Arts & Crafts Plaques, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
I had a collection of over 600 ceramic pots. When we downsized, we went into a much more convenient and appropriate living quarters. I was talking to a gentleman. He says, "You know, you got a great collection here." He says, "Would you allow me to go out to my car, and I want to show you something?" He comes back in, stands in front of our sofa, and three out of four he dropped on that couch. And he says, "I'll trade you even, these for those."
APPRAISER:
All 600?
GUEST:
Yes. My wife was listening, and she says, "Those we can hang on the wall. The pots got to go." I'm a married... happily married 39 years to this woman, I don't argue with her. I've been taught, "Yes, dear." That was my answer. (laughs) I now have 34 of these at home, and I'm fascinated by them.
APPRAISER:
So you have two beautiful Rookwood plaques.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Which one's your favorite? That one here.
GUEST:
That one there.
APPRAISER:
And that's also earlier. That was painted by one of their best artists, Mr.... you can call him "Valentien" or "Valentine," done in 1896. All hand-painted under this beautiful green overglaze. This could be called a sea-green plaque. It's really pretty spectacular. And this is by Fred Rothenbusch. The "F.R." right here.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
This is so unusual for him. He made many different scenic vellum plaques, but this one is so active, it's so alive. It's got all this choppy water, and it's a beautiful, probably Dutch, scene, and the clouds have so much movement and motion going. It's a very, very good plaque. Newcomb College.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
You had Newcomb pots.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
They didn't make a lot of these. Sometimes you see the little tiles that are hand-built, but these big, beautiful plaques like this-- especially the ones with the live oak trees and the Spanish moss-- that is so rare. And the last one is made by Marblehead, from Marblehead, Massachusetts.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Also, you may have had some of the Marblehead pots.
GUEST:
I had quite a few.
APPRAISER:
But they didn't make many tiles, and a lot of the tiles that they made weren't very interesting-- they had ships on them, they were for the tourist trade. This is a special Marblehead tile. $2,000 to $3,000 on a bad day.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Your extremely rare Newcomb plaque, $10,000 to $15,000. This lovely sea-green... another $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And probably the most valuable-- not necessarily the best or the most beautiful-- is this one at $15,000 to $20,000.
GUEST:
You're not hurting my feelings, my dear.
APPRAISER:
I wasn't, wasn't planning on it.
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