We’re hanging out in the kitchen, where McCoy pottery is in the china cabinet, on shelves, and on top of the cupboards. When we first looked at this house and saw the kitchen, I immediately knew that I would be displaying McCoy on top of the cupboards. In fact, one of the first things I did – even before the move here – was to pack up some of my larger pieces and bring them to the house. There was nothing else in here, but there was  McCoy.

A stoneware console bowl, from the 1930s. This lives on a little shelf below the kitchen cupboards.

I love this detail on the inside.

A double cache pot and a bookend.

This double cache pot is one of the first pieces I purchased. What’s not to love about this beauty? It’s in great condition and the bird, the bird just kills me. It’s from 1949. It comes in this color combination and also in a yellow and green combination – the cache pots being yellow. It lives next to the console bowl on that little shelf.

McCoy made several styles of bookends. This is one of them. I only have one. Sob. But I’ll get another some day. It’s a planter bookend and it’s from 1953. It lives on the windowsill over the sink.

A vase and a flower pot. They live above the cupboards.

This vase is from the 1940s. Such a sunny yellow color!

Here’s the mark on the bottom.

This is called the Sand Dollar flower pot and it’s one of my favorites. It’s rather large and beautifully designed. I have two of them. The other is on the sideboard in the living room and has an actual plant – a pothos – in it. From the 1940s.

This piece, which my friend Heidi gave to me, has in interesting history. During WWII, the bulk of McCoy’s production was given over to ceramic land mines. Though the resources available to McCoy were scarce in wartime, they had permission to use any clay left from the production of land mines to create a dinnerware line – the Oven Serve line. This casserole is from that line.

The interior. Lots of crazing. I like that.

A very basic mark on the bottom, with McCoy etched into the clay.

Oh yes, my friends, I have more. A few more pieces from the kitchen and then some pieces that live upstairs. We’ll have more McCoy on Saturday.

Happy Wednesday.

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

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.

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.

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:

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.

Two planting pots and a pitcher.

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

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

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.

Marked with the number 124.

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

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.)

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.

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

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

And the last group of smalls from the cabinet:

A planter, a bulb bowl, and a vase.

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

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

Interlocking NM and USA.

A pretty yellow bulb bowl, from 1957.

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.

Hello, everyone! More McCoy today. I’m trying to get the colors of the glazes exactly right as I edit these photos. Light, as you know, or lack of it, can truly change the way a color looks and the subtle differences are tricky. Hopefully, Lightroom (my favorite photo editing tool) has managed to show you the actual colors. But that’s why the wall in the background will look different from photo to photo. The color of the pottery is more important.

Back to the living room today.

As an example: I had to really work on editing these two pieces – a vase and a jardiniere – for the glaze is a very specific shade of aqua. I have these two pieces on top of the white cabinet in the living room, along with a duplicate of the birds and berries vase I showed you in the first part of the series and another green vase with a matte finish that is not McCoy.

I love this vase. It’s 9 inches high and was made around 1948. I believe I got in on eBay. It’s very elegant.

Oh, baby. This is my largest piece – a quilted jardiniere with a leaf and berry design. The opening at the top is 12 inches in diameter. From 1955. These jardinieres often came with matching pedestals. The pedestals are hard to find – if I had one for this jardiniere, the value would soar. But a pedestal in my house? With a dog? And a husband who bumps into things? No.

A bit of detail. By the way, this piece is very heavy.

Two more large pieces – a vase and a jardiniere. They live on the shelf under the dollhouse. I like them there because the table the dollhouse rests upon is a cream color, the dollhouse is white, and the pottery just seems to go there.

This vase is often called the Strap Vase. It is very tall – 12 inches high – and very heavy. From 1947. I’ve also seen it in aqua. You can see the crazing along the top. It’s simply gorgeous.

This jardiniere is in the basket weave pattern, a pattern found in a lot of early McCoy pottery. This is from the 1930’s. Sometimes these pieces are marked with the Nelson McCoy (NM) mark. Mine is unmarked. 8½ inches in diameter. Very heavy. Matte glaze, with leaves and berries at the top of the jardiniere.

This holds (and hides) the glue bottles I use when working on the dollhouse.

Also in the living room, these two vases hold dried hydrangeas from my gardens.

I’ve seen this piece called the Baluster Vase. It is one of my absolute favorites and it was on my Want List for a long time before I finally brought one home to the cottage. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s from 1950 and it lives on the piano – right next to the singing birds. 12 inches high.

One of my favorite things about McCoy pottery is the kind of thing that happens with the glaze on this handle – it intensifies when it goes into the deeper etched lines on the handle and lightens on the raised portions. I swoon when I see this.

I bought this vase when I was working in San Diego for a six-month stint. That would be almost six years ago. Then, as now, it lived on my coffee table. I can’t find a date for this one, but I imagine it would be from the 1950s. It’s 8½ inches high.

More on Monday.

Happy Saturday.