The Red Wing Thing
Certainly, Paul's enthusiasm for Red Wing has driven my collecting more and more toward the "home-grown" pottery. But it's also a fact that I've pretty much collected what I can afford in the realms of Russel Wright and Eva Zeisel. The pieces I desire by those two designers bear price tags up to 4 digits (like a Bauer Manta Ray bowl), whereas the gamut of Red Wing available to me is wide open in all price ranges. And with the Pottery's long production history and nearly infinite glaze variations, there's no limit to how and why you can collect -- for shape, for color, for designer, etc.
This large Belle Kogan double vase really pleases me. The yellow-and-green combination -- apparently quite popular in its day -- has been dubbed "the John Deere Memorial Glaze" by Paul. On its own, I'm not wild about it, but I have several pieces now in this combination, and in groupings, they make an impressive statement. Last year at this time, I wrote about a couple of the double vases I had acquired in 2008, but I think this one might be my favorite form. It's highly sculptural - you can go around it 360 degrees and it looks different at every point. This is Kogan at her sleekest - there's nothing fussy or twee about this design. And it looks spectacular with flowers in it.
At the convention in July, I happened upon a tiny Garden Club planter in the fleck yellow glaze. It's not even three inches tall. The dealers sold it to me for $6 (other examples at the show were priced at $35+). It's not a piece I would have sought out -- I didn't even know it existed before the convention! -- but it appealed to me instantly. It now sits in my living room, with an itty-bitty succulent plant from IKEA in it. It pretty much makes me want to say the Minnesota three-syllable "cute" -- "CAH-yoo-uht!" -- every time I walk by it.
Of course, the big news for Red Wing collectors this year was the Luther Auction for a massive collection of stoneware and art pottery that had been confiscated by the feds. Unfortunately, the FBI didn't quite know what they had, and apparently had never heard of bubble wrap. Many of the exquisite rarities -- which somehow had been used to launder money, I don't quite understand -- had been damaged, making competition for the pristine items somewhat ferocious. I still lament some of the items I couldn't bid up -- a tall pumpkin cookie jar, a hand-decorated tripod bowl, and many examples of rare dinnerware. But I did, at least, walk out with the large Kermis salad bowl. Now all I need from this line is the large sandwich platter...sounds like I've got a holy grail ready and waiting for 2010, eh?
Sometimes, as a collector, you encounter items that you don't really collect but are priced so well that you just have to get them anyway. You figure you can always sell them at a higher price later. Yeah. Right. As an antique dealer ("Cattle Dog Antiques"), I have been spectacularly unsuccessful -- more often losing money in an effort to thin out the collection than turn a profit on good purchases. That is, until this year. A large set of Pepe dinnerware, purchased at auction, remains the gift that keeps on giving as I sell off pieces. I originally bought the set because I really, really wanted the Charles Murphy teapot that came with it. Here's a picture:
I also thought the graphics on the mint-in-box place setting were pretty groovy:
But as Paul and I got serious about moving in together, the last thing I needed was ANOTHER dinnerware set. So I learned how to let go.
Then, there were a couple of items Paul and I encountered on our various road trips this summer. I couldn't let them sit on the dusty shelves in South Dakota or Wisconsin. They needed a caring foster home, until someone adopted them permanently. I am happy to report that both the pink Willow Wind pitcher and the scarce Vintage teapot have been placed in loving families.
As Big Bird once advised young children on Sesame Street, everyone makes mistakes. I haven't had a collecting mishap for a while now, not since I bought those white lug-handled soup bowls that tricked me into thinking they were American Modern. (Getting them home, and holding them next to the real thing, I couldn't believe my error! Not even close.)
Recently, on eBay, I was seduced by the Wild Horses pattern of this Eva Zeisel Monmouth beverage server. I also thought the lid was cool - not unlike the lid of the Snowflower teapot I discussed two posts ago. I didn't think Eva made lids like that. So I bid up and won the auction. When I arrived, it was apparent that although the lid fit, it wasn't a match. The glaze was slightly different. I tried to find a picture of this pitcher with this lid in my reference books, but couldn't. They all had a knob-handled lid. I was puzzled. A few days later, the same seller then put up a bird-shaped Monmouth teapot for auction, with a knob lid. It didn't look right at all in the picture, and it dawned on me: she switched the lids! My lid would form the "wings" of the bird. I wrote her about it, and she said she had wondered about it, too, but matched the lids with the pots based on this vintage magazine article. Well, I consulted with my Eva Zeisel collector friends, and we all agree: the 1954 article got it wrong! So here I am, with a mismatched pot and lid. I guess I'll just have to spend 2010 looking for their mates!
Blue Mood
My figural fixation continued in 2010, despite near unanimous mocking of the Pan figurine and King of Tarts cookie jar last year. This year's acquisitions are equally questionable, all in the Como blue glaze: a mermaid figurine, a lamb planter, and a dachshund planter. The mermaid, I stand behind. She's beautiful, and a nice mythological companion to the Pan statue. The lamb? Well, it's rare. But pretty scary, for a soft and cuddly creature. The dachshund is cute, but I can't imagine a plant small enough to fit inside him.
