RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES —
Column #983 Copyright © Rinker Enterprises, Inc. 2005 

Questions and Answers
 

QUESTION:  I own a Homer Laughlin wash pitcher and bowl set that belonged to my father’s grandmother.  The wash pitcher has a scalloped top edge, elaborately molded “C” scroll handle, and ribbed motif on its body.  The pitcher measures 12in high and 9in wide.  The bowl is 16in wide and 4in high.  Both the wash pitcher and bowl are decorated with a blue flower motif.  Any assistance you can give me on this set would be most appreciated.  --  JP, Coopersburg, PA, E-mail Question

ANSWER:  In 1869 Homer Laughlin and Nathaniel Simms became partners in a pottery located in East Liverpool, Ohio, to make stoneware and yellowware.  The partnership dissolved in 1872.  In 1873 Homer joined his brother Shakespeare and formed Laughlin Brothers, a firm making white wares.  In 1877, Homer Laughlin bought out his brother.  In 1879, the firm became Homer Laughlin China Company.

The Homer Laughlin China Company produced a wide range of wares, including dinnerware (Fiesta is among its best known patterns), hotel ware, and utilitarian household china.  By 1932, Homer Laughlin operated three plants in East Liverpool, Ohio, and several additional plants in Newell, West Virginia.

According to Lois Lehner’s Lehner’s Encyclopedia of U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain & Clay (Collector Books, 1988; 634 pages), the mark found on the bottom of your bowl was registered on February 27, 1912, and again on April, 3, 1956, in which filing the company claimed to have used the mark on earthenware table services as early as December 31, 1879.  The body shape of your wash pitcher and bowl set suggests a manufacturing date between 1900 and 1915.

Jo Cunningham’s Homer Laughlin: A Giant Among Dishes, 1873-1939 (Schiffer Publishing, 1998; 202 pages, $29.95) includes a full chapter on toilet sets.  Cunningham notes that Homer Laughlin produced toilet sets through the mid-1920s.

Traditionally, toilet sets came in a six-piece set (mouth ewer, wash basin, two-piece covered chamber pot, mug, and soap slab), ten-piece set (mouth ewer, roll edge wash basin, three-piece covered soap dish with drainer, hot water pitcher, handled mug, two-piece chamber pot, and toothbrush holder), and twelve-piece set (add a two-piece covered slop jar to the ten-piece set).  Pieces also could be purchased separately.  Today we designate the mouth ewer as the “pitcher.”

Cunningham identifies sixteen different body shapes used by Homer Laughlin for its toilet sets.  Comparing Cunningham’s illustrations against the photographs that accompanied your e-mail, your wash pitcher and bowl set is in the Wyoming/Majestic shape, introduced in 1905.

Unfortunately, few toilet sets survive intact.  The survival of the wash pitcher and bowl is the highest, followed by the covered chamber pot.

Wash pitcher and bowl sets enjoyed a period of strong collectibility in the 1970s and early 1980s.  They fell on hard times in the 1990s, largely due to the arrival of reproductions and copycats (stylistic copies) that flooded the market and confused many buyers.  Today, wash pitcher and bowl sets are once again a favorite with collectors.  Because of this, your Homer Laughlin set has a value between $150.00 and $175.00.

QUESTION:  I own a two-piece “Wolverine Express” lithograph tin, pull toy train made by the Wolverine Supply & Manufacturing Company.  The toy has a streamlined design similar to that of 1930s trains.  I would like to know more.  --  MB, E-mail Question

ANSWER:  The website, www.antiquetoys.com, contains brief histories for more than a hundred different toy companies.  Benjamin F. Bain and his wife founded Wolverine Supply & Manufacturing in 1903 and incorporated the company in 1906.  “Wolverine’s early toys were set in motion by the weight of sand or marbles.  These popular toys were usually designed to unload sand or marbles from an elevated hopper.  The toys, once set in operation, continued to operate unattended until the supply of marbles or sand was exhausted…. In 1918, Wolverine’s line expanded to include girls’ toys.  Introduced at the New York Toy Fair in March of that year were such toys as tea sets, sand pails, wash tubs, glass washboards, ironing boards and miniature grocery stores.  In 1928, Wolverine introduced their ‘Sandy Andy’ and “Sunny Suzy’ toys….By 1929, airplanes, boats, buses, and other toys joined the Wolverine family of toys.  Wolverine continued to expand their toy line through the 1930s, right up to the beginning of WWII, almost as if they were immune from the effects of the Depression.  Even the sand toys, relatively unchanged from the early 1900s, were still being sold into the 1950s.”  Spang Industries eventually acquired Wolverine and moved the company to Boonville, Arkansas in 1970.

I remember playing with Wolverine toys in the 1950s, including a Sandy Andy-type toy, a corner Grocer lithograph toy that was passed down through the family, and a bagatelle (table top pinball game).  Wolverine toys were moderately priced, thus explaining their popularity.

Your pull toy Streamline Railway is designed as stock number 129 in Wolverine catalogs.  Its appeal rests primarily with lithograph tin toy rather than toy train collectors.  Its value in very good condition is around $125.00 and in fine condition around $200.00.

QUESTION:  I have been given some old silver tea serving pieces which are so tarnished that they are pretty much black.  I called a jeweler and was told they can clean them professionally without diminishing the value.  My mother says she was warned never to clean them at all.  They are marked “Quadruple Plate.”  What is your advice?  --  DB, Bethlehem, PA, E-mail Question

ANSWER:  You need to proceed cautiously.  Quadruple plate indicates the pieces are plated, i.e, a thin coating of silver has been applied to base metal, and not sterling.  Quadruple plate, a marketing term that was popular in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and first quarter of the twentieth century, was meant to imply the plating on the piece was thicker than that found on lesser quality pieces.

When you polish silver, whether plated or sterling, you remove a thin layer of silver as well as the dirt.  Given this, it is possible to polish a plated piece to the point where all the silver plating is removed and only the base metal remains.

The first step is to determine whether or not your silver tea serving pieces retain enough silver to take a polish.  Check them carefully to see if any base metal is evident.  If it is, you are faced with the decision of whether or not to have the set replated.

If no base metal exposure is evident, the set can be polished.  Before resorting to polish, try washing your set in warm, soapy water.  Use a fine, not a coarse dish cloth.  Rub lightly, but firmly.  This should remove some of the tarnish.  If it removes most of the tarnish, wipe the pieces with a jeweler’s/rouge cloth.  If you are happy with the finished product, stop.

If not, buy a high quality silver polish.  Use the polish sparingly.  Read the instructions on the jar or bottle.  Under no circumstances use a silver dip or a tarnish removing plate, a popular item sold on home shopping channels.  Both approaches remove far more surface silver than polish.

When using the silver polish, rub lightly.  Follow the directions on how long to leave the silver polish on a piece before wiping it off.  If your pieces feature an elaborate repoussé decoration, take an old tooth brush, one in which the bristles have become soft through use, and use it to remove the polish from areas where your wash cloth cannot reach.  Once you have polished a piece, wash it in warm soapy water to make certain all the polish is removed.

After you have polished your pieces, the goal is not to have to polish them again.  If you are storing rather than displaying them, obtain tarnish-proof storage bags from your local jeweler or one of the many suppliers on the Internet.  If you are displaying them, clean them every three to four weeks with a jeweler’s/rouge cloth.

Cleaning silver is work and maintaining it in its polished state is a commitment.  You can avoid the cleaning by having it done professionally.  However, make a point to ask the jeweler what cleaning method he plans to use.  If it involves dipping or a tarnish removing plate, say no.  If the jeweler indicated he will use a jeweler’s polishing wheel, then you can proceed.

One final piece of advice is in order.  Get an estimate of the cost to have your set professionally polished.  Better to be prepared for the cost in advance than be surprised when you receive the bill.

QUESTION:  My wife recently purchased a desk that was made by a great, great, great grandson of President Zachary Taylor.  We actually have copies of paperwork that show Colonel Taylor, who lived in New Jersey and made furniture as a hobby, made this desk and other pieces around 1938.  How can we get an idea of what it is worth?  -- LS, Northampton County, PA, E-mail Question.

ANSWER:  Dismiss any concept of added value because your desk was made by a great, great, great grandson o President Zachary Taylor.  The value of your piece rests solely on the quality of Colonel Taylor’s workmanship.

You did not indicate in your e-mail the design style of your desk.  I am assuming it is one of the Colonial Revival styles, i.e., Chippendale, Hepplewhite, or Sheraton.

Compare the quality of workmanship on your desk with that of contemporary furniture manufacturers.  When you find work of comparable quality, check the price asked by the manufacturer for a desk similar to the one you own.  Half this value should provide you with a responsible value for the desk you own.

I have one additional suggestion.  Check the museums and historical societies in and around the area where Colonel Taylor worked to see if their collections include examples of his work.  If they do, the above approach needs to be reconsidered.  Call auction companies within a hundred-mile radius of where Colonel Taylor worked and ask if they have had any experience selling pieces he made and if they did, what were the results.

If your desk has a value beyond that of a used piece of furniture (my approach to determining its value), it will be within a hundred- to two hundred-mile radius of where Colonel Taylor worked.  In today’s globalization of collecting, local value still plays a role.