Aug 2011
Shawnee Tales
by Linda Romberg
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The Dog Days of August are upon us - Doug just emailed to remind me it's the end of the month!!!!
Everyone knows that the “dog days of summer” occur during the hottest and muggiest part of the season. Webster defines “dog days” as... 1 : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere. 2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity.
That pretty much describes Arizona this time of the year but from the weather reports so many other areas of the country are experiencing far worse weather with high temps and humidity.
Have not had any reports of finds from collectors this month. I did talk to several people who attended Pottery Festival this past month in Zanesville, very little Shawnee to be found. Sounds as if it was more of a social gathering than pottery finds for our group of collectors.
Doug had an email inquiring about two apple Smiley's who happened to have yellow bibs. Likely the lids were switched at some point in time as have only seen the bases with red bibs - also if you note - the jar on the right has ordinary green colored leaves which I also have never seen or heard of - the apples always have the jade green leaves as seen on the base on the left. It is sometimes so hard to distinguish what is real and what is tampered with....... at first glance you notice there is no Smiley written in gold BUT that is typical, mine do not have Smiley written on the gold ones either. On both of these the gold appears authentic. The apples both seem to be lower in placement than the regularly seen ones. My advice is if the price is right, it is worth picking up jars like these. We never know for sure what came out of the factory let alone what lids and bases were mixed up at the retail stores - I have heard many stories of jars in families where a yellow lid is on the shamrock base or even a blue lid on a shamrock, who knows what the original buyers preferences were.
I had an interesting find last month - neighbors of mine who are quite elderly (in their 90's) moved in to assisted living. Knowing I enjoy plants, they told me to take whatever planters and gardening supplies I would like - lo and behold, they had a Shawnee planter among the items to be discarded!!!
The bottom is hard to read, but it appears to be from the Tiara pattern.
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Doug's Corner
Apples, plums, clover buds, scarfs and collars, decals and gold, it's too hot to think about it. We wouldn't have to worry about it if it was made last year by robots, every piece would be exactly the same. Sixty-five or seventy years ago pottery was decorated by hand, they all had different hands, thus some of today's dilemmas. Let me show you what I think a real clover bud looks like?
Click here for Clover Bud
