Posts Tagged ‘staples/rivets’

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Basket case Victorian dish, c.1850

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

In honor of Mother’s Day, I am featuring a dish that only a mother could love. I believe it to be English from the mid 1800s and made of porcelain with hand painted decoration in cobalt, drab and gold. It is marked on the bottom with the numbers 4 over 554 and measures 9″ x 10″. This is truly one of the saddest antiques with inventive repairs I have ever seen, and believe me, it took much inner soul searching just to purchase it. I am breaking with tradition and showing the underside of the plate first. Take a deep breath…this is not going to be pretty.

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This dish must have held great sentimental value for its original owner. In order to make it “whole” again after being shattered over 100 years ago, it was professionally repaired using 10 large metal staples, overpainted to mask the unsightly raw material. Sadly, the dish was dropped AGAIN, resulting in the loss of 3 staples and a sloppy glue job, now yellow with age. To add insult to injury, later in life it was bound with a cat’s cradle worth of string and cord, so it could proudly hang on a wall for all the world to see the tenacity of this unlikely survivor.

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Posted in plate/platter | 13 Comments »

Eva Zeisel majolica teapot, c.1929

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

This boldly painted, hard to find teapot was designed by no other than Eva Zeisel, who worked for Majolika Fabrik in Schramberg, Germany. She arrived in the small Black Forest town in the fall of 1928 and left nearly two years later in the spring of 1930, creating nearly 200 brightly colored pottery objects of Art Deco inspired design. This lightweight pottery teapot measures 7-1/2″ tall and is 8-3/4″ wide from handle to spout.

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I am not surprised that this fragile teapot did not remain unscathed over the past 84 years, as the low fired clay is susceptible to breakage. A large broken piece at the top of the pot has been reapplied, aided by three large metal staples, each measuring nearly 3/4″ long. To help camouflage this none-too-subtle repair, the staples were overpainted in matching tones, with only traces of color remaining. To add insult to injury, the top  portion of the handle, once broken off, has been riveted back on to the body. Tightly woven rattan envelopes the entire handle and the lower portion of the teapot, although I am not sure if this is was a later addition. Original or not, the basket-like embellishment adds another layer of quirkiness to this most desirable vessel.

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The stamped mark on the bottom reads: Majolika, SMF (contained within a shield), Schramberg Handyemalt, 64.

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Photo courtesy of Kulturprojekte Berlin

These are more examples of majolica designed by Eva Zeisel during her years in Schramberg, Germany

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An early photograph of Eva Zeisel in her studio, c. 1930.

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Photos courtesy of John Foster

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Posted in teapot | 6 Comments »

Chinoiserie print ale mug, c.1790

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

This substantial ale mug was manufactured at the turn of the 18th century, possibly by Caughley, in Shropshire, England. It stands 5-1/2″ tall and is made of soft-paste porcelain with a pearlware glaze, and decorated with a bold cobalt blue Chinoiserie fantasy transfer print. It was purchased in London by my father and given to me as my 40th birthday present. Seeing it reminds me of how proud he was when he found pieces to add to my numerous collections. Although it has just 2 small brass staples by the handle and not an over abundance of obvious repairs, as more typically seen in these pages, I am still very happy to own it.

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Posted in mug/tankard | 5 Comments »

Wucai teapot with misplaced handle, c.1690

Saturday, February 16th, 2013

This early porcelain teapot was made in China in the late 1600s and is a good example of an original form shifting to become current with the next generation. It is decorated in the Wucai palette, consisting of five enamel colors outlined in black and measures 5.5 inches high and 7.25 inches from handle to spout. What I love most about this piece is that by the time the original fixed upright handle broke off, it was replaced with a rattan-wrapped metal handle attached to the side of the teapot. Most likely the break occurred over one hundred years after the teapot was made, which explains why the placement of the new handle is more in keeping with teapots of the early 19th century. This act of altering the original form of a piece is reminiscent of clobbered wares; a practice of painting over simply decorated porcelain with multi color enamels to appeal to changing styles. An added bonus is the presence of long meal staples at the top of the neck, holding together two broken pieces back in place.

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This teapot shows what the fixed vertical handle on my teapot would have looked like before the replacement handle was attached to the side.

Photo courtesy of Grays

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Posted in teapot | 5 Comments »

Derby porcelain ointment box, c.1905

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

This tiny porcelain ointment box was made in England by Royal Crown Derby in the early 1900s. Standing a mere 1″ tall and with a diameter of 1-3/4″, it is one of the smallest antiques with inventive repairs I own. It is nicely hand decorated in the Imari pattern with classic cobalt blue, red and gilt enamels. The “V” mark on the bottom of both the lid and base dates this wee box to 1905. The underside of the lid reveals three metal staples, graduating in size from 1/4″ to 3/8″ long, which hold the two broken halves tightly together.

 

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Clobbered Canton plate, c.1800

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

This Chinese porcelain plate started out life in the early 1800s with traditional blue underglaze Canton decoration. It was later painted over or “clobbered” with overglaze washes of red, green enamels and gilt highlights, without much thought to the original plate’s decoration. As the demand for more colorful wares increased throughout Europe, enterprising merchants painted over their slow selling blue and white ceramics. Much of the over decorating was done in the Netherlands, where the pieces were referred to as “Amsterdams Bont” (colorful wares from Amsterdam) . Plate measures 8-3/4″ in diameter.

After the plate dropped and broke in to 4 pieces, it was made whole again by the addition of 9 metal staples.

A “Chinese” mark on the bottom is actually part of the Dutch clobbered decoration.

This Canton plate shows what mine looked like before it was embellished.

Photo courtesy of Antique Helper

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Posted in plate/platter | 4 Comments »

Chinese-English “monster mug”, c.1780

Saturday, November 24th, 2012

This is the story of a forced marriage between an 18th century Chinese porcelain mug and a 19th century English pottery jug, joined together by a mad tinker to live out the rest of their lives as one. The Qianlong period (1736-1795) mug with cobalt blue underglaze design stands 5-1/8″ high. The original handle, most likely in the form of a dragon, broke off sometime in the early 1800s. I imagine a clever repairer (or Dr. Frankenstein?) found a damaged English stoneware pottery jug, skillfully removed the intact snake-shaped handle and, using two metal rivets, reattached it to the body of a Chinese tankard…creating a hybrid Anglo-Asian monster mug!

This is what the original dragon handle on my Chinese mug would have looked like before it broke off. Photo courtesy of Ruby Lane

And this Mason’s Ironstone “Hydra” jug, made in Staffordshire, c.1830, shows the serpent handle intact. Photo courtesy of Selling Antiques

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Posted in mug/tankard | 4 Comments »

Miniature Davenport watering can, c.1860

Saturday, November 10th, 2012

English porcelain miniature watering can made by Davenport in the mid-1800s. Finely painted with multicolor floral and scrollwork design with gilt accents. Measures 2-3/4″ high to tip of moth form lid finial and is 3-1/2″ wide from end to end. Stamped in red with DAVENPORT in a banner with an anchor, dating it from 1850 to 1870. Three brass staples on the handle, with the aid of some sloppily applied glue, hold the three broken pieces back together again.

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“Dragons in Compartments” cup & saucer, c.1800

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

This fine, lightweight porcelain cup & saucer set was made in Dresden, Germany in the late 18th century. It is hand decorated with polychrome enamels and gold highlights in the wonderfully stylized “Dragons in Compartments” pattern, also known as the “Bengal Tiger”, “Kylin” or “Bishop Sumner” pattern . At one point in its early life, someone sipping an expresso was so scared by the fierce dragons depicted on the sides that it was dropped and broke into 3 pieces. Gathering the broken shards and somehow finding the strength to face the fierce fire breathing monsters again, the brave soul brought the broken cup to a tinker, who was able to restore it, using metal staples. The intact saucer measures 4-1/2″ in diameter and I would have much preferred if it too were repaired with staples!

This li’l dragon seems to be smoking a stogie, which is actually a metal staple keeping him in one piece.

There are 8 tiny staples on the outside and one on the inside, once overpainted to mask the repair.

Cup measures 2″ in diameter and stands 2″ high.

Isn’t this the cutest, non-threatening dragon you have ever seen? To me it looks more like a super-hero kitten sporting a purple cape with green fringe.

Both the cup and saucer are mark on the bottom in blue “Made at Dresden”.

 

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Posted in cup/saucer | 5 Comments »

Nanking sauceboat with multiple repairs, c.1750

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

I have often expressed that I am a sucker for pieces containing more than one form of early repair and this little beauty does not disappoint, as it sports three separate repairs and a signature to boot. Chinese porcelain sauceboat, made for export in the mid-1700s, was originally part of a large dinner set consisting of up to dozens of place settings and serving pieces, including a matching pair of sauceboats. Painted with cobalt blue underglaze in the Nanking pattern, it measures 7-3/4″ long from end to end and is 4-1/4″ deep.

Repair #1: Metal replacement handle, which may have once been covered in woven reed, was riveted to the end of the sauceboat, echoing the loop form of the original.

Repair #2: After the sauceboat was dropped a second time, an eighteenth century china mender carefully applied six 1/2″ staples to adhere the two large broken pieces near the spout.

Repair #3: Three tiny 1/4″ metal staples affix another large piece which broke off at the end of the sauceboat. They were overpainted in blue to match the decoration and over one hundred years later have held up quite well.

Etched on the bottom is “Cove 835”, which I am assuming is the mark of the china mender or tinker who was responsible for one or more of the repairs. I have not been able to find out any information on this cryptic signature but will continue to search and I welcome information anyone can provide.

This porcelain sauce boat from the same period shows what the simple loop handle on my piece would have looked like, before the addition of the metal replacement handle.

Photo courtesy of Ruby Lane

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Posted in sauce boat | 4 Comments »

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