Important people best portrayed through ceramic figurines
Before there were photographs and television, some of the best likenesses of important people were created by makers of ceramics.
English Staffordshire potters made many versions of a figure about 15 inches high with a head that was altered to look like Benjamin Franklin or George Washington. This group of figures came in white or multicolored finishes. Both the Washington and Franklin figures held a tricorner hat and an open printed book. Franklin's hair is longer than Washington's and two different faces were used, both based on famous portraits, so today we can easily distinguish the two Founding Fathers. But in past centuries, few would have been familiar with what the men looked like.
Most of these figures date from 1876 and were made to celebrate the U.S. Centennial, although collectors and many experts in the 1950s believed they were made in the early 1800s.
Figures that look like Franklin but are inscribed "Washington" sell for high prices, probably because collectors like "error" pieces.
Research in recent years has proved that many bandannas, plates, bedspreads, figures and other Americana items that look like they were made about 1800 were actually made for tourists during 1876.
Q: Could you please tell me something about my mother's oval dish? Its only mark is "Old Ivory, Germany" with a crown in the middle.
A: Most china marked "Old Ivory" was made for export to the United States by the Hermann Ohme Porcelain Works of Silesia, Germany (now part of Poland), between 1882 and 1928. But the mark on your dish was used by a competing factory, Striegauer Porcelain Works of Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic).
Terry Kovel's column is syndicated by King Features. Write to: Kovels, (Las Vegas Reiew-Journal), King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.
