Paul Cuskaden Auction, St. Paul, Indiana

Today we had great weather for a 45 minute drive to St. Paul, Indiana to visit an auction held by Paul Cuskaden. It was in the downtown district of the city, but there seemed to be little traffic and plenty of parking. The auction house was very old, but there was plenty of seating for crowd of around 40. The in-house catering served me up a chili dog, with macaroni in the chili! It tasted much better than it sounds, I recommend everyone try it, and the homemade apple pie. The auction was attended by mostly locals, and the proceedings were very informal and easy going. Aside from the variety of carnival glass, there were a good 30 pieces of vintage Roseville pottery for sale.

Roseville Pinecone Jard and pedestal

One of the nicer pieces was a very clean Roseville Pinecone pedestal and jard in brown. Very sharp mold, and no apparent damage or restoration. This one was was one of the smaller ones, with just an 8 inch jard, but the bidding ran up to $800 which is a decent deal if you just want to add it to your collection.

Assortment of Roseville for sale

The landscape pitcher had several chips near the lip, but someone still took it home for $80. The blue pinecone dish went for $115 to another buyer, we would have bid more if not for the poor mold. The 9 inch poppy vase was in nice shape, and a small bidding war erupted over it ending with a happy buyer at $185. The Rozane pillow vase was scratched up a bit, with atypical glaze pops for Roseville and potential lip repairs that we could not veryify 100%, but it still walked out the door for $90.

More vintage Roseville art pottery

We wanted the ming tree basket, but did not want to top the winning bid of $90 for a line with so few collectors.

Roseville pottery pinecone assrtment

We brought home these three pieces of pinecone in brown, the big canoe console has a lip chip, but the other two pieces are flawless. These had some of the crispest molds we have ever seen, and great glaze. We were quite glad to come away with them.




Rare Rosevill pottery piggy bank

We had to pay up a bit to get the winning bid on this little piggy bank, and he has a small chip on the back on one of his ears. However, these are incredibly rare in any condition as they had no holes in the bottom to get the coins back out. Nearly all of them were broken open for the coins in the last 100+ years and you just can't find the survivers. We have laid eyes on a few of these mottled beauties in the past, but we have never found one with blue glazing mixed in.

Aside from the Roseville art pottery, we brought home a bit of fenton glass as well, so for the time we put in it was a pretty good day.

Cross Artifacts, Jeffersonville, Ohio

Yesterday we went to Jeffersonville, Ohio, to an auction held by Cross Artifacts. It was just a little outside of the town, at a large metal building surrounded by farms. It was very easy to find, and there was plenty of parking for the crowd that arrived. The spacious interior had lots of seating, and it was fairly easy to get through the tables to inspect the goods. There was a second ring for coins and furniture, but they were able to control the speaker systems to make it easy for everyone. We were surprised to find that the crowd of around 70 people were happy to pay retail prices for many of the items for sale, but of course as resellers we were looking for the undervalued items. We came away with a few nice Cowan pieces, a little McCoy and Van Briggle, and even a Moorcroft piece. There were several dozen pieces of vintage Roseville pottery, but for a variety of reasons we did not end up with any of it. 

Large selection of Roseville pottery at Cross auction 

More Roseville pottery at Cross Auction

Most of the pieces were common, and many showed damage or amateur repairs. There were a few pieces of Futura, particularly a Bamboo Ball, but it showed minor corner damage on 2 edges. No one seemed to notice or care because it went for nearly $300. There was also a vista wall pocket ($300) with a cracked handle and a vista window box ($350) with 2 chipped corners. Unfortunately, even the common pieces sold in the $50 to $100 range which was simply not appropriate for the conditions or rarity. We barely got bids in before they increased in price beyond what we were willing to give. All of the quality pieces such as a nice Wisteria blue vase ($290) went to a single buyer who apparently had no problem stepping in and picking the cream of the crop.

Overall it was a good day, and although we did not leave with a large number of pieces it was still well worth attending.

Humler & Nolan, Cincinnati, Ohio

We were fortunate enough last week to attend the Humler & Nolan auction in Cincinnati, Ohio featuring the Monsen-Baer collection. For those not familiar with this collection, it was massive and used to produce two books on the subject of middle-period vintage Roseville pottery. There were over 800 lots, with many of the lots containing 5-8 pieces. Nearly the entire catalog of Futura was represented, including several in Carnillian II glazes. Several dozen experimental and trial glaze pots were brought to market, and most will not be seen again for decades as they passed into private collections.

As always, the staff was professional and congenial, the facilities perfect, and the provided refreshments (catered by Quiznos!) kept the large crowd of 50+ bidders sated throughout the grueling 12 hour auction. Although there were a few glitches with the internet bidding, many lots were won across the world by people sitting at computers. The phone bidders were not intimidated, and pressed the prices of the higher-end pieces to stratospheric levels.

One of the stars of the show was  a Futura "Tank" vase with a small chip at the base. After frantic bidding, the price closed at $13,500, and with a 15% buyers premium the cost was over $15,000. Not bad for a pot that originally sold for $9.50/dozen.

Roseville Future Tank vase fetches over $15,000

In a close second, what may be the only known example of the "Chinese Bronze" vase was purchased with a bid of $10,000 plus 15% buyers premium for a total of  $11,500. Two big surprises were a Futura "Milk Carton" hitting $2500 and a Futura "Window Box" hitting $2100. Many pieces went far above estimates, with astounded onlookers gasping as the bids spiraled upward. Especially surprising was the bidding on Moderne line pieces which tripled and quadrupled estimates. Is this the beginning of a trend?

For our part, we came away with 27 pieces, 7 of which were trial glaze, experimental, or prototype. One nice example was a prototype 585-8 Apple Blossom vase. It has many more flowers and leaves that a production piece, with brighter and richer glaze. The details are very sharp.

Roseville 585-8 Apple Blossom prototype

Overall it was a great day, and we will end this blog with some pictures of some of the grouped lots, some of which would have been considered best of show in any other auction.

Wickliff Auctions, Carmel, Indiana

On the last day of February, 2015, Wickliff Auctions produced a good sized estate auction in Carmel, Indiana. The auction was primarily jewelry and wall art, but there was a smattering of early American art pottery from several major manufacturers. The facilities were excellent as always, the staff was very professional and friendly, and the participants were of the highest caliber. Refreshments were provided throughout the auction, and a security officer was ever-present to ensure the safety of all involved. Catalogs were provided to all participants, with excellent descriptions and each lot sequentially numbered. Two large monitors provided images of the items as the came up for bid so that everyone could clearly see the items.

Sadly, there was only a single Roseville Pottery lot available that day.

The green Pinecone cup (#960-4) had a pretty serious base chip, and oddly enough the bottom was unglazed. The mold was very weak as well, so we had no interest in it. The mock orange console bowl (#929-10) had some deep calcium deposits on the interior from use, but it was cleanable with a little elbow grease so we gave it some consideration. Unfortunately, the bidding jumped quickly to $40, and with a 12% buyers premium and 7% sales tax if was futile to bid any higher since the current bidder was already spending almost $50.00. We figured retail on the mock orange at about $40.00 -$50.00 and maybe $10.00 - $15.00 for the chipped cup so we let this lot pass.

We did manage to pick up some Lalique  and Steuben pieces at good prices so the day was not bad in the end. Always a pleasure to come to Wickliff and spend the afternoon, even if the Roseville Pottery for sale did not come home with us.

Worst Auction Ever.

Today we headed out to Lancaster Ohio to an auction hosted by John B Auctions. It was a three hour drive, but from the pictures and description it appeared it would be worth it. A large collection of Roseville, Weller, McCoy, and Van Briggle among the usual other antiquities.

The first sign of trouble came when we entered Lancaster and realized that the only address given in the ad was E. Fair Ave. Certainly the auction could not be at an entire street. Searching through the ad we found that it was actually being held at the fairgrounds. Okay, not a major problem. But upon arriving at the fairgrounds, we learned there was also a gun show. A few small dirt roads twisted around several buildings, and every parking spot within sight was filled with pickup trucks. We drove around in circles for a few minutes looking for either a parking space or a sign to indicate which building was for the auction, but neither presented themselves. So we parked far out in the distance and checked each building until we found the one with an auction. The frustration was only beginning.

The pottery and glass was presented together on one side of the room across a multitude of tables. Interspersed between them were a few rows of steel folding chairs, perhaps 25 or so. Looking around the room, it appeared that there were well over 100 people milling about and looking at things, and at least 25 people in line to register. My wife went off to wait in line to register and I tried to get close enough to the tables to inspect the pottery. Indeed, there were a good 20 pieces of Weller, but it was mostly common pieces easily found at any large antique mall. Many were cracked and chipped, but a few cheaper pieces appeared in nice enough shape to possibly drop a bid on. Much of the Roseville art Pottery  was either chipped, cracked, restored, or simply undesirable, but there were a few pieces we figured we might pick up that were in decent shape. The Van Briggle was decent enough, a good selection and that would make it worth sticking around.

Unfortunately, my wife returned with some disturbing news. John B Auctions has a policy of accepting only cash or in-state check. Being from out-of-state, our business checks have been universally accepted by every other auction house, but here they refused to even consider it. Setting a policy such as this may be one of the stupidest things any auctioneer anywhere has ever done. It appears that John B Auctions feels that out-of-state buyers should go to the bank on Friday and withdraw thousands and thousands of dollars in twenty dollar bills and then wander around in a room completely packed with strangers and no security guards within sight. And we were perfectly prepared to spend thousands, just as we often do. But we are not idiots and we refuse to expose ourselves to that sort of risk.

It appears that John B Auctions simply does not want our business, and we will not be returning to any auction he hosts in the future. His client lost money because we packed up our stuff and left before the auction even began.

Belhorn Auctions, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Last week there was really not much going on as far as Roseville Pottery was concerned.  A piece here, a few there, but nothing really attention-getting. The same can be said for this week, although  the Belhorn Auction in Ann Arbor, Michigan will be drawing collectors and dealers from all over. They have listed a few pieces of vintage Roseville already, and it appears there may be more by the time the auctions starts on Feb 07, 2015 at 12:00 noon. Here is a little taste of what they have in store:

Nice Roseville Cosmos bowl, getting harder to find.

There are enough American art pottery pieces there to bring any serious dealer, including some interesting Weller and Rookwood. The Kings Fortune is considering making the trip to check it out!

Sheridan & Associates, Xenia, Ohio

Yesterday we hit an auction at the Xenia, Ohio Fairgrounds run by Sheridan & Associates. It was not our first time there, so we knew what to expect. This particular auction was not focused on vintage pottery, but they had enough to make it worth the trip.

There were only two pieces of Roseville there, a tall Roseville vase in the snowberry pattern, and a big donatello jardiniere. The snowberry vase had a really small base chip that we figured would not detract much, and apparently the crowd agreed because it went for a little over $100. The donatello jard had a hard time attracting bidders, as there always seems to be plenty available everywhere and few collectors of the pattern. We picked it up for cheap, even though it had a few small inner rim chips. We actually got it so cheap that we were considering just using it as a planter for my Ficus tree. I mean, honestly, have you seen the prices of ceramic jardinieres at Home Depot or Lowes lately? It is hard to believe you can get a piece of vintage Roseville pottery over 100 years old for less than mass-produced Chinese stuff.

But in the end, we decided to send it to Ebay later this week because really, the donatello pattern kinda clashes with our home decor.

We just listed up several new acquisitions at The Kings Fortune we picked up the other day so stop by and see what we have!