posted on January 24, 2009 11:52:15 PM new
McJane, I do not want to scare you off of this piece but do be caution when purchasing Roseville. There are many fakes out there. Some of them are so poorly done that they are easy to spot but many of them are well done. I have collected art pottery for the past 30 years and was almost fooled recently. The only tip off for me was that the piece just did not "feel" right. You learn the feel from handlng and closely examining pieces over the years.
I would be very cautious about paying much money for a piece unless your seller has excellent references and pictures. This listing causes me some concerns because his pictures are not very good. Middle Florida is full of new/fake Roseville and it flooded the market in that area in the mid 90's so even if the seller says they bought it at an estate sale, that does not mean that it is an original Roseville piece.
Roseville has not been produced since the 1950's so almost every piece will have some shelf ware. If it looks too new, it probably is. The "s" in the sig on the bottom also does not look quite right. I would ask him to provide some better pictures with better lighting before I placed a bid.
posted on January 25, 2009 07:33:46 AM new
LtRay can't tell you how much I appreciate your information. I have no knowledge of Roseville, saw some a friend had, liked it so thought I might buy a few pieces.
Had no idea there were fakes on the market and because of your post I decided not to buy any, besides it's a bit expensive for me.
Glad I came here, before I bid, for the name of the pattern I knew I would get an answer.
posted on January 25, 2009 02:27:16 PM new
I could write a book on the ins and outs of collecting but do not feel the need because there are so many out there already.
If you are collecting because you like something, then by all means pick pieces you like the look of. Enjoy them for what they are and not what they are worth. When the enjoyment is gone, donate it to charity or garage sale it.
If you are collecting as an investment, then you need to know your market. There are many factors that determines why an object is collectible. Rarity, workmanship, material and sometimes just generational attraction.
The true investments are those items of rarity, material and workmanship. Of course , the investment part demands that you still need a market to sell them.
While some Roseville pieces are certainly rare, the advent of the internet helped collectors see there was more of it surviving than originally thought. So much for rarity!
Workmanship, yes, there are some pieces of Roseville that have beautiful workmanship. This is mostly found in the older pieces from the 1920's.
Material? Roseville is molded pottery, not much to be gained from the material. Also, molded pottery is easy to copy so if you do not know details such as glazes used, shapes molded, styles of the artist, you can be easily fooled by imitations.
Generational attraction- this is the main reason why Roseville became so popular in the 1980's and 90's. Lets say Grandma had a set of Roseville candle sticks that she proudly displayed on her mantel. When Grandma passed away one of the grandkids inherited them. The other grandkids were envious and went looking for a set of their own. You now have a Roseville market.
Or maybe the inherited set had a chip and grandbaby wants to display a perfect set so they go shopping to find a replacement. You have a market.
While the grandkids are shopping for the candlestick, they find there are matching bowls, the market grows.
As their collections grows, the neighbors get envious and start looking for their own. The market continues to grow.
But this is an unstable market. The your grandkids may hate that stuff and not be interested in expanding grandmaws junk collection. Market dies from lack of interest.
The neighbors get tired of the clutter and without the emotional "grandma" tie, they decide to redecorate and yard sale their collection for considerably less than market value. Your investment value just took a hit.
Roseville for the most part is a generational market, much like Early American Pressed Glass was a generational collectible for our parents/grandparents.
At one time, EAPG had huge mass appeal as a collectible because the grandchildren of the 1920s understood how hard it was for their Grandma of the 1880's to afford a full set. It held sentimental value to those born in the 20's. Today, that market group has died out and EAPG prices have dropped.
Same as we are seeing with depression glass and McCoy.
So the main thing to keep in mind is to buy things you like if you are buying it for your enjoyment and do your homework if you are buying it as an investment.
I bought my first peice of Roseville in the 1980's on a lark. I had no idea what it was but it had that "feel" to it and it had a signed base so I suspected I would be able to identify it.
It was the most god-awful ugly vase I had ever seen. Matte brown, garish flowers, etc. I paid $3 for it at a yardsale. I knew it felt old and anything that ugly had to be worth something to have survived so long (or so I thought). I almost did not buy it because $3 was a lot of money to waste at yard sale prices but I did it anyway.
The 15" vase turned out to be Roseville Magnolia. At the time valued at about $250.00. I held on to it for a few years just because it had turned out to be a good investment. I sold it in the mid-90's for $450 in my antique store. I had many years of enjoyment out of the vase not because I thought it was beautiful but because I thought it was hilarious that something so hideous had that kind of value. Luckily the market was good when I sold it. Today that piece would probably only sell for $250.
posted on January 25, 2009 05:33:10 PM new
McJane, feel free to do with it as you will, typos, improper sentences and all <g>
Otteropp, knowledge is certainly = money when it comes to buying and selling. For every $3= $250 find, I have a lot of expensive lessons that get re-yardsaled or given away, lol. You never stop paying for lessons as long as you are buying but every now and then, it is nice to learn something that can help someone else.
