1936 Texas Centennial Plate & Mock-up
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GUEST:
My brother and his wife bought these for us for a wedding present 24 years ago. And they know how much that I love Texas history, and history in general, as a fourth-generation Texan.
APPRAISER:
What are we looking at?
GUEST:
Well, this is a unfired bisque plate honoring Texas in the 100-year,centennial anniversary of the birth of Texas, which was in 1836. And I'm assuming this was somewhere around 1936 when it came out.
APPRAISER:
So in 1936 was the 100-year anniversary of the independence of Texas from Mexico.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Several years later, we became a state.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But in Texas, it's all about independence. In 1936, there was a huge exposition in Dallas.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
It had been planned for a very long time, and thousands of people from all over the state came to Dallas to go to this big fair and exposition. And one thing you could do is buy souvenirs, and there were hundreds of different types of souvenirs. And because Texans are so loyal to their state, there's lots of people that
collect those these days.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
Now if we look at this plate, it's very well designed. It was made in England by Wedgwood, and the Wedgwood company had a division which made commemorative plates.
GUEST:
Oh, wonderful.
APPRAISER:
And on this plate, they have Stephen F. Austin, we have Sam Houston, in the center is the Alamo, and all kinds of other scenes of Texas history
and historical Texas places. So obviously, this wasn't probably made in 1936, it was made before that. So it was probably made a year or two before. And down here is like a print of what the plate's going to look like, should look like.
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
And beneath it is wording that tells about the plate, and it's exactly as the wording appears on the back of the plate.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And then here we have an interesting little presentation plaque where this was presented to the DAR chapter in Austin, Texas.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
The DAR being the Daughters of the American Revolution.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, why this left the DAR chapter, I have no idea.
GUEST:
I don't know.
APPRAISER:
But it was at one point owned by them. Now, as you said, this is an unglazed plate.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And when it was fired the final time, it would have been covered with glaze and fired, and it would have turned blue.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So the plate that was actually sold at the centennial is blue.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
I have seen at least 200 of the Wedgwood Texas centennial plates in my life.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
There's a lot of them out there, a lot of people bought them as souvenirs, and collectors now like them.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And they usually sell for around $100, a little more, a little less. So how much is an unglazed plate worth? I'd never seen one. So I talked with another appraiser, who's also interested in Texas history and collecting Texas memorabilia, and all we can do is speculate.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Our best guess is that a retail price for this group would be somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000.
GUEST:
Wow!
APPRAISER:
I think it's really spectacularly rare and unusual...
GUEST:
Yeah, I love it, yeah.
APPRAISER:
...example of Texas history. But also of the manufacturing of a plate and what a plate looks like when it's unglazed.
GUEST:
Yeah, and it came from England, I mean that's... that's crazy. That's wonderful.
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