Teco Vase, ca. 1910
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GUEST:
The only thing I know about that vase is my mom said it was around all her life, and she lived to be 98 years old. And it just sat on a table in the living room with flowers in it.
APPRAISER:
So how old do you think this is?
GUEST:
It's well over 100 years old. I'm thinking maybe 120-ish.
APPRAISER:
Where do you think it was made?
GUEST:
Well, it was either Oklahoma or Iowa, and American Indian, because they had American Indians working for them at one point when they were young.
APPRAISER:
Family histories sometimes are a little garbled, and so let me tell you a little bit more about who made your vase and when.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
This was done by a company known as Teco, T-E-C-O, which is short for terracotta, which came from Illinois.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
Teco was the art pottery branch of a larger company called the American Terracotta Tile and Ceramic Company.
GUEST:
I'll be darned.
APPRAISER:
And that was started by the original Bill Gates, William Gates. This is probably done in the early teens, probably before 1915. When they started making these beautiful pieces of art pottery, which were different from the industrial ceramics that they were producing and selling, they were very much in touch with the Arts and Crafts Movement and with the particular aesthetic which came from this area, which is referred to as the Prairie School. So when you talk about the American Arts and Crafts movement here in this country, you're talking about a rejection of Victorian aesthetics, which were very busy, very decorative, lots and lots of curlicues, heavy patterns. The Arts and Crafts movement comes and they clean everything up. The design becomes much more streamlined, more geometric. So, Teco was definitely one of the most important pottery companies in the country, to do very popular designs like this. This is in pretty nice condition. The only thing that I see that may have a problem is you have a couple of small little nicks here on the corners.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
Which is not terribly rare. But I want to show the Teco marks, which have been there all along. They're just difficult to see. So, they often stamped twice, "Teco."
GUEST:
Were those hand-made?
APPRAISER:
It's molded and dipped in glaze, and those glazes are micro-crystalline, the typical green Teco glaze. And the value of this lovely piece these days, at auction, because of these little nicks like this, would easily be $1,500 to $2,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my heavens, I never would have thought that. Oh, that's wonderful.
Appraisal Details
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