December 2005 Alerts on Confusing Collectibles

Watch out for reproductions of the Mayfair “Open Rose” pattern flat-bottom juice glass, 3 1/2 inches high. It’s the newest reproduction in that pattern. The others are the cookie jar, whiskey, 6-inch pitcher, and flat-bottom salt and pepper shakers. The fake juice glasses, found in either blue or pink, are heavier than originals and do not have a clear band of glass around the top. They also have raised ridges around the blossoms.

Little brass crickets were popular good-luck charms during Victorian times, thanks to the Charles Dickens Christmas tale, The Cricket on the Hearth, published in 1845 (two years after his more famous story, A Christmas Carol). Now you can buy a 3-inch-long antique-style brass cricket for your own hearth for under $10. These are copies of the insect, not the low wooden stool also called a cricket. The little hearth crickets are available from Victorian Trading Co. (victoriantradingco.com).

Two vintage metal cowboy toys are being reproduced. Schylling Toys of Rowley, Massachusetts, is selling copies of both the Roy Rogers and Lone Ranger tin-lithographed rocking toys. Each one features its cowboy hero twirling a lasso on horseback. The toys, 11 inches long, wholesale for $12.50 a pair. Schylling sells many reproduction toys (schylling.com).

If you’re a new collector of Currier & Ives dinnerware, join the Currier & Ives Dinnerware Collectors’ Club-or at least follow the club’s activities (visit royalchinaclub.com). At its annual convention, the club sells NEW commemorative pieces of the dinnerware pattern. New Currier & Ives pieces, distributed by China Specialties of Strongsville, Ohio, include a pie bird, rolling pin, cake lifter, and salad spoon and fork.