Colorful Clues to Their Contents
Wars create shortages of food and supplies, and homemakers are expected to compensate with clever menus and special types of cooking.
During the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s there was a shortage of flour. One of the most popular dishes of the day was a stew-like meat dish made in a pie crust. During the wars, the cooks could make the game pie filling, but there was no flour available for the crust. Potters soon started making “game pie dishes,” deep oval bowls with a cover, to hold the filling.
Many of the dishes were decorated with rabbits, deer, birds and other game that could be cooked and served in the pottery.
The first dishes were made of light beige unglazed clay that resembled pie crust. By the mid-19th century the potters started to put colorful glazes on the dishes.
Today, collectors search especially for the majolica pieces from the late 1800s that are covered with colored birds and flowers.
Question My parents bought a wooden Danish chair when they were married in the late 1950s. The chair is comfortable and modern-looking. The bottom of the seat is stamped “Made in Denmark, Carl Hansen and Sons, Odense, Denmark, Designer Hans J. Wegner.” Have you ever heard of the manufacturer or the designer?
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Answer Hans J. Wegner, born in 1914, was a famous designer of the Danish Modern style of wooden furniture.
Wegner’s three most famous chair designs were the Classic, the Chinese and the Peacock. They were all made in the late 1940s and early ‘50s.
Any chair designed by Wegner is a modern classic. Wegner chairs are on display at many museums around the world.
Various companies, including Carl Hansen and Sons, manufactured Wegner’s designs.
A chair such as yours in good condition is worth about $350.
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Q I have a 22-inch bronze figurine of an angel marked “La fortune, par Aug. Moreau.” One arm and one wing are broken. Do you know anything about my angel?
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A Auguste Moreau was a sculptor who worked in France from 1860 to 1910. His bronzes were popular and have been copied in spelter, a soft white metal that’s mostly zinc. The spelter copies were then bronzed.
The damage to your figurine suggests it is spelter rather than bronze. In damaged condition, it is worth less than $100.
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Q I have a 9-inch plate with a light green transfer pattern picturing a Dickens scene of a girl, a man and a schoolhouse. The back of the plate is marked “Ridgway’s, W R & Co., England, Scenes from Chas. Dickens Old Curiosity Shop.” There is also a clock on a base and a banner saying “Humphrey clock.” How old is it?
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A The mark tells that it is a transfer-printed Staffordshire dish made by the Ridgway Co.
The “Humphrey clock” mark first was used by William Ridgway, Son & Co. in 1838. “England” was added to the mark in 1891.
Your plate probably dates to the 1920s, when green transfer designs were popular.
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Q My old cloth doll is about 2 feet tall with a painted face. On the front of her gray chemise are the words “My name is Miss Flaked Rice.” She is wearing a polka-dot dress, blue leggings and white shoes. History and value?
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A You have an early advertising doll. Copyrighted in 1899, the doll was a premium offered in advertisements for Cook’s Flaked Rice, a cereal made by the American Rice Food and Manufacturing Co. of New Jersey. The company mailed the premium for a few cents and a coupon inside the cereal box.
An uncut Miss Flaked Rice doll, in excellent condition, sells for $150. A sewn and stuffed doll such as yours sells for about $100.
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Q I found an amber bottle shaped like an elephant when I was digging at an excavation site in Virginia. The elephant is sitting, and there are smooth panels for labels on the front and back. Around the top are the words “Old Sol.” On the bottom is a letter B in a circle, the number 7 and the words “Design Patented.” How old is the bottle?
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A Your bottle, which is worth up to $500, is something of a mystery.
Experts suspect that your bottle dates from the first decade of this century and that it held Old Sol Bitters, a patent medicine concoction of mostly alcohol. But no one has found an Old Sol elephant bottle with a paper label that would prove it was a bitters bottle.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that the elephant design of your pressed-glass bottle was patented by Harry A. Allers of Baltimore--but not until June 19, 1934.
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Current Prices
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary by location because of local economic conditions.
* Poosh-M-Up Jr. tabletop pinball game, Northwestern Products Co., original box, 1930s: $50.
* Miss America pageant program, 1954, Atlantic City Steel Pier: $85.
* Western Electric telephone, Model 302, molded Bakelite handset, internal brass bells, 1939: $160.
* Pepsi-Cola cooler, blue label design, handles on the sides, aluminum, 1959, 22 by 16 inches: $175.
* Catalina vase, oval, white and blue with fish, 8 inches: $295.
* Woman’s lapel watch, 14K yellow gold, ornate hands, diamond-set, engraved crescent moon and stars, Bijou Watch Co., about 1900: $375.
* Kindergarten Ginny doll by Vogue, blue sleep eyes, blond poodle wig, closed mouth, 1952, 8 inches: $400.
* Clarice Cliff ceramic Bizarre ware, Delecia Citrus pattern vase, orange, yellow, blue and green, white ground, marked, 5 inches: $500.
* Charles Eames rocker, molded fiberglass shell on bent-metal support resting on birch runners, 26 1/2 inches: $575.
* Daum Nancy vase, white frosted glass, bulbous, black enameled Dutch scene on one side with windmills and sailboats, signed, 4 inches: $835.
