TECO pottery - old find; recently identified

I bought this unmarked piece of pottery about a year and a half ago on eBay for a mere $10 (plus shipping). I always knew it was a good piece and suspected it was TECO but only recently have been able to confirm my suspicions. I found a 1905 TECO catalog which pictures this piece as Design No. 78, designed by William Gates, owner of Gates Potteries. In 1905, it cost $3; today it's worth between $500-700.

A truly phenomenal phind! UPDATE: Sold on eBay for $678!

Moorcroft Pottery 8" Vase

I found this gorgeous vase at a shop in Olde City and snapped it up for a mere $20. I thought it might bring $100 or so on eBay. After a bit of research I discovered that the age of this piece (circa 1916-17) and its pomegranate pattern make it a very collectible piece of Moorcroft. **UPDATE**

After selling for $664 on eBay the item was returned due to the fact that it had a repair that I had not noticed. Naturally, I refunded the buyer her money and re-listed the item; it fetched $168. Still not a bad little profit and it found a good home!

William Moorcroft (1872-1945) was an English potter and founded the Moorcroft pottery business. He was born in Burslem, Staffordshire. He studied art at Burslem then in London and Paris. He experimented with his own pottery designs around 1896 while working for James Macintyre & Co Ltd. and produced Aurelian Ware which was partly decorated with transfers and partly painted by hand. Moorcroft developed highly lustered glazes and used oriental shapes and decorations. Some of his techniques were closely guarded trade secrets. Much of the output was sold through Liberty & Co. in London and Tiffany in New York.

Ray Smith - Mexican American Artist

I bought this painting by Ray Smith at an estate sale a few months ago. Although I didn't know the artist's name I recognized it as a well executed painting and snapped it up for $200 after doing some preliminary research at the library. Smith's paintings bring $1-14,000 at auction when they sell and have appeared at all the big name auction houses.

Painter and sculptor Ray Smith was born in Brownsville, Texas, in 1959, on lands that his family had settled in the early 19th Century when it was still part of Mexico. He grew up in central Mexico. He studied fresco painting with traditional craftsmen in Mexico, attended art academies in Mexico and the United States, and settled in Mexico City. Since 1985, he has divided his time between New York and Cuernavaca, Mexico. (Artist bio © AskArt)

My painting will be in the Modern, Latin American and Contemporary Art Sale at Bonham's on May 11th in NYC. Keep your fingers crossed!

Chelsea Pottery Barrister Figures

I picked up these four Chelsea Pottery barrister figures more than 6 months ago for $9.99 at one of my favorite thrift stores. I remembered having seen something like them before and that they were collectible. A little research revealed what they were and that they commanded fairly high prices in the UK, where they were made between 1952-1990, but not much in the US. A few months ago I saw a pair sell on eBay for just over $20 so I didn't rush out to list mine.

I was tidying up a storage area a couple of weeks ago to make room for some purchases and decided to test the market with two; one tall and one short. They sold to a man in Cyprus for $57 and $56, respectively. When I packed them up I noticed the short fat one had what appeared to be a very small chip at the end of his nose. I emailed the buyer to let him know and offered to swap it out with the other short one. He told me to go ahead and send the ones he paid for as well as the other one and he would pay me a reasonable sum. I ended up selling him all four for $218.

Not as much as the $200-300/hour a lawyer makes, but not a bad profit at all!

Painted Porcelain Candlestick

Here is a piece that I bought while in San Francisco a few weeks ago (the weekend was entirely paid for by the sale of the monkey bottle!) and what a beauty it is. I picked it up in a consignment store off Polk Street for $42. It is beautifully hand painted by a man named George Leykauf, who was a master porcelain painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He stopped painting in 1920 because the difficulty in finding quality blanks. Leykauf died in 1922.

All of the research I have done online indicate that Leykauf is considered to be one of the great porcelain painters of all time. The handful of items that I have seen for sale online have ranged from $800-8,000. I'll keep you posted when I have found a buyer. If anyone knows any serious porcelain collectors out there be sure to let me know.

**UPDATE** After attempting to sell it through a retail outlet I decided to list the candlestick on eBay where it sold for $100. Not quite the return I'd hoped for but I'm happy to have doubled my money. B

Staffordshire Figure of Charity

I picked up this Staffordshire figure of Charity over the weekend at one of my favorite Goodwill stores. It's a bit out of the way so I don't get there too often. I think this one has a bit of age, particularly as there are a couple of hairline cracks which show some discoloration. I would venture to say that it's early 20th century but almost definitely not older than that. I don't know much about them but am looking forward to learning more.

The research part is always so much fun for me. But after that last sale of the monkey bottle I'm finding that parting is not such sweet sorrow after all.

Stay tuned for more phenomenal phinds!

Charity sold for $39.00 - not as much as I'd hoped but more than than the $2.99 I paid for her at the Goodwill store. Next...