May 2019

by Lin Romberg

Shawnee  Tales

  Spring is finally here!!!  A collector sent in a picture of flowers in vases along with some Shawnee pieces - beautiful way to use the pottery for display and function!  My Daffodils, Irises and Amaryllis are all in bloom and already a good start of this season's tomatoes. Fortunately Arizona has had a few months of beautiful weather.  We have already hit the 100 mark and yet all across the Midwest is getting late snow storms.

  An avid salt and pepper shaker collector of Shawnee pigs found a great set at a local estate sale that had been painted over with an ugly paint on the bibs - why anyone would do something is beyond me - here are the before and after pics - stunning pair.

  Collectors you need to be aware of the fake jars being listed and unfortunately sold on Ebay - doctored real jars with hair and another with what is described as artist enhanced butterfly as well as one yellow bib with newly added bugs but does have some vintage hand painted flowers on it.

  All of us or at least most of us will over pay on an item we really want but to get scammed hurts the hobby for all of us.   Several years ago someone was trying to sell a blue bib out of Pennsylvania  - pale blue bib with bright red hair - friends drove to inspect it and could/did scrape a bit of the paint off.

  Just this past month a jar listed on Ebay sold - had black stripes - I did not consider it to be hair but some did - the buyer posted all of the paint was able to be removed when the jar was received.  Genuine blue bib but heavily crazed. Sadly whoever is doing this is doing it on genuine jars so really confuses the collectors.

  Next month we would like collectors to send any pics they have of Shawnee ads or literature?   One of our readers suggested this - told him readers tend not to contribute - can you prove me wrong and step up to his challenge????  It's not a contest, just a show your stuff. - Doug

Something like this >

We'll have to wait until next month to see his other picture - come on readers send what you have!!!!

Lin                      Linromb@aol.com

These two fakes are from the same seller.

< To Odds & Ends

  Note to our knowledge the redheads are ALWAYS on green bibs, there could be exceptions but in forty years I have not seen one - have been found with three different bases, shamrocks, mums and traditional decaled base. Here are my pics of the three different reds.

A collector added a redheaded Smiley this past month - he is a beauty.