Rochester, Minnesota-Part I

Rochester, Minnesota, is the home of the famous Mayo Clinic and the Gold Rush Flea Market. More than 1,000 dealers were at the show, either inside buildings or outside on the grounds. As always, we found some collectibles that are often ignored. One dealer had a box of plastic letter openers printed with ads. Some had features like a small magnifying glass or ruler. Your choice, $1. The rulers with ads for automobile-related products or for important local events or landmarks were displayed separately at $3 each. The dealer said he had sold hundreds.

A bottle dealer showed us some baby bottles with applied color labels, most advertising dairies, insurance companies, or banks. She said the glass nursing bottles were given as gifts to new mothers. They were in six-pack holders, each with five nursing bottles and an extra bottle with a slotted cap to be used as a bank.

An art pottery dealer had a 24-inch blue vase with applied white deco-style Greek figures. It was marked “Ecanada” and priced $775. He was delighted that we knew about Ecanada Art Pottery Company, which worked in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, from 1926 to 1952. Most pieces look like Wedgwood jasperware. The Ecanada mark was used beginning in 1944. The dealer was also selling other lesser-known art potteries. An 8-inch Radford vase, textured gray with applied white decorations, was $395. A Norse candleholder glazed to look like metal was $550. An Owens flower-decorated brown-glazed vase was $365, and a lamp marked SBCD (Santa Barbara Ceramic Design) was $275.

Beige is the rarest color in Roseville’s Donatello line. One of the line’s large vases was first made with handles. Because the handles often broke in shipping, the piece was redesigned with no handles. Handles raise the price by about 20 percent.

The term chalkware has different meanings. The 19th-century plaster figures made to look like Staffordshire pieces are called “chalk” by old-time collectors. The 1930s-1990s painted plaster string holders, bookends, and other decorative pieces are also called “chalk.” They are often marked with the name of the maker and a date. A pincushion doll with a chalk top and fabric skirt, probably from the 1940s, was $49; a wall basket from the 1930s, $50; bookends with Hummel-style figures, $25; and a fruit centerpiece the dealer said she didn’t want to sell was priced $95.

An importer with containers of antiques from Europe had graniteware from Holland in the “chicken wire” pattern. It definitely looked like white graniteware wrapped in blue chicken wire. He also had a variety of baskets. We were surprised to see Swiss artillery baskets that still held empty artillery shells. Wooden Mexican sugar molds with cone-shaped holes were being sold to use as planters. There were hundreds of new iron items-stars, fencing, garden stakes, and reproductions of the Sherwin Williams Company’s trademark chameleon used years ago.

to be continued…