May 2005
Apr 2005
Jan 2005
Feb 2005
March 2005
Dec 2004
Nov 2004
Oct. 2004
Sept. 2004
Archives -  Spring 2004
SHAWNEE TALES  by  Linda Romberg
July  2005
June 2005
Zanesville Pottery Lovers update
Doug's corner
  I want to thank Barbara Steinbunner for responding to my request on my website for pictures of cookie jars with under the bib decoration. 
  Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July. We have so many fires burning in Arizona that a lot of the fireworks shows have been canceled - last count was over 40 fires - one a major one that is threatening a large area of homes in the mountains.
  Ebay seems to have slowed down considerably with summer and people traveling. An unusual gold trim Lucky elephant is closing later this evening - he has the hand painted flowers in green and light orange - I saw one sell on Ebay a couple of years ago but it the only other one I have seen available. A few years ago I purchased a Smiley with hair from a shop in Pennsylvania after some friends called me about it - when I talked to the shop they didn't want to ship it and I had to do some pleading to have them take it to a pack and ship near them. I had recently had a jar arrived that had a bad lid and it broke the good base - well, I almost told them to ship only the lid as they were so concerned about wrapping it right and it making clear across the country. Well, when I opened up the package the first thing I see is the base with these rare flowers on it - was I thrilled - I had been so excited about the hair I never asked many questions about the bottom.

Lucky closed at $490 - a bargain in my opinion!
  Shawnee did a lot of unusual pieces, some that are very hard to find - they must have been very limited or possibly commissioned for a specific company and not introduced into the main line for distribution. Two pieces that do not go with any other pieces are the Tulip creamer and the larger Tulip ball jug pitcher. Very distinctive braid in dark blue around the neck of each pitcher. Beautiful pieces. Sad to say, not in my collection. To my knowledge, all of the ones discovered to date have come from the far North East area of the states and very few are known to exist. Little is known about these two pieces. Possibly the company planned additional pieces as in the Sunflower line but no one has found any other pieces to go with these two. These are terrific to compliment the tulip Smiley cookie jar.

  Doug found a current article on the Pottery Festival coming up in Zanesville. Would appreciate anyone who goes to report in and maybe send some pictures.
  I received an email from the cookie jar digest with information regarding Ebay and the fraudulent auctions. Barb Crews attended the Ebay seminar and said this is the first time she felt there is progress with Ebay dealing with this major problem. Will insert the information she sent out.

  eBay Live was quite the experience, it's full of folks that go for fun and hopefully to learn a thing or two. It is definitely geared to the seller, not much for the person who mostly buys, but it was still enjoyable. I had a chance to personally meet and talk with several of the category managers one-on-one, including the person in charge of the Cookie Jar/Pottery areas. And for the first time, I came away feeling that they are truly working towards solving some of the reproduction/fake issues. (I've been to two different meetings at eBay Headquarters in the past where I talked with them about this problem and both times felt like I was banging my head against the wall. Not this time!)

  They feel the biggest problem is finding someone or association that will be accepted by everyone as the expert. I can certainly understand this as a problem, as I've run into it myself. There have been times when sharing doesn't appear to be an option, but that's my personal opinion. Anyway, several names were bandied about and if these work out, it should go a long way to help this problem and come up with a solution. I will be going to the another meeting at the headquarters in September and hoping that there will be some progress by that time.
  For the cookie jar digest visit http://the cookiejar.net/

  There isn't a lot about Shawnee but a lot of terrific information for the cookie jar collector and often she has information about upcoming auctions across the country. There is a link on the site for archives for the past several years of newsletters
Until next month.

Lin                             Linromb@aol.com
< back
Lin,                    Looks like a decoration under the bib on this one too. Hmm ---
Doug