Handsome handiwork

Heino pottery

Lot contents: A Heino ceramic dinner service, 24 kiln-fired pieces, circa 1970s. Signed “Otto and Vivika”

Estimated sale price: $500 to $700

This partial dinner service -- consisting of 10-inch-diameter plates, small bowls and cups and saucers -- exemplifies the earthiness associated with the ceramics of husband-and-wife team Otto and Vivika Heino. The longtime Ojai residents collaborated for 45 years, earning a reputation as master potters who developed award-winning glazes. These pieces, notable for their delicate ribbed texture and a high-fire white glaze (No. 100) with an iron slip underglaze, are typical of the couple’s work in the 1970s.

“Otto does not like to produce pottery dinner services anymore,” says Tim Schiffer, Ventura County Museum of History and Art executive director and a Heino historian. “So these pieces are highly sought after.” Currently concentrating on large-scale vessels despite having broken his arm two years ago, the 88-year-old potter can still throw 50 pounds of clay, Schiffer says.

Emerging in the 1950s, Otto and the late Vivika Heino embodied the spirit of the Southern California pottery movement. “To me, Otto represents a link to the entire history of modern ceramic,” says Schiffer. “What sets him apart from the other contemporary ceramic artists is that he is using traditional utilitarian forms rather than idiosyncratic designs.”

This group of Heino ceramics is being offered for sale at A.N. Abell Auction Co. in Los Angeles. Abell does not produce catalogs for its weekly auctions of items consigned directly from private California estates. Consequently, the 89-year-old family auction house can be a great resource for decorators and bargain hunters.

For more information, visit the Heino Pottery Studio website, www.ottospottery.com, or the Ventura County Museum website, www.vcmha.org, which offer pieces for sale from $100 to $20,000.

-- Leslie Trilling

A.N. Abell Auction Co.

Location: 2613 Yates Ave., Los Angeles, (800) 404-2235

Preview dates: Wednesdays, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Sale date: Next Thursday at 9 a.m.

Website: www.abell.com

Piano shawl

Lot No. 1057: Silk embroidered with flora and fauna, circa 1920s to 1930s, 80 inches square

Estimated sales price: $400 to $600

The “bad” women in old John Ford westerns wore them. (The good women on the wagon trains preferred the pious paisley variety.) Equally suited to home decor as they are to fashion, they can also be displayed on a wall or thrown over a bed or sofa, but silk-on-silk embroidered pieces like this came to be known as “piano shawls” because they often were draped across the baby grand. “These were treasured family heirlooms,” says Nicolasa Chavez, who curated the show “El Manton de Manila” (The Shawls of Spain) on display at Santa Fe’s Museum of Spanish Colonial Art through July 5.

The history of these shawls is as compelling as the romanticism they evoke. According to Chavez, they were first produced in China circa 1795 and arrived in Acapulco on Spanish galleons. From there, they were shipped to Spain, though some found their way up through the Camino Real into New Mexico. The shawls became so popular in Spain that by 1900, Spaniards began to produce them and, by 1930, Chinese stopped making them entirely.

The earliest pieces were made of a hand-woven satin crepe, which has a sueded look. Earlier pieces usually had a geometric pattern around the edge and a plain center. By 1900, overall embroidery designs as well as the knotted fringe became more elaborate. Hand-embroidered shawls are the most highly prized and can be identified by the tight flat stitches made nearly on top of one another, which produces a satiny sheen. “It is often extremely difficult to tell which side of an authentic shawl is the front or the back,” says Chavez.

This shawl is part of John Moran Auctioneers’ monthly auction of estate antiques, which also includes Dresden porcelain, Federal furniture and fine silver. The firm also stages quarterly sales of Californian and American painting.

-- Leslie Trilling

John Moran Auctioneers

Location: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St., Pasadena

Phone: (626) 793-1833

Preview date: April 27, at 3 p.m.

Sale date: April 27, at 6 p.m.

Website: www.johnmoran.com