The last newsletter created a big stir among many of you regarding the fake auction listings on Ebay and generated a lot of emails to Ebay - at first I thought we might get some action but it has fizzled with Ebay's President Bill Cobb just dropping the ball. I am hoping to be able to get the current owner of the Shawnee name to implement some action as they may listen when someone's rights are being interfered with - they seem to feel that none of us are authorities on the pottery AND see nothing wrong with the elaborate tales the sellers come up with to scam unsuspecting buyers. Hopefully if we continue to bombard Ebay with reports of these unscrupulous listings, eventually something positive will happen.
Doug and I were talking about the rarity of some of the gold pieces in the PA Dutch and Sunflower line - I had only seen the Sunflower teapot it gold, none of the other pieces - in the PA Dutch there have been some of the teapots - the 27 ounce teapots most commonly seen but also some of the solid blue pieces - I am curious if any of you have seen other pieces trimmed in gold. Dick sent some pictures of teapots he has in his collection -
This past month there were a couple of solid platinum sunflower pieces listed that several collectors emailed me about questioning the authenticity. Prior to these listings I had only heard of the teapot being found in solid platinum. I emailed the seller who has in the past had a lot of nice Shawnee pieces, I had bought from him and know several others who have as well. He said he had not seen pieces like this before in all his years of traveling and collecting pottery but had gotten these at an auction in Indiana as well as two complete Cottage sets. The seller was quite concerned about the inquiries and added a satisfaction guarantee to the auctions. The bottom marking is shown in the pictures and as authentic as any I have ever seen. Goes to show there are pieces out there we have yet to come across in our travels!
There was a very unusual gold and decaled Smiley that sold last week on Ebay - this jar is one of three seldom seen Smileys with small pink flowered decals (not including the 2 jars larger pink poppies with gray leaves and the rose Smiley). Lots of bids and a beautiful jar.
I had a lot of emails stored on AOL and lost nearly all of them in an upgrade - will have to get back in touch with several people for some of the information that was lost as well as pictures I have yet to locate where they are downloaded!
Hope to see the participation and enthusiasm continue. Thanks!
