Antique Cut Glass - Part I

When it comes to price appreciation, one of the most dawdling of all antique categories over the last seventy-five years is cut glass.  Surprised?  I don't blame you.  Sitting on a shelf, with light sparkling though its thousands of tiny prisms, the stuff just plain looks pricey. Additionally, cut glass has all the elements to make it an outstanding performer: imagination, good looks, sophistication, craftsmanship, long lineage, variety and collectibility. It's easy to store, displays beautifully and it's costly to reproduce.  Similar categories like Early American Pattern Glass and old bottles have appreciated significantly for the past half-century.  So what's wrong with these beautiful crystalline wares first blown smooth as "blanks" by glass gaffers and then cut-decorated entirely by hand employing metal and stone rotating wheels.

What has prevented all but the best pieces of cut glass from jumping leaps and bounds in price like most of its antique brethren? I surmise it has more to do with perception than product.  Somewhat like other value-stagnant tortoises; for instance: fancy porcelain china services and sterling and silverplate flatware, cut glass has assumed the rather dubious distinction of being dubbed a  "Wedding Gift" antique.  You know, those rarities wrapped up in felt and string and tucked away in the farthest recesses of our parents' storage cabinets: Cubbyholes and high places where human hands and eyes are forbid access by punishment of death or torture or worse. "Don't you dare touch that cut glass dish! That was a priceless wedding present given years ago by your rich great aunt, Zelda. That's an antique.  Don't even look at it!"

Such antique "treasures" might as well be rattlesnakes or crocodiles for all the warmth they add to a house.  No wonder collectors number so few in comparison to the quantity of available product.  For all we've been led to believe, the stuff will bite us or freeze our fingers off if we touch it. Let us together play the role of Steve Irwin-Antique Crocodile Hunter, and take some of those foreboding icy cloaks off the category of cut glass.  Hey, underneath it all, we might even find a rainbow.

First thing you need to know about cut glass is that almost every early piece you will encounter at tag sales, auctions and shops will have some kind of damage: chips, flakes, scratch bruises, fractures, white dot crush points, cracks, heat checks (a crack usually caused in the making) and cloudy looking sick glass.  Next thing you need to know is that, unlike collectors of pottery, folk art, European furniture and most other genres of antiques, glass people almost universally disparage examples in their line of choice having even minute flaws.  It's an antiquated attitude that one day has to change. When you encounter a top of the line cut glass specimen tagged at a giveaway price due to hard-to-detect damage, I would suggest purchasing it.  A cut glass diamond with a slight flaw is still a diamond.  In my opinion, values for such pieces will soon ascend when glass collectors run out of specimens to purchase in mint condition.

Besides condition, other factors contributing to the value and collectibility of cut glass are: age, form, maker, motif or pattern, flintiness and color & silver overlay-if any.  This week let's start with AGE:  Cut glass can generally be categorized as falling within the following periods:

• Early Period: (Ancient times to 1876)  Most early period cut glass was embellished in such a way as to decorate the blank but not necessarily as a signature type of artisanship unto itself. Scarce 18th century pieces cut by European master engravers like Bohemian craftsman, Christian Gottried Schneider (1710-1773) notwithstanding.  Thus, a beautiful cut glass beaker or wine glass or decanter from say the late 18th century would probably be more sought after by colonial period furniture collectors as a decorative accouchement than cut glass collectors who generally covet later examples with more stylized and competitively influenced wheel work.  In America some of the finest early cut glass pieces were produced in Pittsburgh by Bakewell, Page & Bakewell and in Boston by the New England Glass Company. Universally unmarked Early Period cut glass can sometimes be maker identified by cutting pattern by those who take the time to familiarize themselves with known examples in museums and scholarly references.

• Brilliant Period: (1876-1916) The golden period of cut glass came to the forefront at the end of the Civil War with the discovery of high grade silica and the introduction of efficient natural gas furnaces. Several American glasshouses including: Dorflinger & Sons (1852-1921), Mount Washington Glass Works (1837-1894) and Pitkin & Brooks (1872-1920) began producing cut glass that rivaled the best pieces made in Europe.  The Meriden (CT) Flint Glass Company specialized in cut glass with fancy silver overlay work. The 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia is credited by many experts for creating a marketing frenzy for cut glass that launched numerous manufacturers and almost overnight turned competitive glass cutting design into a new type of art form. American Brilliant Period Cut Glass is characterized by crystal very high in lead content cut deeply at intricate angles so that the glass sparkles like diamonds after, as a final component of its making, the cut surfaces are hand polished with pumice or a similar abrasive and a potter's buffing wheel.

• Later Period: By far the mostly common encountered cut glass this later stage in the art form is characterized by inferior quality in both cutting and the type metal or glass employed.  Later Period cut glass production pieces are almost always lower in lead content than American Brilliant Period cut glass.  Later Period cut glass can be identified by its lighter mass weight, reduced prismatic effect and a softened bell tone quality when tapped. Additionally, beginning around 1900, an acid dip process was introduced supplanting hand polishing finish work to smooth out rough edges, etc. after cutting on the wheel.  Later Period cut glass lacks the definition and sharpness of first or second period cut flint glass that was painstakingly hand polished as a final finishing process.  Such wares are best left on those highest shelves in your neighbors' homes where they most certainly belong.  Aunt Zelda wouldn't have it any other way.

We'll talk more about cut glass next week.  Until then, I will leave you with something to look for in your antique hunting travels. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century a firm from Philadelphia, Quaker City Cut Glass Company, began producing "Comet" motif glass featuring star cut designs with trailing comet tail cutting.  This undoubtedly was in anticipation of the 1910 return of Halley's comet and would certainly add sparkle to any home.  By the way, if you think Star Trek or space exploration collectors might look on comet glass as a "cross collectible," well, you'd best have Scotty beam you up.

I.M. Hummel Figurines - Part I

When you're only two years old, a friendly dog living next door can be nothing less than a monster.  This fanciful Rochester, NY terror so impressed my father that one day he returned home from a business trip with a present for his wife.  The ceramic figurine of young boy chased up an apple tree by a tail-wagging Scotty Dog still resides in our family collection.  In 38 years time, while old teapots and vases have been used and broken, and sentimental presents have been discarded, and 18th century rarities have been sold off, the Hummel remains.

I believe old Hummel figurines will  prove an excellent investment in future years for the following reasons:  1. There are a sufficient number and variety available to make them very "collectible." Contrary to popular opinion, extreme rarity is not always a desirable influence on antique value.   2. They have appeal.  After years of me-generation disco, punk rock, rap, and dress down style; sentimentality, romanticism, classic style, and traditional values are on the rebound.  3. Most all were made according to exact factory specifications and are clearly marked underneath making them "catagorizable."  Value enhancing collecting clubs sprout in such antique fields.  4.  Hummels have not been hot in recent years and cool waters often sport the biggest fish.  5.  They are reasonably difficult to fake.  6. Most Importantly; they are well-suited to blossoming world-wide Internet antique conveyances-a multimillion person market.    

In partnership with his son, William, Franz Detleff Goebel founded a German porcelain factory in 1871.  Their first figurines were introduced in the 1890's.  Around 1930, the company began looking for a fresh identity from which they could model their wares.  Their prayers would be answered by artistic hands of a young nun.

Berta Hummel was six years old when her father was drafted into the German Army in 1915.  A strong willed child fond of drawing landscapes and costumed figures, one of Berta's teachers recognized her talent and encouraged enrollment at a boarding school where she developed passions for art, faith and friendly frolic.

In 1931, under the frightening shadow of Adolph Hitler's ascension in power, Berta sought refuge behind the walls of the Franciscan Convent in Siessen, Germany. Under the encouragement of her superiors, she continued her art and was two years later ordained sister Maria Innocentia.  In 1933, her delightful drawings of happy children and animals in a natural setting were turned into postcards, earning her convent the first of many future commissions.  Some of these cards found their way back to America and are much sought-after today.  Maria's  pert faced characters were soon discovered by the Goebels and, in 1935, the first "M. I. Hummel" signed figurine called "Puppy Love" appeared on the market.  A rare "old style" example of this figurine commands about $4,000 today.

Sadly, unlike the happy, optimistic children depicted in her drawings, Berta spent the last ten years of her life under fearful conditions brought on by a government that was the antithesis of everything she held dear. November 6, 1946, Sister M. I. Hummel, who lived impoverished within the small confines of damp basement room, died of tuberculosis, at the age of 37. 

Next week, we'll talk insider tips on price, marks and other criteria concering old Hummels.  Until then, remember the words of a young artist whose entire life fell under a gray political shadow yet whose palate knew nothing but rainbows: "What is more beautiful than to give pleasure to others."

I.M. Hummel Figurines - Part II

In 1935, the fortunes of the Goebel Porcelain factory changed forever when they introduced their now famous line of child figurines based on the drawings of Sister (Berta) Maria Innocentia Hummel, a poor German nun who died tuberculosis in 1946 at the age of 37.   Hummels are still being produced today.  Besides figurines (by far the most popular Hummel form) there are a variety of miniatures, dolls, plaques, tiny military vehicles, calendars, plates, music boxes, ashtrays, bowls, pots, candleholders, lamp bases, bells, Ba-Bee-Rings, holy water fonts, and other wares from which a collector can choose.  Most pre-1972 Hummel figurines have a "book" price value of $100 or more.  Rare examples can fetch thousands.   You don't have to be a microcerascientificantiquariancumlaude to appraise Hummels.  All you need an up-to-date price guide and a little time and patience to learn how to use it.  Here's two that you may find at your local library or bookstore:  The No. 1 Price Guide to M.I Hummel, 7th Edition by Robert L. Miller,  Hummel: An Illustrated Handbook and Price Guide by Ken Armke. 

Suppose you are at a legitimate family tag sale, without a reference, and several old appearing Hummels appear at seemingly like fair prices.  While spotting rare, limited-production examples might prove impossible, here's some tips that may help you ferret out the better buys.

1. The figurines have been copied.  Purchase only charming, hand-painted, exceptional quality examples with the M. I. Hummel signature and Goebel Backstamp evident on all legitimate pieces. Employ common sense and ask pertinent questions concerning age, provenance, etc..  Get a guarantee and receipt if possible.
2. Generally, Hummels in non-perfect condition are not sought after by collectors.  This is especially true in later examples.
3. Large pieces normally command premium prices.  Most of 2000+ different lines (i.e. "Boy with Toothache," "Chimney Sweep," etc.,) of Hummel figurines were produced in a succession of sizes ranging in some forms from a few inches tall (generally fetching $100+), to 10+" tall (often valued at $1,000+), to  30+" tall figurines that can fetch over $20,000.
4. Generally, older Hummels are more valuable.  Date of manufacture can often be discerned by inspecting the style of backstamp or trademark underneath.  The Crown mark was introduced in 1935.  The Full Bee was introduced in 1950.  Older "Crown" and "Full Bee" marked Hummels usually fetch a higher percentage of their "book" price at auction.  The Stylized Bee was first used in 1957.  The Three Line marked was first employed in 1964.  Large Goebel marks were introduced in 1972.

Every once in a while you come across a radiant, gentle person who never had a family and you say to yourself, "that's kind of a shame."  Sister Maria did have children, and they are still delighting us today.

Chintzware

I wish I had written this column about antique "chintzware" two years ago, when there were no books and few articles on the subject.  Today, there are several references dedicated to the relatively modern line of "transferware" (print decorated pottery) and articles sprout from magazines like wildflowers.  In the spring of 1995, Antique Talk might well have suggested that you scour the countryside looking for the colorful "chintz" decorated earthenware, snapping up pairs of candlesticks for twenty bucks, and tea and coffee pots which could be found in shops for less than fifty dollars, and various dishes and plates tagged at chintzy prices.  With almost twenty companies having manufactured hundreds of shapes in a gross of colorful patterns you could have purchased thousands of pieces and would no doubt be a millionaire today.  But, alas, this column is tardy and instead of being your champion, I am your archenemy. 

Let's make up. First, know that it's not too late to unearth great buys in chintz.  Despite a 400% rise in value over the past few years, the majority of antique prospectors and dealers are still incognizant in the subject.

Chintzware is pottery decorated in a colorful pattern resembling chintz fabric.  From the Hindu "chhintna" meaning "to sprinkle with," the hand-colored cotton cloth was introduced to the West in the late 17th century by East India Tea Company ships.  Inexpensive and colorful, chintz became so popular it was outlawed by British Parliament in 1722 to protect the English textile industry.  Instantly, the law was circumvented by "Calico Printers" who print-decorated plain white fabric, creating an even more appealing and affordable product.

Executed by hand-painting in the 1700's, chintz vessels were later decorated mostly by transfer printing as technology evolved in the early 19th century.  While these wares are both attractive and precious, they are not what the 1,000+ members of the international "Chintz Collectors Club" seek today.

The first "modern" chintz pattern was introduced in 1928 by England's "Royal Winton" potter, "Grimwades Ltd."  Known as the "Marguerite" pattern, its inspiration is said to have come from a design worked on cushion by the wife of company founder Leonard Grimwade. In 1932 Grimwades introduced its "Summertime" chintz pattern, a bouquet of roses, daisies, violets, harebells, and other summer flowers.  Summertime was a huge success, especially in North American, and the company soon began producing a great variety of wares decorated in colorful chintz patterns.  Other potters like Brexton, Elijah Cotton Ltd. (Lord Nelson), James Kent, A. G. Richardson (Crown Ducal), and Wedgewood & Co., followed Grimwades lead producing glazed earthenware in a variety of colorful chintz patterns.

Appeal and rarity and outbalance age in determining the value of chintzware.  Collectors world-wide now hold tea parties where they can show off their new finds.  Pretty patterns, sought-after marks, like "Grimwades Royal Winton Ivory England," and excellent condition are determinants of value.  Mostly, collectors seek large and rare forms.  Pitchers, coffeepots, lamp bases, clocks, lighters, sugar shakers, wall pockets, bells, and complete tea sets can fetch hundreds, and once in a great while, even thousands of dollars.

Chintz is still being produced today and determining old from new is difficult.  If you want to speculate I advise you to qualify your seller. A family heirloom tag sale might be a good place to purchase for example.  Be cheap.  Investors should acquaint themselves with qualified dealers, buy the best, and build a good library.

Two years from now, I'll be wondering what we should have been talking about today.  That's half the fun of this ever-changing business.

Blue Willow

"Blue Willow" is probably the most popular decoration to ever land on a European or American table. The true story of  "Willow Ware" is almost as interesting as the legends attached to it. Let's take a look at both.

In mid-18th century England, during the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, businesses were looking for ways to produce economical goods by mechanical processes. Probably used first on decorated "Battersea" enamel boxes, the century old technique of "transferring" a pigmented impression from an engraved metal plate onto paper now became available for ceramics. Until then, the only means known to the potter for decorating his wares was by laborious hand-painting. On July 27, 1756, engraver John Sadler, and his partner, (potter?) Guy Green, reported that within six hours they produced "twelve hundred earthenware tiles, neater and better than one hundred skillful pot painters could have painted in the like space of time."

In 1775, pioneer engraver Robert Hancock joined Thomas Turner at his Caughley Pottery in Shropshire, England, and they began producing "transferware," which they called "Salopian." It was mostly printed in blue. For, in those days, cobalt (blue) oxide was the only color that could be applied with success to biscuit ware before "glazing." High firing "glost kilns" that fused the pottery's protective glaze, broke down most other colors. Shortly thereafter, a gifted apprentice joined Hancock and Turner at Caughley. The young engraver/potter, Thomas Minton, who would go on to the found "Minton Pottery" (1796-today), was working with a new technology that could print repeatable blue patterns on pots before glazing.

He was undoubtedly aware of strong demand for exotic goods from the Far East, including the beautiful blue pottery exported from Canton and Nanking. Result-Minton produced an imitation Chinese pattern with pagodas, weeping willows, rivers, bridges, and flying birds-the first Blue Willow Ware. The pattern would prove so popular it would be copied in a dozen countries by hundreds of different manufacturers.

Even the Chinese copied it in their hand-painted decoration. Perhaps Minton's design was influenced by the legends that still surround Blue Willow today. One thing is certain. For two hundred years, children from all over the world have been coaxed into eating their vegetables, by mothers promising to tell them a story-that of a pair of hopeless young lovers turned into birds so they might remain happy together throughout eternity.

"So she tells me a legend centuries old

Of a Mandarin rich in lands and gold,

Of Koong-Shee fair and Chang the good,

Who loved each other as lovers should.

How they hid in the gardener's hut awhile,

Then fled away to the beautiful isle.

Though a cruel father pursued them there,

And would have killed the hopeless pair,

But kindly power, by pity stirred,

Changed each into a beautiful bird.

                       .....

Here is the orange tree where they talked,

Here they are running away,

And over all at the top you see,

The birds making love alway(s)."

Willow Ware is available in a wide range of patterns, makers-most identifiable by mark, styles, and periods-running from 1780 to wares produced today. Later pieces should only be purchased in excellent condition. Old Blue Willow is a prudent investment today as it is scoffed at by many dealers unaware of its important place in history.

Old China

Years ago, I showed a  glazed blue and white plate to one of the old time dealers in our neighborhood, Ken Hammitt.  It was decorated with oriental junks sailing on a river, an arched bridge, a pavilion type teahouse with a person in the window, willow and pine trees, and rocks, islands, and hills in the background.   Ken held  the dish with two fingers as if he was holding a dead rat by the tail.  "It's Canton," he said.  "Cheap oriental export porcelain.  They used it as a ballast for ships in the old days."  Ken had a way of exaggerating things after he had his afternoon martini.  I knew he didn't care much for Canton china, but I figured he made up the story about using it as a ballast.

After the Revolutionary War, America was eager to broaden her culture and develop new trading partners.  An inexpensive line of tableware produced in an assembly-line like method as far back as 1772 in Ching-te' Che'n China,  became widely available in North America soon after the Empress of China and ships like her began raising sails in 1784.  Canton, the name is derived from the Chinese port where it was exported,  became America's favorite china.   It graced tables at George and Martha Washington's home in Mount Vernon,  Thomas Jefferson's Monticello mansion, and most of our forebearers.  It can still readily found in antique shops and auctions today.  In addition to elements already mentioned, Canton china can be identified by its three ring border; a narrow white rim at the extreme outer edge, surrounding a wider blue band decorated with diamond and asterisk looking designs, encompassing a continuous scalloped interior line filled with  diagonal dashes referred to as the rain and cloud pattern.

Canton can be easily be distinguished from it derivative, transfer-decorated English Blue Willowware.  Canton's hand-painted decoration has no people on the bridge, no fencing, and usually, no birds.  It is a thick-walled pottery compared to Willoware.  Nanking, a similar but superior grade of Chinese export porcelain, has small spears and posts in place of the rain and cloud border pattern and will often have a figure holding an umbrella on the bridge that is not found on early Cantonware.

Canton color varies from faded light blue to greyish-blue to navy blue.  Surface texture varies as well.  Canton was often molded out of unrefined clay,  painted in haste, and baked in the bottom of the kiln where is was subject to damage by ash, and uncontrolled temperatures.   It has been produced and sold from the 18th to the 20th century.  Late pieces often have a straight line border.  Superior form glaze and decoration, slight crazing to the glaze, and base wear are generally indicative of earlier pieces, however, there is no scientific way of dating Canton.  Most Chinese export porcelain made prior to 1891, when new custom laws required the marking of "China" or  "Made in China" is devoid of marks.

Canton can range in price from $20 for a butter plate to several thousand dollars for rare forms in good condition.  At a March 7, 1995 auction in Amsterdam, Netherlands, twenty-two Canton tureens sold for an average of $7,000 each.  Thirty-two pierced Canton latticework fruit baskets averaged $8,000, and seventeen cups and saucers averaged over $300 per set.  The most interesting fact concerning the collection is where it was discovered.  It was salvaged from the cargo of the Diana that sank without a trace on March 5, 1817.  178 years later, twenty tons of chinaware was discovered in the lower holds of the ship where it helped to serve as seawater safe ballast!