Tag archives: appraisals

JC, who has sent her family’s objects and memories, now sends me her mom’s pair of pearl collars, faux pearls on silk that used to grace a common cardigan or blouse in the 1940s. These were produced by Glentex in Japan and, in Brooklyn, by an industry with the curious name of Baar & Beards, […]

Art Deco clocks are special to me. As I write this, my mom has just passed “out of human time” and into the next realm at the age of 96. She was a great collector of clocks, especially those that reminded her of the city in which we were born: Chicago –  acknowledged cradle of […]

PS is curious about a pair of silver stirrups necessary for riding a horse. We can all imagine a time when cars were not in our world yet, and we rode horses – or were pulled by them. And for thousands of years stirrups have been a ubiquitous and recognizable equine accoutrement. PS is wondering […]

MC, who is NOT from Santa Barbara, has inherited a pottery floor vase – a quirky and unique work from the mid 1970s by our genius Santa Maria potter, William “Bill” Shinn (Santa Ana, CA 1932-2011). Was Shinn’s inspiration for the design a native American marriage vessel, typically with two spouts? Wait, this has THREE! […]

2019: what a year that was. The art and design world CHANGED. More of us want to forget 2019 than want to remember it, but it marked a watershed moment in the art world, especially at the end of 2019 as we learned of the impending lockdown of our world. The dust has still not […]

What are these objects I list here, and what were they used for? Washbats, washboards, a washbox, washing dollies, peggylegs, possers, poss sticks, dolly pegs, peggy, maiden, plunger, ponches, and punchers – all of these were used to wash clothes with or without a wash-tub, and sometimes at the edge of a stream or river, […]

KC sends me a “relief” image of an eagle (a relief is a three-dimensional image), a work created out of plaster; a plaque boxed in the image on three sides, at 17”x28”. KC writes that this was found in the basement of an antique dealer years ago.  Instead of the typical spread-wing eagle associated with […]

JE has a wonderful 1900s vintage Japanese necklace composed of faces of benevolent gods. The links are porcelain on sterling. Firstly, the faces (and the gods they belong to) are important to Japanese mythology; they are the Seven Gods of Fortune. They are pictured on kimono toggles called netsuke, and in woodcuts since the 1600s. […]

KMcD sends me a photo of four African masks purchased in Tanzania and Kenya, originally from Zaire (the Congo). I love these masks because I had a two-year tour in the VSO, the British version of the U.S. Peace Corps, in upper Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. I have a treasured mask from the Ivory […]

In 1850, the average American family size included six to nine children. Boys in the early to mid-19th century wore dresses handed down from sisters, typically termed frocks, and these frocks were worn without either short or long pants underneath until a boy reached “breeching” age. What is breeching age? It is when a young […]

My brother and sister-in-law live in a sophisticated New York high-rise close by the Dakota Apartments. They have a favorite breed of dog, and have cared for a string of Great Danes up there – suffering many elevator rides for pee breaks over the years. Lucy, their latest Dane, can be seen in the Central […]

A gift that the universe gives to the right person is rare. Take Emma Howard, a talented local designer (I have permission to use her name). Emma – owner of Studio 3 Hand Rendered Textiles and Surface Designs (her office is on hiatus today) – was visiting her son when she noticed a pile of […]

ES has an 8.5” tall matte blue vase accented with a purple peony design that bears the “flame” mark for Rookwood Pottery, and the date stamp 1926. ES, your little vase was part of a worldwide rise of a new style of ceramics. Art Pottery began in the late 19th century, continued to evolve till […]

DS sends me a 250-year-old English engraving titled The Sea fight off La Rochelle. The work is an image reproduced from Jean Froissart’s 14th century account of the Hundred Year’s War, Chronicles (1337-1410). The engraving itself is the portrayal of a naval battle from the Hundred Year’s War – 14th century sailors falling in droves into […]

What are the value characteristics of Native American rugs? The most salient value is the profound symbolism in each rug, the meaning the rugs traditionally carry for the People. Since the early 20th century Tribal rugs have been available through regional Southwest trading posts which dealt directly with Native artists. Two such rugs were collected […]

Among the best advice for discovering a hidden valuable is to go through the handbags in an older woman’s closet! I am often called to a home to appraise a specific object or group of valuables, but often I will discover something completely unrelated. Here are a few of these discovery stories:  1. A newspaper […]

LW has a miniature pine dry sink, the type – though in larger scale – that was in use before indoor plumbing, and whose basin was typically zinc, soapstone, or copper lined. The dimensions are 8” (w) x 4.25” (d) x 7.5” (h), and the sink well is 2.5” deep. Hers is stamped with a burnt-in […]

BC in Carpinteria has an ornate lamp, and it was, in the late 19th century, considered an exquisite newel post gas lighting fixture. In its day (1860-1880) it was as beautiful as it is deadly.  Firstly, let us talk about the symbolism of the design. Lighting in the late 19th century was novel and figural. […]

J has a German saltware pottery ewer that couldn’t be more German if it tried. That style of blue relief decoration on heavy stoneware with shiny surface dates to the 14th century in Rhineland. This is stoneware which bears a salt glaze. Stoneware was discovered in the 13th century when potters in Germany found that […]