Central Kentucky Antiques and Collectibles

Copyright 2009 – Kimberly Clay

If you’re not a big sports fan and find yourself kinda bored after the big buildup to midnight on New Years Eve, or if you’re looking for something fun to do New Years Day, you should consider a visit to Mattox Auction Center in Carlisle, KY. It’s a great way to spend the day by yourself, or better yet, in the company of like-minded friends.

“This will be our 6th New Year’s Day Auction, and I am very excited about the quality of the inventory that will be offered in this special annual event,” says Mark Mattox, owner. “Our New Year’s Day event has become a tradition in the area, and is known as an event featuring quality merchandise with something for a variety of collecting interests.”

Although I haven’t visited Mattox Auctions in a while, I have attended the New Years auction in the past. In fact, one of the first items you’d see upon entering my livingroom is one of several antique pieces I’ve purchased from them over the years. I have always enjoyed any of their auctions I’ve attended, and when I think of Mattox Auctions, quality and affordability always come to mind.

When asked about this New Year’s selection, Mark had a lot to say.

“I’m especially excited about a grouping of four Hunleigh water colors from a Lexington home, an original Paul Sawyer water color, a Harvey Joiner painting that I believe is of Cherokee Park in Louisville, exceptional porcelains including Dresden, Royal Vienna, Sevres, Nippon, and R.S. Prussia, fine furniture from many periods, including a fine early walnut sugar chest, a superb crazy quilt from a Paris estate, a cylinder music box, two working Mills 5 cent slot machines, quality stoneware and primitives, a great selection of KY History books, and so much more.”

Many of Mark’s regular customers wait all year for this special New Years event.

This year the auction will begin at 10:00 am on January 1. The auction facility, located on U.S. 68, has ample parking and is equipped to comfortably handle a big crowd.

Mark says, “We welcome all to the auction and encourage you to visit during the scheduled Auction Preview on December 30 from 2 to 5 p.m. or on December 31 from 1 to 6 p.m.”

So do something a little different this New Years Day – something you’ll enjoy to start the year off right. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll find a treasure or two to take home and spread a little “after Christmas” cheer! Happy hunting! Maybe I’ll see you there…

If you go:

Mattox Auction Center
3740 Maysville Road – U.S. 68
Carlisle, KY
(859) 289-5720
http://www.mattoxrealestate.com

Copyright 2009 – Kimberly Clay

For centuries, a small island off of the coast of Italy has produced some of the highest quality glass in the world. The island is called Murano and has a long history of glass production that reaches all the way back to the 9th century. Because of the unique materials used and intricate craftsmanship, items such as Murano glass jewelry are now highly collectible and sought after by collectors around the world.

The history of Murano glass really begins in the 9th century when local citizens learned the art of glassmaking from the Romans. Around the end of the 13th century, the government of Venice ordered almost all of their glassmakers to move their shops to Murano. Glassmaking subsequently became a fine art on the island and the artists were considered high society.

This tradition of excellence has carried over into modern times. Murano glass is crafted into a variety of items including drinking glasses, paper weights and figurines. There are also many artists known for their sculptures. These works are created with great care, utilizing elagent lines and very fine detail. Because of the fine quality of craftsmanship, glass works from the island of Murano are often expensive and unique.

The internet offers a multitude of sources to buy these collectibles. But, you need to know how to identify Murano glass. Counterfeits are often made in China and passed off as original. These pieces are usually made quickly, using lower quality material and are not uniformly shaped. The only authentic pieces are those created on the island of Murano. Other collectibles that imitate the style, but are created in other places are merely reproductions. So shop with care.

Since each piece is crafted by a master, these items offer beauty and elegance to the collector. If you are a collector or considering getting into collecting, you may want to consider investing in Murano glass.

Copyright 2009 – Kimberly Clay

How old and how much are typically the questions most often asked regarding antiques, particularly with family heirlooms or that set of antique china dishes that you inherited.

While the “What’s it worth?” question takes a little more time and information to answer, the “How old is it?” question is much easier for a novice antique collector to determine.

Antique China Marks
The beauty of antique porcelain and china is in the fact that it is marked with clues. If you turn over nearly any piece of china or porcelain and view the back, there’s normally both a maker’s mark and a country of origin mark. It’s the country of origin mark that offers the information that helps you date your antique dishes.

In 1891, there was a law passed in the United States called the McKinley Tariff Act. It stated that each item imported into the US needed to be marked with the country of origin. It is with this information that we can determine that antique dishes with no country of origin mark normally date to pre-1891. There’s one hitch to this dating system, paper and foil labels with the country of origin which may have been removed were used in the 20th Century. So look for little outlines that may indicate a missing label as well.

Early 20th Century China Marks
Between 1891 and 1921, countries marked their porcelain with just the name of the country. Japan in particular is known for porcelain produced during this timeframe, as they used “Nippon”, which means “Japan” on their wares. Nippon porcelain made during this era has become extremely popular with collectors.

If your antique dishes have only a country name stamped on the back, without the words “Made In”, it is safe to assume that it was made between 1891 and 1921. Japan began using “Japan” rather than Nippon on porcelain and china during the 1920’s into the 1940’s, when they began using the “Made in Occupied Japan’ during World War II. This is yet another popularly collected Japanese import, but certainly not the quality of the earlier Nippon porcelain.

Mid 1920-‘s to Modern China Marks
Porcelain and dishes made from the 1920’s and later will typically be stamped “Made in” before the country of origin. There are several other clues that can help in dating the dishes made during this time, and they also relate to the words found on the back of each piece:

• “U.S. Patent” was used after 1900;

• “U.S. Zone” or “U.S. Zone Germany” was used between 1945-1949;

• “West Germany” was used between 1949-1990;

• “Dishwasher Safe” was added to some dishes after 1955;

• “East Germany” was used between 1949-1990;

• “Incorporated” was typically used on pieces produced during or after the 1940’s.

While this information should certainly help you date your heirloom dishes and porcelain, valuing them is another point entirely. Old doesn’t always equal valuable in antiques. But when old means a set of dishes has passed from generation to generation within your family, that makes them priceless and an heirloom to be cherished.

Copyright 2009 – Kimberly Clay

Copyright 2009 Brain David Lee

Vintage Fiesta mixing bowls and the wider range of collector’s vintage Fiesta dinnerware can bring a splash of vintage color to your dinner table. Perhaps, on reflection, not the Fiesta mixing bowls for your table, but they are certainly colorful because that’s what the line was designed for. However, beware of the colors, because the original and modern colors are different, as are the various pieces currently offered in stores.

Introduced in 1936 by the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell W. Virginia, the Fiesta range was intended to be colorful and sold by the piece rather than as a set. This enabled customers to mix and match their colors, so they could have each individual setting in a different color, or every individual piece in a setting a different color. So every dinner plate could be red, every soup plate yellow, every side plate green and …

You get the drift, and so did Homer Laughlin’s customers because the line was very popular from 1936 until its discontinuation in 1973, though it was resurrected in 1986. Originally in red, cobalt blue, green, old ivory and yellow, the set was relatively inexpensive with an art deco design by an Englishman, Frederick Hurten Rhead. Although the onset of World War II did not affect production volume, it had one significant effect. Red pieces suddenly became sought after, and even now red vintage Fiesta pieces fetch higher prices than other colors.

Why? Uranium! The red Fiesta dinnerware contained the oxide of a little known (at that time) metal, uranium. The developments of Robert Oppenheimer and his team resulted in all uranium being seized for the development of the atom bomb, and so the red pieces disappeared. Probably fortuitously for the health of the nation! Not only that, but the early glazes contained lead. However, nobody has been recorded as having suffered radiation or lead poisoning by using Fiesta dinnerware.

All that apart, vintage Fiesta mixing bowls are currently in great demand because of the difficulty in collecting the full set, including the red – which is actually more of an orange color than a proper red. The Vintage Fiesta mixing bowls were available in sizes ranging from 5 inches in diameter to 11.5 inches – sold as sizes 1 to 7.

The ideal set is one of each in each color, nested inside each other, and they were available in red (sometimes called ‘radioactive red’), yellow, green, ivory, cobalt blue and turquoise – six colors compared to the original 5, so 6 bowls, 7 sizes. In fact, sizes 1 and 7 are regarded as valuable, possibly because they are the inside and outside bowls. That may make a difference because it’s quite possible they were the more often used sizes, and therefore harder to find in undamaged condition.

The seven sizes nest perfectly, forming a flat surface across the top, and an entire set is what every Fiesta collector dreams of finding, particularly if there are no visible chips once they are nested. Again, likely the reason for a perfect size 1 or 7 being more valuable than those hidden in the body of the nest.

If you are unsure how to tell the pedigree of your bowl without the written provenance (distinguishing vintage from modern pieces), the older glazes were full color while the newer ones are more translucent and you can therefore see the pottery underneath them. The ironstone lines were introduced in the 1960′s – before then, the pieces were solid colors. The newer glazes show whitish lines under the glaze and around the rings because it isn’t as opaque or thick as were the originals.

The 1936 pieces have rings at the bottom, but apart from that the concentric circles that are characteristic of Fiesta ware reduce in size from being widely spaced at the top to close together at the bottom. Some Fiesta purists bemoan these, but the rings can be used to help distinguish the real thing from fakes, where the rings are often equidistant and do not narrow down.

Fiesta dinnerware is a popular collector’s item, with many collectors interested in the vintage (pre-1986) pieces only. Strictly, just as an ‘antique’ is widely considered to be at least 100 years old, a ‘vintage’ piece is largely considered to be at least 50 years old, so Fiesta dinnerware manufactured up to 1959 are technically vintage. But, since production had ceased between 1973 and 1986, then all production until the interregnum from 1973 is considered vintage. Nevertheless, many restrict their collections to 1936 until 1959 when the US government dropped its block on uranium pigments.

In spite of all of these dates, most people collect what they like, and collecting vintage Fiesta mixing bowls is popular because many baby-boomers grew up with them, because of their design desirability, the way they fit together and the range of colors in which they were produced. They have less intrinsic value than many other pieces, but are sought after because of the rarity of some of the colors and the fact that a full set involves seven different pieces in 6 different colors – 5 of them the original Fiesta colors.

Two masterpieces, a Rembrandt painting “Portrait of a Man, Half Length, with his Arms Akimbo” which was seen publicly for the first time in 40 years, and “Head of a Muse” by Raphael, not seen for 50 years (and not at auction for more than 150 years), both brought record prices as the gavel sounded in London on Tuesday, December 8th.

The Rembrandt sold to an anonymous bidder by telephone for 20.2 million pounds ($32.9 million US), representing a record price paid for a Rembrandt.

Raphael’s drawing, which dates to the 16th century, brought 29.2 million pounds ($47.6 million US), a record price for any work on paper.