Hi everyone – hope you’ve been having a great summer. So we’ve been scouring the flea markets on Sundays for more mod goodies, even in the recent raging California heat. Thankfully it’s cooled a little. Still, we’ve noticed that the weather tends to affect our purchases. When it’s 90 degrees out, we’re a lot less likely to pick up a heavy Descoware teakettle or a big Gainey Ceramics planter.
No, we tend to look for smaller goodies. Actually, in general we’ve been trying to switch to more “smalls” than other large vintage items, unless those items are exceedingly rare or desirable. It’s just tough to justify keeping inexpensive large items lying around in inventory. And our garage is getting full!
This past weekend we picked up the smaller ceramics shown above. As usual, we’re still not certain which we will keep and which will go up in our shop. The Howard Pierce toad was a great pickup (and incidentally, from the same seller who had the Descoware teakettle we mentioned earlier). We actually know that this toad is a later Pierce creation – because it originally had a handwritten ink signature that read “Pierce 1990″. While we’re very familiar with Howard Pierce porcelain, we didn’t realize that the ink washes off with just soap and water! Oops. It still has the “normal” Howard Pierce inkstamp on bottom, but still that was a bummer.
To the right of the frog is a nice little Robert Maxwell vase. His pottery has gained quite a bit in popularity, so it was nice to pick this one up at a reasonable price. More info about Maxwell is on our Potteries of California website. Remember that Pottery Craft / Treasure Craft ceramics are often incorrectly attributed to Maxwell. Those items, while often quite nice, were not designed by Maxwell and are always cast from molds instead of made by hand. But some Maxwell items ARE cast from molds too, and it makes it very difficult to tell because both Pottery Craft and Robert Maxwell items are often only marked with stickers which are frequently removed.
Above the vase is a little stoneware figural bottle or vase that we thought was kind of cool. We’re uncertain where this is from, but our initial thought was that it was one of the many Japanese companies (like Otagiri) who made these type of stoneware items in the 70s-80s. It does have a sort of Scandinavian look to it, however. We thought this was vase at first, but it has a second hole on the back of the head that we thought might be an air-hole so that liquid can be poured out easier.
To the left of the figural bottle is a wonderful lavender and mint green William Manker pot. More info on Manker is on our Potteries of California website. We’re not sure why, but occasionally we find Manker at the flea market at really reasonable prices. His work is well regarded, and probably predates the midcentury modern look by a decade or so . But we still really love his handmade ceramics. He always has really wonderful glazes and forms.
OK, back to the grind – we’ll be hitting more flea markets and reporting our finds. But hopefully, the weather will stay cooler!
