Q: I want to sell my Oriental vases. All three have been converted into lamps. The friend who gave me two told me they were worth $1,000 each.
- Jerry
Q: We saw a small version of my Satsuma chocolate pot many years ago at the Fontainebleau Hotel, priced at $7,000. How do I sell mine?
- Mary
A: Because both readers want to sell, I suggest they shop their items to good regional auction houses known for successful sales of antique decorative arts.
Auction house specialists can advise the first reader if the value of the lamps as decorative items exceeds their value as vases.
Satsuma is a region in Japan where pottery was made starting in the early 17th century by Korean potters. True Satsuma wares are rare and pricey.
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Most "Satsuma" seen in this country is a derivative, a porcelain version intended for export. Much was later made in Kyoto and is commonly called Satsuma.
The chocolate pot will sell on its merits in today's market. An auction house specialist can determine age, and where the piece stands in today's market.
Be sure the house will market your items well, and do not consign until you have done everything possible to ensure a successful sale.
Q: What can you tell me about this metal pitcher I inherited? It has a screw-on cap over the spout.
- James
A: The shape and cap give it away. Your "pitcher" is a stainless and chrome-plated cocktail shaker made sometime around the 1920s to 1940s, during the heyday of cocktail culture.
Bar sets came in a variety of shapes, from a simple shaker with matching tray, to elaborate leather cased traveling sets with up to twelve pieces including a corkscrew and decanters.
Noted companies that produced metal shakers and bar ware included Gorham, Napier, International Silver, Chase, Revere and Manning-Bowman. Shakers were formed into the shape of a lighthouse, rocket, penguin, airplane, dumbbells and you name it. And most were made of silver, stainless, chrome, early plastic and/or glass.
Glass shakers in the shape of a woman's leg are classic. Noted glass companies such as Heisey, Hazel-Atlas, Cambridge and Hawks all made glass shakers.
Several iconic designers, including Russel Wright, produced sets that remain collector faves to this day.
Norman Bel Geddes' "Manhattan" shaker with footed glasses and a hi-style tray made for Revere remain the ne plus ultra of cocktail aesthetics.
After languishing for decades as a relic of the '30s, vintage bar ware became popular again in the 1990s, when new generations rediscovered the romance of cocktail culture.
The reader's chrome- plated model seen in a photo is a standard shaker dating from the 1930s or '40s. A decade or so ago, value would have been $50 or more. Demand for anything but the very best has cooled, and retail today is about $30.
Q: What is this?
- Denise
A: The reader's ceramic pig with rows of holes in the back is another cocktail item. Imagine a display of cocktail nibbles on toothpicks inserted into the holes. Voila! A cocktail porcupine.
In photos sent, it rests on, but is not attached to, a ceramic plate decorated with raised lily pads. Marked "Made in Japan," the plate has a center hole.
I question if the two pieces were originally together.
Art Deco items marked "Made in Japan" dating from 1921 to WWII are desired by collectors. But this plate is later, most likely from 1947-1952, when most Japanese goods were marked "Occupied Japan" or "Made in Occupied Japan."
Value today is as a collectible. Retail value for each is under $50, slightly more if the pig has a mark.
COLLECTOR QUIZ
Question: What American-made wristwatch did Elvis Presley wear in the movie "Blue Hawaii?"
Answer: Presley wore a Hamilton "Ventura," first made in 1957. Source: "Vintage Wristwatches" by Reyne Haines (Krause, $29.99). With large color photos and descriptive text, the book covers common to rare, ladies' to men's, antique to today, and simple to complex wrist timepieces - an attractive, easy to use reference with values.
AUCTION ACTION
When Bonham's held a sale of space history recently, a large Skylab model designed as an astronaut simulator brought $24,400. Designed for NASA, the all-metal model is 22 inches long. The sale of more than 290 lots contained objects and ephemera from all of the most memorable NASA spaceflight programs. Now that space exploration is increasingly privatized, expect values of significant NASA-era space artifacts to soar.
Send e-mail to smartcollector@comcast.net or write Danielle Arnet, c/o Tribune Media Services, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611.