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New Books for Collectors
—
April 2008
Solid-Colored Dinnerware:
Depression to Mid-Century
by Mark Gonzalez
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
The newly released Solid Colored Dinnerware reference book provides a rainbow of items for the collector.
Virtually all of those delightful dinnerware lines are included from the middle years of the nation’s 20th century. It revisits those dandy decades from the 1930s to the 1960s when American-made solid-color dinnerware graced tables around the country.
Most collectors agree that it was the popularity of Depression glass that steered potteries in the direction of colored glazes according to author Mark Gonzalez.
“Towards the late 1930s, the older Depression glazes were replaced by one or two sets of colors,” notes Gonzalez, “the bold Fiesta-types and pastel glazes. The Fiesta-type glazes remained popular until the late 1940s when they were replaced by darker, more modern colors. Pastel glazes continued to be popular and by the 1950s companies were making speckled glazes.”
Certainly it is all here in this splendid volume. Specific chapters deal with Atlas Globe, Cronin, French-Saxon, Knowles, Mt. Clements Pottery, Homer Laughlin, Shawnee, Steubenville, Red Wing, Royal China, Paden City, Taylor Smith and Taylor, and Universal Potteries.
Homer Laughlin alone spawned a rich array of solid-colored dinner ware including Dover, Fiesta, Harlequin, Kraft Blue, Rhythm, Tango, Virginia Rose, and Wells. All are represented among the book’s 500 full color illustrations.
Solid-Colored Dinnerware: Depression to Mid-Century by Mark Gonzalez, softcover, illustrated, with prices, 176 pages is $29.95 plus shipping from Schiffer Publishing, 4880 Lower Valley Rd., Atglen, PA 19310.
Antique Vienna
Bronzes
by Joseph Zobel
Reviewed by Robert Reed
(Antique & Collectible News Service)
 |
The book, Antique Vienna Bronzes, is a virtual Noah’s Ark of vintage cast treasures of the animal kingdom.
Written by veteran collector and dealer Joseph Zobel, the volume offers information and illustrations on hundreds of bronze objects of art. Generally, the finely detailed objects were fashioned in Austria starting the latter 19th century.
Full-color photographs include dogs, cats, horses, bears, bulls, snakes, camels, mice, pigs, squirrels and even human figures.
Made in that country’s small factories and private artist studios, they were inspired by French sculptors according to Zobel.
“The bronzes were cast using wax or plaster models,” notes the author. “Once casting was completed, they were finished with details added by hand.” Zobel points out that the ultimate stage of the bronzes involved chasing, the use of a tool to suggest texture in the metal. The more complex pieces were cast in sections and then attached.
Such small bronze figures were exported to eager markets in various parts of the world including New York City. Zobel, who has been studying Vienna bronzes for over 40 years, does a creditable job in explaining the public’s continued fascination with those artifacts.
The book’s high-quality color photographs of more than 650 Vienna bronzes cannot help to bring attention to any manner of bronze figures, which still attract collectors. The prices provided for individual Austrian renderings in the book may give the reader a gulp, the overall result is a very fine reference.
Antique Vienna Bronzes by Joseph Zobel, hardcover, color illustrated, current values, 256 pages, is $79.95 from Schiffer Publishing, 4880 Lower Valley Rd., Atglen, PA 19310.
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