Hope everyone is enjoy Springtime - Arizona is already hot but beautiful with everything in bloom including the desert!
So happy this month that a reader/collector shared their collection and story about how they began. Readers are always happy to hear the stories of how others began collecting and our mutual addiction.
"Attached are pictures from Pam Curran's paper newsletter, Vol 7 No 5. My daughter, Mary Kees, submitted the article. (in part, reference to a lamp, seen below in Doug's Corner) Since that time she no longer collects Shawnee. I also no longer go on Shawnee collecting trips or watch eBay. If I happen to see an antique store on other trips, I still check to see if they have any of the 'hard to find' pieces that I don't have. The baby in the Newsletter picture is now a Junior in college.
I originally collected oak furniture. While looking for furniture, I spotted a Red Wing blue monk cookie jar that I liked. A friend at work had purchased a Shawnee Puss'n Boots cookie jar the same weekend so we had a 'show and tell' day. After that I watched for Shawnee. In the earlier years, my husband and I went on 2 or 3 day shopping trips in Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota. My husband said that if he ever really messed up, he thought he would be able to get forgiveness by taking me on a Shawnee shopping trip.
On longer vacation trips to other areas, we would also check a few antique stores. In later years, I watched for Shawnee on eBay. My biggest disappointment was winning a 'hard to find' cookie jar on eBay which arrived broken. Insurance covered the cost but I never found another jar like it.
When we purchased a new home 9 years ago, one of the things on the 'must have' list was a large room to use as a dedicated Shawnee display room. In the old home, pottery was scattered throughout a number of rooms. Our realtor insisted that we remove all the pottery before showing the old home and offered to let us store it in her garage. We packed over 800 pieces to put into storage along with the display cabinets. After we had possession of the new home, we moved it all to the Shawnee room in the lower level. About 6 weeks later, we had a 'once in a 100 years' rain and had about 1 inch of water in the lower level. In order to remove and replace the ruined carpet, we again packed over 800 pieces of pottery and moved the display cabinets a third time.
Several years ago, when our local Quester chapters hosted the State Convention, the Shawnee collection in my home was one of the featured tour sites. I have also presented programs on Shawnee pottery at meetings of several local Quester chapters. "
Closer pictures of these cabinets can be seen Here
Another long time collector has a daughter who is following in her steps collecting LRRH. While on an outing they recently found a Sunflower creamer for a bargain price
"We were out looking yesterday, and my husband said he always thought the sunflower was Shawnee. I assured him it was. He had this creamer in his hand, and it has a Harmony House sticker on it. I'd never heard oh Harmony House. We're they someone who did decorating for Shawnee? Or is the sunflower stuff not Shawnee? Or are they someone who does cheap knock- offs? This is heavy like Shawnee, and has the USA in the bottom. I have all my other sunflower packed away, so have nothing handy to compare it to. Wondered if you'd ever heard of Harmony House being on Shawnee."
My understanding is Harmony House was a china company that distributed various lines of pottery and china. I checked Pam's book as knew she showed the Essex China label but didn't find any with Harmony House.
On another of her excursions found a couple of real bargains - just enough to get her collecting again!!!! "Ran into a junky little joint today and found big chanticleer shakers for 3.00. Same person had Shawnee milk cans for 15.00, so obviously didn't know these were Shawnee.:
Do any of our readers have other pieces with Harmony House labels on them? If so we would love to see pictures - also of any pieces with less common labels. I laugh because when I was younger and long before I collected - I would have soaked off the labels without giving it a thought!!!
The two pages below were published in Pam Curran's Exclusively Shawnee Newsletter of the late 1990's - early 2000's.
And the reward for keeping your eyes open is -