collecting — Page 27

Collecting Roseville Pottery, Part One

July 22, 2016 at 9:46 am by Claudia

Periodically, I stop and set aside a few posts to explore one of my collections. I’ve done it numerous times with my egg cup collection, as well as my collection of McCoy Pottery. Just the other day, I realized that I hadn’t ‘officially’ explored my collection of Roseville Pottery.

Heavens!

Instead of flowers in my garden, we’ll explore flowers on Roseville. Deal?

As far as the number of pieces I own, I have much less Roseville than I do McCoy – that collection numbers well over 60 pieces. Egg cups? Probably about the same. I’ve been ‘officially’ collecting for only a couple of years, because prices used to be so prohibitive that I could only dream of owning a piece. More on prices later.

7-22 Roseville in den

Today, we’ll start with the pieces that are in the china cabinet located in the den.

Top shelf, starting from the left:

12-17 clematis flower frog_

The pattern is Clematis. This is a flower frog, meant to be part of a shallow dish in the same pattern. This was a gift from Barbara. It’s marked “Roseville” with the identifying numbers 85-135. The first number denotes the shape number and the second number indicates the size.

7-22 freesia vase

Next to the flower frog is a blue vase in the Freesia pattern. Marked “Roseville” 119-7. 119 the shape, 7 indicating 7 inches high. I’ve had this vase a long time – it was one of the first pieces I bought – I’m pretty sure it was on eBay.

12-10 magnoliawindowbox1

Next to that is a window box in the Magnolia Pattern. Marked 388-6. Love this shade of blue. Found on eBay. (The little dog was my paternal grandmother’s. It came all the way from Germany.)

12-27 rosevillewaterlily

Next, one of my favorite pieces; a vase in the Water Lily pattern. I love, love this design. Water Lily comes in brown and blue and this pink/green combination. This is marked “Roseville” 74-7. You guessed it – the vase is 7 inches high. I might have taken part in a small bidding war on this one.

3-8 doublebudvase2

At the end of the row: the double bud vase in the Clematis pattern. Marked “Roseville” 194-5.

Moving on to the next shelf:

7-22 magnolia cornucopia

A lovely cornucopia in the Magnolia pattern – this was gift from a Sonja, a reader of this blog. Marked “Roseville” 184-6.

7-22 smallpeonyvase

A small vase in the Peony pattern – marked “Roseville” 57-4. I won this at a local auction along with another piece for a steal at $24.00.

7-22 zephyrlilypillowvase

Next, this vase in the Zephyr Lily pattern. It’s called the ‘pillow vase’ and it’s marked “Roseville” 206-7. It was also a gift from Sonja.

7-22 gardeniacandleholder

And this candleholder in the Gardenia pattern – marked “Roseville” 652-4½. It’s the other item I snagged at that auction.

4-10 Ixia 1a

Next: maybe my favorite piece at the moment, this vase in the Ixia pattern. Marked “Roseville” 856-8. It’s 8 inches tall and it’s simply gorgeous. I found it on eBay and, I have to admit, bid rather vigorously for it. Stunning. Makes my heart go pitter-patter.

7-22 bleedingheartcandleholder

Next, a candleholder in the beautiful Bleeding Heart pattern. Marked “Roseville” 1139-4½. It was a gift from Cathy, a reader of this blog.

7-22 snowberryvase

A vase in the Snowberry pattern. (Those handles always remind me of a lady standing with her hands on her hips!) This is one of the first pieces that I purchased on eBay. It’s marked “Roseville” 1V-6. Don’t ask me why the first number looks different than the others. Roseville changed things up every once in a while.

And finally,

7-22 bushberryjardinere

This little jardinière in the Bushberry pattern. It’s marked “Roseville” 657-3. This is the first piece of ever purchased. I found it in an antique shop in San Diego. It’s the only piece I could hope to afford at the time.

As to current prices:

Because of budget constraints, along with my concentration on the TSP, I hadn’t searched eBay for any Roseville for a few months. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that prices are high again – for no reason that I can think of. Is it seasonal? Are more people suddenly collecting? I don’t know. But I’ve been looking and I haven’t been bidding. My friend Linda and I exchanged an email about it – she’s noticed the same thing.

Just a friendly warning; prices are a bit high at the moment.

More tomorrow. I’ll also share some collecting tips and recommend some price guides/books that will help you in your search, if you’re so inclined.

Sssssh! Don’t tell Caroline that I’m writing about my collection. Otherwise, you know what will come next.

By the way, if you’re confused; the difference between a black raspberry and a blackberry can be easily determined by taking off the stem. A black raspberry has a hollow core (just like a raspberry) and a blackberry has a white core. Blackberries are more tart to the taste, as well.

Happy Friday.

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Bakelite, Books & Rain (Finally!)

May 30, 2016 at 9:18 am by Claudia

I know a lot of bloggers don’t post on a holiday or simply post specifically about that holiday. I, on the other hand, like to read blogs every day of the year and just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean that every moment of my day is taken up with that holiday. When the pickings are slim, I feel let down. It’s like that ‘nobody’s around’ feeling in a neighborhood. Sort of unnerving.

So, what the heck, I’ll post as if it were any other day. Sort of.

We went to our neighboring town of Rosendale yesterday to have brunch at my favorite vegetarian restaurant – or almost vegetarian – the Rosendale Café. (Don has played there several times.) Oh, what a scrumptious brunch! Great music in the background; it sounded like Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt and it was perfect for a leisurely Sunday brunch. Then we stopped by our friend’s shop, the same shop where we found our chair last week. I came home with these pieces of bakelite flatware.

5-30 bakelite

Yes, another thing I collect: Bakelite. I actually haven’t purchased any bakelite in a long time, but these three pieces were intriguing. Love the serving fork on the right and the grapefruit knife in the middle. Any ideas what the piece on the left is? A whip? A potato masher? If you have any ideas, share them here!

Then we went to visit Jesse at Postmark Books, my new favorite bookshop. And this time, I actually bought some books.

5-30 books

Jesse pointed out the Scandinavian mystery on the left. It looks very interesting. And I’ve been wanting to buy Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me for a long time. I’ve heard nothing but raves about it, with one blogger going so far as to say if you were only going to read one book this year, this should be it.

I took more photos of the shop and I’ll most likely post them on Just Let Me Finish This Page tomorrow. Oh, and Jesse does ship, for those of you who asked.

It’s rained all night long and it’s easing up now. More rain and storms tonight. I’m happy that the plants are getting some much needed moisture.

Here’s a picture of the two gadabouts:

5-30 thetwoofus

(Taken at the Rosendale Café.)

I’m getting grayer by the minute. So is Don.

Of course, we remember today all those who lost their lives in combat, in war, and under friendly fire. All of them gone too soon.

My fervent wish: No More War.

Happy Monday.

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Killing Time Leads to More Pottery

April 20, 2016 at 9:05 am by Claudia

Thwarted, though we had the best of intentions.

Yesterday, Don suggested we go vote in the morning and then treat ourselves to blueberry pancakes at our local eatery. I was immediately onboard with that one!

So we got ready, headed out the door about 10 am and went to our local voting place. It wasn’t open. We tried another possible location. Nothing. While we were doing all of this, we ran into a couple of people who were also doing the same thing. Finally, we checked with the guy who runs our local eatery (it’s where Don has performed in the past) and who is a former Town Supervisor.

The polls don’t open until noon, he said.

What??

We were shocked, to say the least. In various discussions during the course of the day, we found out that lots of people in this area were upset that the polls were open from 12 -9, effectively eliminating the possibility of voting in the morning hours. Somehow I got it in my head that this was new. We’ve lived here almost 11 years and have never encountered this before. Turns out it isn’t new, that primaries have weird hours for most of the counties in New York State, except for Buffalo and NYC and some counties that immediately surround the city.

Don’t get me started. Why would they do something that would make it more difficult to vote? People who work a split-shift, for example, would find it very hard to get to the polls. People who work long hours and can only vote from 6 -8 am. The list is endless. I don’t know why this was put in place but it’s ridiculous. I’ve voted in all the primaries since we moved here so I can only guess that I voted in the afternoon and had no idea there was anything strange about the hours.

So, we ate breakfast before, rather than after, voting. And then we drove around to kill some time, ending up at our local antique barn.

Ummm….that might not have been such a great idea.

I ended up coming home with these:

4-20 RusselWright

A beautiful mid-century modern bowl by Russel Wright. There was an almost-entire set of this pattern for sale, which I loved, but I could only afford one piece. This is part of his American Modern line of dinnerware. It was manufactured between 1939 and 1959 by Steubenville Pottery – based in Ohio. He also designed in Melmac. I’ve been to his home, Manitoga, in Garrison, NY – which is just across the river from us and very near to our former rental cottage. He was a set designer before he began industrial design and also designed furniture.

Russel Wright also has the same name as my grandfather, though he spelled it as Russell. Everyone called him Russ or Slim. So I’ve always felt a connection to these designs and I don’t see them very often. This chartreuse color is one of my favorites. And it has my grandfather’s name on the bottom!

4-20 RusselWrightmark

There’s the mark. There’s a pitcher that I would love to have and I saw two of them in the shop. Wouldn’t a mini set of Russel Wright be perfect for the TSP?

I also grabbed this:

4-20 cottagewareeggcup1

An egg cup. This is from a line called Cottage Ware made by Price Kensington Potteries in England in the 1940s. There’s a photo of this egg cup in my Egg Cup reference book. I’ve never seen one on my antique shop visits, so I grabbed it.

4-20 cottagewareeggcup2

The other side, which happens to be my favorite.

After all of this shopping and eating and voting, we came home and mowed the front lawn for the first time this year. The grass was already so long that it would have been impossible to mow it if we had left it any longer.

The smell of new mown grass. Wonderful.

I have to travel to Hartford again on Friday to do some coaching on Anastasia, which as it happens, is going to Broadway sometime in the 2016-2017 season. That’s good news for Darko and Hartford Stage.

Happy Wednesday.

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Collecting Roseville Pottery, Part One

Bakelite, Books & Rain (Finally!)

Killing Time Leads to More Pottery

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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