1901 & 1908 Newcomb College Mugs
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GUEST:
I was a student and working in New Hampshire. I was working at a summer stock theater. I wanted to bring a souvenir home to my mother, and I liked these mugs, and I asked how much they were, and they were ten dollars apiece. And being a starving college student, I said, "Oh no, I can't buy them." And he knew I was wanting them for my mother and he says, "Well, for a mom, I'll give them to you for five dollars." This was in 1964. Every time I visit her, we always had coffee with these mugs. They were special.
APPRAISER:
You actually used them?
GUEST:
We used them, yes.
APPRAISER:
Way to go.
GUEST:
I watch the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW regularly, and one day, they had Newcomb pottery on there, and the design was very similar to this one, and I thought, "Gee, that looks like one of my mugs." So I came to the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW to find out, are these really Newcomb, and do they have any value other than personal value?
APPRAISER:
Yes and yes. They are definitely Newcomb. What's interesting about these is that they're fairly early for Newcomb. The school actually began an arts program where they trained people how to do pottery around 1895, and early on, you see these gloss figures that have an overglaze. Later, you see more matte glazed pieces from Newcomb, but these are in the first few years. A couple are dated 1901. I think one is a little later than that.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
But what's nice about them from a collector point of view, they're early. These are hand-made pieces. They show some variations. Two of them actually are pretty much the same shape, but even with that, they are different in size and configuration because they're hand-thrown. We can show marks very clearly. You can see the Newcomb College mark right here, "NC." This would be the artist mark. This is a date code, and you've deciphered the date codes. This one I think you said was 1901, and the artist was Beverly Robertson. So this is my favorite of the group because of the eggplants. The others are more stylized decoration. But in terms of value, any thoughts?
GUEST:
For many years, I thought they were worth maybe $25 apiece.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
Then after watching stuff on the show, I thought maybe $100 apiece. But I have no idea actually.
APPRAISER:
In today's market, in an auction setting, they would probably sell for more like $2,000 each.
GUEST:
$2,000 each?! Really? Oh, my God.
APPRASIER: Now, the question is, are you still gonna drink your coffee?
GUEST:
That was good coffee I had.
APPRAISER:
Absolutely. Truthfully, the market for a lot of pottery is off with the economy, so maybe ten years ago, eight years ago, they might have been worth more like $3,000 apiece.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So I think you made a pretty good investment.
GUEST:
Absolutely, I think so. Five dollars to $2,000 apiece? (laughing): Wow.
APPRAISER:
I wouldn't drink coffee in them anymore.
GUEST:
No, I haven't for years.
Appraisal Details
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