Feb 2018
by Lin Romberg
Shawnee Tales
I sympathize with all of you dealing with the harsh winter - Arizona has been unusually warm until the last few days cooling down to 50's and 60's. Back up to high 70's and low 80's. Hard to believe all the extremes across the country!!!
This month we are lucky to have an article on Snowflake by Cary - I really appreciate his contribution and pictures he included from assorted collectors - great information. I seldom see Snowflake and have only a set of mixing bowls from many years ago from a trip to Pottery Festival.
Snowflake Kitchenware is a very popular and collectable Shawnee kitchenware design made in 1941 to 1942. The design could display the amazing detail appreciated by collectors or could be hard to see the design depending on the painting and snowflake mold.The Snowflake can be found in either 6 points or 8 points and is usually always marked U.S.A. Snowflake was made in more commonly found standard colors including turquoise, yellow, blue, old English ivory, dusty rose, and harder to find white. Additionally, some pieces, including nesting bowls, were made in primary colors including burgundy, yellow, dark green, and cobalt blue. Originally the nesting bowls were made with the "grip", or ribbed top, which was to make it easier to handle. The bowls were later modified to eliminate the "grip" to accommodate a simplified design. Shawnee Snowflake is not as easy to find as it use to be, but is still available for those up to the hunt.You may find the sugar and creamers are easier to find which may be since it was reported that those were giveaways from the Procter and Gamble Company. Turquoise Snowflake is usually found most often, followed by other standard colors before harder to find primary colors.
Recently a Shawnee collector in the Midwest found this great set of salt and pepper shakers along with this beautiful cookie jar. It's still out there - you just have to go out to find it!
Here are some more pictures from some collectors including this hand painted floral cookie jar and an experimental pink larger creamer.
Featured here are the standard round edged nesting bowls along with the ribbed edged primary color nesting bowls
My Snowflake mixing bowl set is below.
Quite an assortment of some unusual pieces - so much yet to be discovered.
I had a sad experience this past week - bought vintage non-Shawnee jar that came shattered - the seller was actually surprised , but trust me it was the poorest packaging job ever - shredded paper with no cushioning at all. Sad to loss a spectacular jar from carelessness, non collectors don't know how treasured these pieces are. Here is a similar jar in different color variation and a piture of the packing material - needless to say it was shattered into pieces. I buy so little anymore, such a disappointment.
This information and anything else you want to know about Shawnee Pottery can be found in the Shawnee Pottery Full Encyclopedia by Pamela Duvall Curran.
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