WorthPoint member Isabel R. wished to know more about this trinket box she inherited from her mother, so she engaged WorthPoint’s “Ask a Worthologist” service. The report back states that the piece originated in Limoges, France, and is painted in a floral Art Nouveau-style popular during the turn of the 19th century.

Isabel R. inherited a porcelain trinket box that appears to be hand-painted. There are no markings on it other than “Jenny Miles- 97” on the bottom, and had originally belonged to her mother. It was used in a sewing cabinet for needles and thread, and no one could recall where it came from originally. Isabel has no plans on selling it, as it’s already found use on her vanity, for rings and costume jewelry, but she is interested in finding all she can about it, particularly the artist who painted it. She contacted WorthPoint’s “Ask a Worthologist” service to inquire about this piece, its origins and value. Her inquiry was forwarded to me. here’s her question:

“I inherited this box from my mother, she’s always used it for pins, needles and thread, and it has sat in her sewing cabinet for years. Nobody in the family can recall where it came from, as my mother tended to pick things up at church bazaars and yard sales over the years just because she had a use for it or liked the look of it. The only marking on it is on the bottom, it’s signed “Jenny Miles- 97.” I think the number 97 might be for 1897. Could Jenny Miles be the name of the artist who painted this piece? I tried to look up her name on the Internet, but could not find any other porcelain trinket boxes signed by her, but found similar pieces with other names and dates on them. I’m not going to sell this piece, as I already use it on the vanity for small bits of costume jewelry, but I’m really interested if you anything can find out about the artist, and of course what the piece is worth.”

Here’s my response:

Based on your images and the marking, your trinket box originated in Limoges, France, and is in the floral Art Nouveau-style popular during the turn of the 19th century. The number “97” in our opinion is, indeed, for the year 1897. Limoges was the home of many porcelain companies during the last quarter of the 19th century. Most of these companies were producing fine decorative china for the export market, mainly to the USA.

A good deal of this ware came as “white ware” blanks and were hand-decorated by hobbyists and pottery studio’s in both Europe and North America. “China painting,” as porcelain decorating was called at the time, was a popular pastime from the last quarter of the 19th century until the First World War. Unfortunately, the work of many of these studios and the signatures of the artists who decorated them are either undocumented or little reference material for them is still available. This trinket box is one of these pieces.

This piece was most likely decorated in North America but, sadly, we have no listing for the artist “Jenny Miles” in any of the standard reference material or databases used to identify markings and signatures for porcelain decorators. The majority of the amateur American china painters were women either by occupation, or as a hobby. But then these Studio pieces were not generally mass produced, nor is much research material available.

While not mass produced, such pieces were made in large numbers, so values are still modest for them. In the current market, comparable hand-painted Limoges based trinket boxes of this period and style often sell at auction for less than $75.

Mike Wilcox, of Wilcox & Hall Appraisers, is a Worthologist who specializes in Art Nouveau and the Arts and Craft movement.

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An early 20th century Rookwood Vellum plaque painted by Sara Sax, circa 1914-20.

Vale E. has an unusual piece she inherited four years ago. Not knowing exactly what she had, she engaged “Ask a Worthologist” service. The question was forwarded to me. Here is her question:

“I inherited this small portrait of a mountain winter scene with a pine tree about four years ago. I never really gave it a close look when I received it, as it was boxed up with a bunch of other decorative pieces. I just moved to a bigger place and now have more room for decorating, so I dragged out these boxes and went through them to see what I could use. I found this piece and realized it wasn’t an oil painting; it looks like some kind of ceramic, like a tile. It’s signed “”Sax” on the lower right corner and measures about 9 inches by 12 inches. The frame is sealed on the back and I don’t want to try and take out the tile to see if it is marked in case I break it. I would like to know what I have, who made it and what it is worth.”

I’ve seen a number of these plaques in my travels. Most are European, but this one is not. You might want to look at the rest of the items in those boxes you inherited if this piece is any indication of the quality of their contents. What you have is an early 20th century Rookwood Vellum plaque.

Rookwood was established in 1880 by Mrs. Marion Longworth Nichols Storer in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1883 until 1913 this American art pottery was managed by William Watts Taylor. The individual pieces produced there were all signed by the decorators. Like the majority of the European potteries of the era, Rookwood was strongly influenced by Japanese Decorative Arts.

An example of the Rookwood company’s marking.

In the early 1900s Rookwood pottery quickly moved into the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles, in glazes known today as Iris, Vellum, Sea Green, Ariel Blue and painted matt.

There would indeed be a Rookwood company marking on the back similar to the one pictured that would indicate its year of production. After 1900, Rookwood added Roman numerals under the reversed “RP” mark to indicate the date. In the mark above the Roman numeral VI for the number 6 means the piece it was on was made in 1906. The signature “Sax” indicates this one was painted by Sara Sax, circa 1914-20. She’s best known for her depictions of mountain ranges and snows capes with thin delicate trees.

Even in the current depressed market, Rookwood plaques like this example are still highly sought after, with comparable plaques of this size having recently sold at auction in the $5,500-$8,500 range.

Mike Wilcox, of Wilcox & Hall Appraisers, is a Worthologist who specializes in Art Nouveau and the Arts and Craft movement.

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This is the famous “Chautauqua” desk first offered by Larkin in the 1901 catalog for six certificates or as a premium for buying a $10 Combination Case of Larkin Soap products. Variations of this desk were offered into the early 1920s.

The term “Larkin Desk” is a familiar one to most collectors and buyers of older and antique furniture, especially to those who favor furniture from the “Golden Oak” era around the turn of the 20th century. In fact, the phrase has become so familiar that the original meaning and source may be a little obscure.

In Buffalo, NY, a young John Larkin went to work in 1861, at age 16, for Justus Weller, who then moved to Chicago in 1870 to establish a new soap manufacturing concern. Larkin became a partner in the business at age 26, not long after the move to Chicago, but sold his interest back to Weller in 1875 to return home to Buffalo, having recently married Hannah Frances Hubbard, a native of his home town. His new small business in Buffalo was the manufacture of a laundry product called Sweet Home Soap, his one and only product. John Larkin may have had the know-how to make soap, but it was his new brother-in-law, Elbert Hubbard, knew how to sell it—in vast quantities. His marketing efforts were so successful that within two years Larkin had to acquire a larger manufacturing facility and soon made Hubbard his partner in the business.

Elbert Hubbard was a true pioneer in the mass marketing field. His ability with words and his creativity were responsible for the phenomenal growth experienced by J. D. Larkin and Company. His new techniques included the use of premiums enclosed with the product; at first just a small card with a homey scene on it. Housewives traded among themselves to accumulate the entire set. Sound familiar? Another technique was to sell a box of 100 pieces of soap to an individual and encourage them to resell the pieces to neighbors, while purchasing the $10 original box on the installment plan. The reseller not only made a profit, she got redeemable premium points good toward purchases from the Larkin catalog. The Larkin Company, in turn, made a profit and accumulated a huge mailing list of people who bought a disposable product, soap, and would need to buy it again. Hubbard really had an impact on his time and he would do it a second time. In 1893 he left Larkin for a trip to Europe. There he met and was impressed by William Morris (of Morris chair fame) and his artistic ideas. He returned to New York and in 1895 established the American branch of the nascent Arts and Crafts movement in Aurora, N.Y. with the founding of a colony called “The Roycrofters,” a group of artisans dedicated to simpler times and ways.

This Larkin Buffet No. 220, first offered in 1909 for 20 certificates, was one of the first curved glass pieces made by Larkin in the Buffalo factory.

Meanwhile, John Larkin’s soap and premium goliath marched on. He awarded such vast quantities of household goods as premiums that he had to start manufacturing them himself. One of the more popular premiums was assorted crockery, which he had heretofore purchased from outside vendors, primarily in New Jersey. In 1901 Larkin chartered his own factory, named Buffalo Pottery, to supply him with premium crockery. Its first kiln was fired in 1903.

But perhaps the most lasting legacy of Mr. Larkin’s industriousness and Mr. Hubbard’s cleverness is in the area of home furnishings. The 1890′s were the roaring years of the emerging catalog sales industry and Larkin was right out there in front with his company motto of “Factory to Family.” And he meant it. All of this happily coincided with the long awaited adaptation of mass production techniques to furniture, generally begun after the Civil War but really coming into its own in the 1880′s.

And mass produce they did. While Sears dominated the market, there was plenty of room for Aaron Montgomery Ward and John Larkin in the furniture industry.

Through Larkin’s effort, Buffalo became one of the major mass-production locations of American furniture. And the preferred wood was oak, preferably quarter sawn and solid—no veneers allowed. The style of the great mass of production furniture was definitely questionable, but all-in-all, it had a kind of “Art Nouveau” flair to it, with swirls, flowing lines and applied decorative motifs.

This scan of page 15 from the Larkin Oak catalog of 1908 shows some of the other desks offered by Larkin, including the Chautauqua, three other drop fronts, two roll tops and a side-by-side. The current catalog is published by Walter Ayars of Echo Publishing in Summerdale, PA.

One of the most popular items in Larkin’s inventory was the drop front combination bookcase/desk. Variations included a glass front case with a drop front desk attached to the side, two glass front cases with a desk in the middle or simply a drop front desk with a small open bookcase below the drop and candle stands above it, with a mirror in the high splashboard.

These desks were all solid oak plank, assembled with nail and glue construction; no fancy joinery here. In fact, in some cases the desks were so easy to assemble that they were shipped flat and assembled on site at the buyer’s house. Molding and trim was applied ash or maple and the back panels were commonly three-layer plywood. Escutcheons were stamped brass and the better desks had brass hinges on the drop. Cheaper ones had iron butt hinges.

No matter the quality and style, or lack thereof, this type of desk became “everyman’s” desk and was a very common item in almost all homes of the period. It was THE hot decorating item for many years and Mr. Larkin’s name was commonly attached to the form, whether it came from his factory or not. Thus we have the “Larkin Desk.”

So many of these desks were manufactured that they are readily available today at relatively reasonable prices. Collectors should look for sturdy, simply built units made of well-grained oak, preferably quarter sawn. Avoid pieces with broken mirrors, missing drop fronts, replaced hardware or signs of excessive restoration such as “hot stripping.” In many cases the original plywood backs have deteriorated and been replaced. The cheapest oak plywood is red oak and a replacement back is easy to spot since the desks are invariably made of white oak. In other words, this is one of the rare, desirable items from our past where enough of them exist that you can be picky in your selection. So be picky.

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Fred Taylor is a antique furniture Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Send your comments, questions and pictures to me at PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423 or info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address. For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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1840 Japanese vase

Christopher Kent walked into the “Gray Goose,” a Charleston, S.C., junk shop piled with debris and dust. “There were flea-bitten, 1950s armchairs that should have been given a good burial,” Kent said. “It was the sort of place that makes you want to disinfect yourself when you leave, frankly, just my sort of place.”

But two small panels—no more than 3 inches by 10 inches—hanging on a back wall drew his attention. Kent took them to the rotund proprietor, who said, “Don’t you just love Japanese art?”

After a quick negotiation that brought the price for the pair down to $15 from $25, Kent walked out with two 17th-century Russian triptych panels worth about $1,000.

From the junk shop to international auction houses and major museums, Worthologist Christopher Kent has used that keen eye to spot value in everything from Japanese porcelain to Italian decorative arts and everything in between.

“I am a generalist,” Kent explained. “A generalist has the ability to walk into a room filled with items and be able to say something about every piece. There are really only a handful of people who can do that.”

Walking encyclopedia

How does one become a walking encyclopedia of antiques and fine arts?

For Kent, it started with his grandparents who were both ardent collectors—his paternal grandmother was a textile expert and his grandfather, her husband, a collector of American furniture. “These were serious collectors who would go without dinner or lunch to acquire a piece.” Kent said he inherited both their interest and their collecting “genetic flaw.”

At the age of 6, he started his own collection with an 18th-century Japanese porcelain bowl given to him by a family friend who was in her own right an avid collector. At 11, he made his professional appraisal debut with a collection of 18th-century English porcelain for America’s oldest auction house, Freeman’s in Philadelphia.

And so starting with American furniture, textiles and porcelain, Kent added layer upon layer of period and style to his repertoire. In college, where he studied art history and architectural history, Kent also acquired knowledge of 17th-century Italian furniture and decorative arts.

17th-century Italian armoire

(For more information on the pictured items, click on the images.)

Coming out of college, Kent’s plan had been to do museum curatorial work, only to run into some real-world truths. “I loved the collections, but I hated museum politics,” he said.

Kent continued gathering expertise—from museum collections, auctions and research and by asking questions of dealers and collectors. “You begin to make associations,” Kent explained, “about why this piece is similar to that, and about changes in taste, and what influences dictate trends.”

Museums have sought Kent’s eye and knowledge to help evaluate a broad array of pieces.
Among the institutions he has advised are the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art—both in New York City—the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.

17th-century Italian chairs

In the 40 years he has been collecting, much has changed, Kent said, including the definition of an antique. “It used to be anything after 1860 wasn’t an antique, it was Victorian, and that was usually said with distain,” Kent said. “Then it was moved up to 1880 and then completely abolished.”

Art Nouveau, Art Deco and other well-designed and well-crafted styles became targets for serious collectors, and more and more collectors entered the market. “There is a lot of newly minted money, hedge-fund money,” Kent said.

Art Nouveau brooch

1920 Art Deco clown

Americana has gotten carried along on these waves, Kent said.

By the 1990s, a wrought-iron weather vane was selling in the millions, where a few years earlier the price tag would have been several thousand dollars.

1954 Hopalong Cassidy lunch box and thermos

In December 1992, Christie’s set a record for a lunch box with the sale of the Dudley Do-Right box and thermos for $2,200. It had cost $2.25 when it was new in 1962. But the kicker that changed the world, as far as establishing the world of collectibles, was the Matt Wyse sale in 1996 where the Superman lunch box circa 1954 sold for an unprecedented $11,500.

“That just changed the way people viewed the market,” Kent said. Once a major house auctioned something as modest as a school lunch box for big dollars, Kent explained, anything might be a valued collectible. “It was,” he said, “a transforming moment.”

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In order to help the less artistic of us understand when we are looking at a certain piece of furniture that it should be considered “art,” some furniture styles have the term incorporated into the name just to make sure. In the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s there was that style called “Art Moderne.” That was the style that came from the 1925 Paris convention known as the International Exposition of Decorative Arts. It evolved into the “streamline” look of America in the 1930s, with waterfall bedroom sets and round nose trains. The name of the style was updated in the 1960s to “Art Deco,” still retaining the “art” part just so we remember.

Just before that was the Art Nouveau movement, the “new” art that came at the turn of the century that incorporated elongated organic forms into the structure of the furniture. It was primarily a European phase in furniture but it did have some influence in this country in other decorative arts.

But there was an “art’ movement even before that one. The 19th-century version of the “art” movement can sometimes be very confusing to the average shopper for older and antique furniture. It sort of looks like something else but not really. And sometimes the color is awful. The movement actually started around the middle of the 19th-century with some of the same people involved in the advent of the Arts and Crafts movement, Charles Eastlake among them. The new movement gained a significant foothold on the American furniture market after the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The American public was smitten with the Japanese exhibit in Philadelphia, and furniture styling immediately picked up an Oriental flavor. At the same time, people were beginning to tire of the overwhelming size, complexity and severity of Rococo and Renaissance Revival furniture. They were tired of high Victorian styling. Eastlake’s simplistic approach to furniture design suddenly was very popular even though he didn’t design much of the furniture himself.

The desk on the left illustrates the Oriental approach. It is ebonized with gold incising. The desk on the right, in a wood finish, is the Moorish approach to the style with geometric fretwork. Both desks are based on Eastlake’s design principles.

His concepts were linear and the guiding principle was that of visible craftsmanship. It didn’t take long for the basic Eastlake style to be adapted to the new movement. By adding a few Oriental touches to this simple idea, the form of “Art Furniture” was born, characterized by shallow carvings, devoid of veneer and excessive ornamentation. The entire movement, in architecture and decorative arts as well as furniture, became known as the “Aesthetic Movement,” implying that the existence of art was for art’s sake; a direct conflict with the Victorian concept that art must serve a moral purpose by reinforcing moral values. Even the name, “Aesthetic,” means artistic or beautiful.

One of the favorite finishes of Aesthetic movement craftsmen was the ebonized look. Cherry was a favorite base material because it did not telegraph the grain or nature of the wood through the solid black overcoat yet it somehow retained the warmth found in natural wood. The wood was stained, not painted, a jet black and then highly polished. The black background further enhanced the contrast with the gold incising or the lighter woods used in marquetry panels and floral inlays. But not all Aesthetic furniture is ebonized. Walnut and rosewood were popular mediums, and bird’s eye maple was a favorite accent wood. And not all decoration was Oriental. It ranged from classical molding to medieval spindles, inspired by Oriental, Moorish, Gothic and Egyptian influences. The furniture was complex and often very expensive in both material and labor to construct.

This desk is somewhat plainer than the others but it is still in the style It may have been ebonized originally and refinished somewhere along the line.

This period of American furniture is perhaps one of the less-distinctly defined periods in both style and time. Styles were often eclectic and forms ranged as far back as updated versions of the 17th-century court cupboard to interpretations of the modern, for the time, Davenport desk. The Aesthetic Movement in American furniture generally is regarded as being from the mid 1870s to just after the turn of the century. This minor aberration in furniture style served as the bridge between high Victorian morality and the radical lurch about to come in the form of Arts & Crafts, a true revolution.

So now you may have an idea about that mystery piece you have seen in a shop or at an auction. It looks sort of like late Eastlake but it is a little too fancy or elegant. It also seems to be a little foreign, Oriental or Near Eastern but it obviously is a domestic piece. It could very well be an Aesthetic Movement piece from the late 19th century. And whatever you do – don’t try to strip that awful black paint. It’s part of the “aesthetics” of the piece.

Fred Taylor is a Worthologist who specializes in American furniture from the Late Classicism period (1830-1850).

Visit Fred’s website at www.furnituredetective.com. His book “How To Be A Furniture Detective” is now available for $18.95 plus $3.00 shipping. Send check or money order for $21.95 to Fred Taylor, PO Box 215, Crystal River, FL 34423.

Fred and Gail Taylor’s DVD, “Identification of Older & Antique Furniture,” ($17 + $3 S&H) and a bound compilation of the first 60 columns of “Common Sense Antiques,” by Fred Taylor ($25 + $3 S&H) are also available at the same address.

For more information call 800-387-6377, fax 352-563-2916, or e-mail info [at] furnituredetective [dot] com.

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Weller umbrella stands can still be found in the $200 to $300 range, but the "Baldwin" line piece, such as this one, routinely sells in the $750 to $1,000 range at auction.

Every dealer and collector has a soft spot for certain styles and periods of design that is almost a case of love at first sight. In my own case, it was Art Nouveau, a rebirth in design that reigned supreme from about 1895-1910. This Weller “Baldwin” series umbrella stand, with it’s vine like florals and hand-hewn look is a good example of the style produced in North America up until the First World War.

Sam Weller, the founder of Weller pottery, began with the production everyday items such as jars, jugs, tiles and utility pottery. With the move to Zanesville, Ohio, area about 1889, Weller followed the lead of other local potters and began making a line of art pottery.

Weller soon expanded into a line of Portraiture pottery with Indians, animals and themes based on the books by Charles Dickens, called “Dickensware.” A large number of other series wares such as Woodland, Oriental, Hunter, Auroral and Sicardo were also produced and well received at the time.

Like many manufacturers, Weller was forced to scale back production during the years of World War I, and the company concentrated on molded, mass-produced wares similar to those of the Roseville company. Sam Weller died in 1925, when the pottery was being run by his nephew Harry until his own death in 1932. The Weller pottery company survived the Depression and World War II, but it’s glory years were behind it when it closed for good in 1948.

The value for most original Art Nouveau designer pieces has climbed beyond the average collector, but some potteries like Weller automated enough of their production that many examples are still available at reasonable prices today. In the current market some Weller umbrella stands can still be found in the $200 to $300 range, but the “Baldwin” line (pictured above) routinely sells in the $750 to $1,000 range at auction.

Mike Wilcox
Wilcox & Hall Appraisers

Mike Wilcox is a Worthologist who specializes in Art Nouveau and the Arts and Craft movement.