Ott & Brewer American Belleek Vase, ca. 1880
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GUEST:
I bought it here locally, in Las Vegas, about ten years ago at a local antiques store. The reason I bought it was because of the color. I paid $65 for it.
APPRAISER:
What have you found out about it over the years?
GUEST:
Well, I know it says "Belleek" on the bottom. I know there's a mark there. I know it says "Fenton."
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
I know Fenton is a glass company rather than a porcelain company. The mark I think I tried looking up once upon a time in one of the little mark books. I vaguely remember that it was, like, from the late 1890s, and that's about all I know about it.
APPRAISER:
Okay, first of all, it has a wonderful, kind of an olive green background color with some gold highlights, and then these hand-painted flying birds.
GUEST:
Okay, right.
APPRAISER:
Perhaps cranes or something. They almost have an Oriental feel to them.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
They're very thickly applied, so it's a raised surface, which is really nice. And then we have this really interesting landscape down below,
with water and a little hut of some sort next to the water.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
Some rocks on the shore, water plants.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
A really, kind of a charming scene. We see, you have these wonderful figural, dolphin-shaped handles.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
They're all decorated with gold. And then on the back is some interesting stylized plants with this really delicately painted butterfly, again with the raised-gold design. We'll take a look at the mark here...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...and see what we can tell you about that. Now, on the mark here, it does say "Belleek." And then there's a crescent, and the crescent actually doesn't say "Fenton."
GUEST:
It doesn't?
APPRAISER:
It says "Trenton, New Jersey."
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
It's a little hard to read.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And yes, there is an American glass company named Fenton...
GUEST:
Fenton, okay.
APPRAISER:
But Fenton didn't make any porcelain at all.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If you look closely, there's a letter O and a letter B, which are superimposed over the crescent, and that stands for Ott and Brewer, which was the first company in America which made a Belleek ceramic body. The Ott and Brewer Company was originally founded in about 1863 as the Etruria Pottery Company. Eventually they became known as Ott and Brewer, and they made a lot of utilitarian things. But by the 1870s, they were making some pretty fantastic porcelain in America. Now, at that point in America, there had not been very many manufacturers of porcelain that had stayed in business very long...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
...or made anything of very high quality. Now, this vase, we believe, was probably made in the late 1870s or early 1880s.
GUEST:
Oh, oh!
APPRAISER:
When they were really doing their best work.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
As far as American Belleek, Belleek is the ceramic body, which was started in Ireland. The Ott and Brewer Company imported some workers from Ireland who had worked there, and they were the first to make this very thin eggshell-type porcelain that's kind of a off-white color.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And we don't see much of it on this piece...
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
...but we can see it here on the top, this very thin, translucent, eggshell-colored porcelain.
GUEST:
Okay, all right.
APPRAISER:
Now, one of their early art directors was a man named Lenox, who went on to found the Lenox Company, which is so famous today.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
And they were another of the early manufacturers of Belleek in America. Now, most small pieces will start around $50 to $100.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And some of the really nice pieces can go up to $500 or $1,000.
GUEST:
Okay, okay.
APPRAISER:
But this one has exceptional qualities. This piece is good enough for any museum collection in America. This piece, we believe, at auction, would sell for between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST:
You are kidding me! Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
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