroduced in 1985 and
to hold the cookies by the English biscuit company sold in retail stores. The Autumn Leaf wall pocket was made by China
Huntley & Palmer. They are often sold to be used as Specialties, a company in Strongsville, Ohio, that began offering limited edition
attractive boxes, but there are also serious collectors pieces of Autumn Leaf in new shapes in 1990. They were made in Asia and are
bidding for them at sales. This box sold for $270. marked “Genuine China Specialties.” They sell for under $30.

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States.
Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
CURRENT PRICES
Art deco lighter, Dunhill, swing arm, silver, blue enamel Baccarat paperweight, millefiori, ruffled cane, surrounded Furniture, chair, maple frame, high flattened armrests,
columns on sides, clock face on front, mother-of-pearl, by rows of continuous multicolor canes, red, blue shaded black striped wool upholstery, Jens Risom for Knoll, 33 x
Roman numerals, manual wind, 2 x 1 1/2 inches, $1,875. to lavender, marked, 2 3/8 x 3 1/4 inches, $5,566. 24 inches, $184.

Popeye, store display, Pop-Up Spinach Can, cardboard, Mechanical bank, Bulldog, pull lever, tongue sticks out, Advertising sign, Toys of All Kinds, For Children Old &
pictures Popeye, Olive Oyl, Wimpy, holding 12 tin place coin, release lever, coin deposits, tin lithograph, Young, applied toy soldier, train, wood, paint, folk art,
lithograph cans, Mattel, 1957, 14 by 13 inches, $675. Saalheimer & Strauss, 5 inches, $1,790. 36 x 24 inches, $244.
Libbey glass bowl, tricorn shape, diamonds alternating Lunchbox, Beatles, Yellow Submarine, scenes, Beatles Mechanical bank, Monkey & Parrot, put a coin on
with modified pinwheels, notched rim, marked, caricatures, metal, 1968, Aladdin, $215. monkey’s tail, rolls into parrot’s mouth, tin, Saalheimer &
3 x 8 1/2 inches, $36. Strauss, 4 1/2 x 2 x 6 inches, $461.

Terry Kovel and Kim Kovel answer questions sent to the column. By sending a letter with a question and a picture, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names,
addresses or email addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of photographs, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The amount of mail makes personal answers or
appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, (Journal of Antiques & Collectibles), Kovels.com P.O. Box 23192, Beachwood, Ohio 44122.
40 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles