Haviland China Collectors Articles and Information

When searching for an antique that is enduring in beauty and affordable, why not consider Haviland butter pats? Although the larger pieces of Haviland such as tureens, compotes and chocolate sets are rare and prohibitively expensive for most of us, butter pats are plentiful and reasonably priced.

It has been determined that Haviland companies alone designed as many as 60,000 dinnerware patterns – most with matching butter pats. The Haviland factories in Limoges, France manufactured china that was decorated in the French style of pastel floral motifs for the American market. The 1908 Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalog advertised a 100-piece Theodore Haviland dinner set, including 12 individual butter dishes, for $23.50! The mail order company offered sample butter pats, postpaid, upon receipt of ten cents to allow the customer to see "the beauty of the ware and the delicacy of the decoration." Today the same tiny piece would sell for approximately $25.

Throughout Haviland’s years of production, patterns and colors were carefully designed to enhance the numerous shapes of the blanks. These patterns and colorations ranged from the plain Wedding Band pattern to the aristocratic and elaborate golds, flowers of all genera, classical motifs, Art Deco and all in a multitude of shapes.

These charming miniature plates take minimal space and they can be creatively integrated into your decorating scheme. Butter pats make beautiful wall displays pieces, alone or combined with handsomely framed and mounted artwork. Try grouping an assortment of pastel Haviland butter pats around an Impressionist piece of artwork. The results are stunning! For a special dinner party, utilize pats as votive candle holders at each place setting. Diminutive Haviland pats have been seen on the tables of royalty and presidents, as well as the homes of fine china lovers everywhere. Why not make Haviland butter pats part of your table and home décor.

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Do Your Antiques Speak To You?

Born into immense wealth Henry Francis du Pont grew up in a home named "Winterthur," after an ancestral estate in Switzerland. As a youth, he collected birds’’ eggs and minerals on the Delaware property. At the turn of the century he studied horticulture at Harvard. Du Pont became as famous to gardeners as he is remembered by antiquers. He became captivated with American antiques and, by the time of his death in 1969, du Pont had amassed nearly 100,000 objects. Today, the stately home and the famous gardens he created are open to the public thanks to his passion for antiques and landscaping and his civic spirit.

Mr. du Pont became known to antiques dealers as a gentleman with an aristocratic mien who possessed highly personal and equally magical gifts. Legend has it that when he stepped into New York’’s exclusive antiques galleries, he was able to find important antiques that other collectors had overlooked. It was as if the decorative objects spoke to him alone. When he discovered a great example of early Americana he would exclaim, "It speaks to me." He was often seen holding his arms out in the manner of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster with quivering hands. Du Pont would, for a moment, set aside his upper-class sensibilities and shout out, "It’s mine! It’s mine! I’ll talk price with you later. I can’t talk now. It’s mine!"

We have heard tales of otherwise normal people who behave like whirling dervishes when that little voice says, "Come over here, you missed me." How many times have you been ready to leave a shop when that inner voice whispers "look again?" One of the thrills of collecting is the hunt. It helps if you develop the extraordinary magical gift of listening for your prized collectibles or antiques to speak to you.

My friend Dottie, who lives near Princeton spends most of her early retirement dollars driving around The Garden State hunting for 1950's toys. Her bumper sticker reads, "I Brake for Antiques!" Dottie’s finely tuned inner voice has been known to scream, "Get off at the next exit. Now!" She never thinks she has gone a bit dotty for inevitably she finds just the toy that she has been in search of for her collection.

Many collectors know the satisfaction of rescuing overlooked items from dingy antiques shops or flea markets. They heeded the call. We can share the sentiments of the writer Walter Benjamin, a collector of rare books. He explained that, "one of the finest moments of a collector is the moment when he rescued a book which he might have never given a thought, much less a wishful look, because he found it lonely and abandoned on the marketplace and bought it to give it its freedom––the way the prince bought a beautiful slave girl in The Arabian Nights." "To a book collector, you see, the true freedom of all books is somewhere on his shelves."

Another rare book lover is my attorney friend Marshall, who boasts that he intuitively knows when it is time to escape from the legal brief on his computer screen and log in to eBay. Marshall has developed that amazing sixth sense that tells him something spectacular is going down on the computerized auction site.

So, if you start hearing voices while you are shopping, or driving, or even working on your computer, maybe it isn’t time to check out your emotional health. It may just be a golden opportunity to seek out and obtain a new prized possession for your collection!

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Starting an Antiques Business

Antique dealing is always a friendly business, with endless opportunities to learn something new, great prospects and always that golden dream of hitting the jackpot. This month I will look at the structure of the antiques game, and give some advice on the smarter ways to set up.
In order to know what any given object is worth to a dealer, or a private collector, you need very good knowledge of that area, and the ability to check out the details before you buy.

Many dealers develop an “eye” for quality and sales appea, and buy all kinds of goods, thriving on variety. This can be a big disadvantage.

In my view, specializing always pays off in the long run. Firstly, you can get a reputation as an expert in just a few years, and secondly, you can “plug in” to your own little network of suppliers, dealers, collectors and speciality auctions. Thirdly, you will quickly learn where to go for research.

The largest sectors of the trade, deal in furniture, fine art (paintings and prints) and ceramics (pottery and porcelain). Competition is fierce, and you really must know your stuff if you want to avoid buying stock which nobody else wants, for some good but unobvious reason.

Other smaller sectors include the horologists (clocks and watches), silverware dealers, jewellers, glassware dealers and the sale of early weapons, armour or guns. In recent years, oriental carpets have had a great revival, and have joined the ranks of firmly established specialities.

Then there are the mini-specialities, all of them competitive areas in their own right: dolls and nursery furnishings; pipes and smokers’ requisites; old postcards and greetings cards; buttons; small wooden articles of every description, old mechanical items from musical boxes to balance scales; lace and early clothing. War items are also in great demand.

WINNERS AND LOSERS
The antique trade is run on very informal lines but it’s organized into armies, in which all the dealers are highly independent mercenaries. Here are some guidelines to help you use the system:

COLLECTOR/DEALERS
All dealers tend to hoard some of their best finds, but the dedicated collectors are compulsively hooked into a particular area. They usually work from home, buying their stocks by placing small ads in local papers, and attending house clearance sales, or auction rooms.

A collector/dealer will be very tight with his or her money, and know the precise value of anything they want to buy. If you get to know local characters and seriously want to sell items to them, you need to equip yourself with as many good sale room catalogues as possible, so you know the value of everything you sell to them.
                                                             
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Collecting antiques, collectibles, articles and information

In today's world, everything that’s old can be described as antiques and generally speaking that’s quite true. A product is considered to be an antique if it is over a hundred years old or is rare enough to have some value. In other words, these are old items that are in limited supply.

An antique is something collectible. It may be a piece of antique furniture that you want to collect to enhance the look of a room, or a piece of antique pottery to decorate a corner cupboard, or some antique books, antique camera and photographs, antique jewelry, antique money, antique car, antique clocks, or antique watches that you want to hand down to your grandchildren but the items must be rare enough to be considered an antique. The others are just secondhand goods junk. Most people have a common misconception about an antique: the older they look, the more antique they must be. Appearance has nothing to do with it, just because a piece looks like it came out of grandma's attic does not necessarily mean that it’s an antique. The value of an antique is based on demand due to suitability and limited supply.

Most people become fascinated in an antique for two reasons; either they have an interest in collecting antique purely for personal enjoyment and are willing to shell out money for antique restoration or they inherited it from a family member. The most common are antique pottery, antique car, antique furniture, antique books, antique camera and photographs, antique clocks, antique money, antique jewelry and antique watches. However they came about it, everyone wants to be sure of one thing that what they buy or inherit will escalate in value as time goes by. That is what antique collection is all about.

There are two main principles that apply when collecting an antique: The first is to know everything that you can about the antique that interests you and second is to obtain them at the lowest possible price. Doing so will not only give you satisfaction and enjoyment, but at the same time you will also be assured that your investment will appreciate in value.

Some people only developed an interest in antique because they inherited an item or a whole house full of antique from a relative. The dollar signs started to appear and they began their hunt for some antique appraisals and antique auction. But what most failed to consider is that much of what Great Grandmother had is probably just junk, unless she was a seasoned collector who’s into antique restoration or an expert in antique appraisals.

It’s true that people could have bought a piece of furniture to decorate their home a long time ago and that furniture, if it were of fine quality, would now be worth something. But only a professional appraiser can guarantee that, and appraising costs about $100-150 an hour. So if you are keen on bringing you item in an antique auction and contemplating about asking someone how much an item is worth, be prepared to shell out a few bucks for the information. Appraisers charge so much because they shoulder the lion’s share for insurance companies and lawyers settling estates. Although appraising is not an exact science, it still requires an appraiser to do lots of research and then prepare a detailed report that’s acceptable in a court of law.

Thinking about exploring the exciting world of antiques? Join us and utilize our resources in the treasure hunt for the exquisite. There is no membership required. Use the link below to get started today:


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Finding Antiques And Collectibles

There's often something in the house that has been passed down to from generation to generation that we often overlooked. It could be a jar or some vase. If you have something old that has been handed to you by your parents or grandparents, then you might one to check it out because sometimes this old piece is valuable. Such piece could be a collectible, antiques or a rare object.

Often there are people who collects such items either because of its aesthetic value or historic value. As the years pass, these old pieces tend to become more valuable especially if these items are kept in good condition. If your in possession of such items and do not care for or want such items, you bring it to an auction then people who collects and recognize their values could buy it from you. You could rake in big bucks if you happen to own a very rare object that is in mint condition such as paintings or even sketches of a master artist. Price of such objects could amount to millions.

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