McCoy pottery — Page 12

In the Mail & A Trip to Hartford

April 21, 2015 at 9:09 am by Claudia

This is supposed to be a McCoy-free post, as the series continues tomorrow, but I had to share something with you.

My godparents lived on the next block over from us when I was growing up. I called them by their first names: Edith and Nick. You might remember that they gave me my very first egg cup, the second one from the left in the picture below.

3-26 egg cups fig 1

Luckily, I held onto that egg cup for years and eventually it sparked the desire to start a collection.

Edith and Nick had three children and all of us grew up together. Kay, their daughter, was just a few years younger than me. We played together all the time. I call her my godsister – is there such a word? She’s also my friend.

Kay and her husband lived in Maine for many years but when Edith and Nick, now living in Florida, grew ill, they moved down there to watch over them. Sadly, Edith and Nick are gone now, as is my mom. Kay reads this blog, much to my delight. When I started the McCoy series, Kay sent me an email with a photo of a piece of McCoy pottery – a pitcher – attached. Did I want the pitcher? It had been her mother’s and Kay remembered it being around for years. Of course, I said yes. Having something of Edith’s here at the cottage, something sent to me by Kay, would be a wonderful thing indeed. It arrived yesterday.

4-21 kay mccoy

This pitcher is from the 1940s and its simple lines are lovely. The design reminds me of the Strap Vase I showed you in an earlier post.

4-21 kay mccoy 2

Thank you, Kay (and Edith)! Kay wrote me a few days later to say that she saw the basketweave jardiniere pictured in a post and recognized it as an aqua pot she had stowed away in her shed. She ran out to the shed to retrieve it. Needless to say, it’s all cleaned up now and Kay has a beautiful piece of McCoy.

I’m headed to Hartford this afternoon to spend the night. I am working a few days here and there on their new production of Kiss Me Kate, directed by my pal Darko Tresnjak, the Tony Award-winning director of the musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Kiss Me Kate is based on The Taming of the Shrew, so it includes text from Shakespeare, which is where I come in. I’m supposed to put in a total of five days work on the show, so I imagine that will include a few rehearsals and a Preview performance. I’m excited, because musical theater is my first love and Darko knows how to stage and direct a musical like nobody’s business.

Since the rehearsal day is 8 hours long and the drive there is 2 hours, the result would be a 12 or 13 hour day, so the theater is putting me up for the night. That makes things much easier!

But I have to leave these two.

4-21 family

And I have to take our only car. Don will be hanging out at the cottage with his little girl, no doubt playing his guitar and watching the Red Sox.

I’ll be back here tomorrow night. In the meantime, I’m writing the next McCoy post ahead of time so that I have access to all my reference books.

The winner of a copy of Threshold, by G.M. Ford, is Debbie Price. Congratulations, Debbie. I’ll send you an email right away.

Happy Tuesday.

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Collecting McCoy Pottery, Part Four

April 20, 2015 at 10:01 am by Claudia

mccoypotterylogo

Today? A lot of photos. Hope you don’t mind! I’m going to start with one more living room group.

4-20 birds 2

The singing bird planters. Oh, how I love these. They’ve been photographed frequently for the blog, as they live on the piano. Of course they do. They’re singing!

They also used to be part of one of my headers when I was still on Blogger.

4-20 aqua birds

The birds came in two sizes – 7 inches tall and 4½ inches tall. These are 7 inches tall. You can see how the glaze varies from piece to piece. I absolutely adore these birds. They’re from the 1940s.

4-20 singing birds usa mark

The mark – USA – is at the base of the bird.

I bought the aqua birds individually. First one, then I had to get another. Then, I felt they needed another companion, so I bought this little one:

4-20 cream singing bird

She is 4½ inches tall and is lovely. The books all describe this color as white, but it’s more of a cream to me. More of a matte look. Same USA mark on the base.

Now we move on to the kitchen china cabinet, where I display a lot of the smaller McCoy pieces. Here we go.

4-20 group 2

Two planting pots and a pitcher.

4-20 hobnail pot

A flowerpot in the Hobnail with leaves pattern. From the 1940s.

4-20 quilted pot

A quilted flowerpot with leaves around the upper rim and on the saucer. From the 1950s.

4-20 water lily pitcher

Very old pitcher in a water lily pattern from 1935. This is from the early Nelson McCoy stoneware line. I found this when I was on a coaching job in Owensboro Kentucky. Wandering through an antique shop, my eyes lit on this one and I grabbed it. I think I’ve only seen this one other time. Hard to find out in the wild! It’s gorgeous.

4-20 water lily pitcher mark

Marked with the number 124.

4-20 group 3

More smalls: Three vases and a planting dish. Are you starting to see the wide range of blue and blue-greens that McCoy used?

4-20 little blue vase with berries

I particularly love this little vase and I often use it for little bouquet; rose buds, for instance. I don’t have any info on the date (checking on that.)

4-20 blue rustic

From the Rustic line – in blue. The line was first produced in 1945 and was made for many years. I don’t like the multi-colored Rustic pieces, but I do like the solid colored ones.

4-20 little blue cornucopia

A very small cornucopia vase, with leaves and berries. From 1956.

4-20 aqua planting dish

An aqua planting dish. From 1948. Or 1952. Depending on the McCoy book.

And the last group of smalls from the cabinet:

4-20 group 4

A planter, a bulb bowl, and a vase.

4-20 yellow bulb-ball vase

This is a ball planter. From the 1940s. A present from Don.

It’s marked with the Nelson McCoy (NM) mark:

4-20 bulb planter NM mark

Interlocking NM and USA.

4-20 yellow planting dish

A pretty yellow bulb bowl, from 1957.

4-20 yellow 5 inch vase

And a lovely little yellow vase, from the 1940s. This is 5¾ inches high and is part of a small group of vases that are now called the 5″ vases – considered harder to find nowadays and, therefore, a desirable collecting group. I believe this was also a gift from Don. One birthday or Christmas, he set out to find some McCoy for me and ended up with three pieces in the yellow glaze. What a guy!

That concludes the contents of the kitchen china cabinet. Whew!

More on Wednesday. As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

Happy Monday.

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Random on Sunday

April 19, 2015 at 8:45 am by Claudia

4-19 lilacbuds

• Oh boy. Those lilac buds give me hope. Yesterday was unseasonably warm and everything outside took off like a shot. (Dare I say it was too warm? Would that make me ungrateful?) I picked up more rocks on the grass that were thrown there courtesy of the snowblower. I put the cushions on the glider. I watched baseball. We lost. I took more photos of McCoy. I read my book. I took a bath.

Exciting stuff, right?

• May I be honest? Blog posts that consist of lists do not interest me. At all. This is the current trend and the fact that it’s the thing of the moment is because someone, somewhere said that readers love lists. And they probably do. I’m sure everyone’s stats say that those are pretty popular posts. Maybe something to do with shorter attention spans? Or is the idea of a list just inherently attractive?

I am not a fan. I’ve never been, even when the lists were in the form of magazine articles. When I scan my daily reading list, if the words “10 Things You Can…” or “15 Ways to…” come up, I move on. No visit that day.

The posts usually consist of ideas pulled from other sources on the internet, stuff I’ve already read or am aware of anyway, so there’s really nothing new there. I also feel a certain pressure, in a strange sort of way, when I see a list. Does that mean I have to read every item? Do I have to give everything equal time?

I know. I’m probably the exception here. But I wish this current trend would quietly take a hike.

Oh, and the word “trending” as in “Currently Trending on Twitter”…? Every time Don and I hear it, we groan. Stop with the trending.

4-19 buds

• I know several of you have seen this series on Netflix, but if you haven’t – think about watching Derek. Don’s been trying to get me to watch it for a while now and this week I caved in. Oh my goodness. I am so, so glad I did. Conceived, written, and directed by the brilliant Ricky Gervais (who also plays Derek) it is the most wonderful, life-affirming, funny and deeply moving show I’ve seen in ages and ages. Ricky plays Derek, a man who is challenged – whether he has learning disabilities, is developmentally disabled, or autistic, we don’t know, nor does Gervais ever give it a name. Derek works in a nursing home and sees the good in everyone. My favorite thing he says is that it’s more important to be kind than clever or good looking.

Amen to that. That’s what we’re here for; to love and be kind.

Gervais is amazingly talented. This series is a blessing, my friends. If you get Netflix, I urge you give it a try.

All that, and Gervais speaks out for animal rights – vociferously – online via Twitter and Facebook. Bravo. I’ve got a major crush on this guy.

4-19 mccoy books

• I have six different McCoy reference books. You see four of them here.

What happened to the one on top, you ask? Well, many years ago when we were living in our rental cottage in Westchester County, we adopted our Riley. Riley had not been socialized, had been kept outside on a chain for most of his life, and was eventually found living on the streets of a city in New Jersey. He was very much like a wild dog. On his first night in our house, he ate some of my yarn. A few nights later, he found this book. Riley apparently liked McCoy Pottery.

Oh that boy. I miss him so much that it hurts. I’ve never replaced the book because I love seeing this talisman of our first days together. It’s a tangible memory of my boy. And it makes me smile.

Years later, in this cottage, a much gentler and happier and socialized Riley surprised us one day by chewing on a book about birds.

I still have that, too.

Happy Sunday.

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In the Mail & A Trip to Hartford

Collecting McCoy Pottery, Part Four

Random on Sunday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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