The sugar chest has been called the quintessential piece of Kentucky furniture. More than just decorative, sugar chests were functional. They needed to be, since sugar was once a scarce and expensive commodity. Today, when we think of sugar the granulated form comes to mind, but sugar available from the late-18th to the mid-19th century came in hard, cone-shaped loaves. The loaves ranges in size; with those purchased for family use weighing between eleven and thirteen pounds. The manufacturing process entailed squeezing liquid from the sugar cane plant, with the remaining sucrose compressed into molds. The end product was the solid sugar sold to consumers. Sugar nippers were used to break off pieces from the cone, and then crushed those pieces into granules. Sugar chests became the preferred way to store and secure the product. The decorati...Read More

My previous blog post: “Why Do Vases Sell for More Money than Bowls” may well have left you with the impression that all vases are good and all bowls are bad (at least when it comes to monetary value). As with nearly everything in life of course there are exceptions to the rule that vases are worth more than bowls. Lets take a closer look at the nuances that cause some pottery or glass objects to be more valuable than others. Bowls are usually wider than they are tall and broader at the top than at the bottom. If the opposite were true wed call the object a vase. But some objects don’t follow the traditional bowl shape, and these may be more valuable. Bowls that do have the typical form, but stand out thanks to decorations by a master designer, may also be quite valuable. A closed bowl describes a form that is wider than tall but turns inwa...Read More

I am an average guy who doesn’t have a vintage Porsche or a fabulous wine cellar, but I do have some great oriental rugs on the floor and some folk art hooked rugs on the wall. I think textiles are great objects to enjoy and you don’t have to worry about lead free gasoline or “cork taint.” Textiles span centuries and continents; the beginnings of the field go back centuries, to Peruvian pre-Columbian textiles from 600 B.C. Sophisticated collectors and museums seek out rare Egyptian and Chinese fragments of linen made from the flax plant. However, archaic pieces of this genre consist mainly of fragments or pieces of Persian carpets. Pieces can range from $100-200 for a small fragment from the Chancay Culture of Peru to many millions for early 17th century Kirman carpets. Textiles that appeal to most modern collectors include quilts, coverlet...Read More

Another important election season is upon us. Political campaign literature and television commercials are already besieging us. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on these campaigns nationwide, with each ad vying for our attention – and our vote. In this electronic age, few of us realize just how much electioneering has changed over the history of the republic. Imagine flying a flag with a portrait of your favorite presidential candidate; my how things have changed! In the early years of our country, there was precious little of the sorts of activity that we associate with the heated political campaigns of today. A scattered population with no real means of mass communication meant that office seekers had little way to communicate to the general voter. This was particularly difficult in areas west of the Allegheny and Appalachia...Read More

Rank badges, Buzi (補子), sometimes referred to as ‘Mandarin squares,’ are Chinese dynastical textiles that have survived in surprising numbers. Their preservation is due in large part to the Western collectors that cherished them and gave them their alternate name. These embroidered panels lend themselves easily to different representations, and their custodians proved creative—I have seen them mounted in wood serving trays, repurposed as a lady’s handbag (perhaps a little too creative), and simply framed behind glass as a decorative work of art. Many admirers and collectors do not realize that they were made as functional clothing elements of an official nature. Although Ming and Qing dynasty courtiers wore these insignia badges, the strict regulation and systemization of their design and use only came about when the Manchus began their rul...Read More

When a style of unique furniture and accessories came into fashion in the Victorian era, it took the name of the city where it originated. "Cincinnati art-carved" encompassed a broad spectrum of decorative items, from corner cupboards to fruit plates, and from fireplace mantels to picture frames. At the heart of the movement were a professional woodcarver, Henry Fry, and his son, William. Having migrated from England, they moved to Cincinnati in 1851, where they worked on churches and for owners of estates. Among the latter was Joseph Longworth. Between 1868 and 1872 he commissioned the Frys to carve portions of the interior of Rookwood, his country home, and that of a house he had built for his daughter, Maria Longworth, who later founded the Rookwood Pottery Company. The work in Miss Longworths house caught the eye of her friends, who wan...Read More

Unless you’re selling gold ingots or diamonds, most fine objects don’t have intrinsic monetary value. So why would anyone pay tens of thousands of dollars for a Tiffany vase? To truly understand value, you have to understand the mindset of a collector. Let’s start by comparing vases and bowls.  To simplify this exercise, assume you have a bowl and a vase made of the same material (pottery or glass, for example) by the same company, the same year, decorated by the same artist or one of similar value, in the same condition, and even the same size, though one is measured in height and the other in width.  We’re pretty much talking about the same piece with that one notable exception.  Would the value really be different?        For starters, a bowl takes up nearly twice as much space on a collector’s shelf than a vase.  Few people have unlimit...Read More

We have all watched the funny movie scene of the guy scratching his head only to hear a booming voice yelling “sold” with a thunderous fall of the gavel as the auctioneer points to the unsuspecting gentleman who is sheepishly sliding down in his chair. “Sir, what’s your number? Sir… Yes, you with the beet red face. I have you as the winning bidder for $15,000.” We have all been in the crowd when these moments happen. Maybe you have been the person looking to blend in with the cupboard next to you, hoping that if you do not look the auctioneer directly in the eyes, you will not be seen and if you cannot be seen then you certainly do not have to pay $15,000 for that rusty old piece of junk unearthed from an abandoned barnyard. From the podium, I am privileged to see all of the winks, waggles, nods, waves, and covert telepathic communications ...Read More