Antiques & Collecting: Art deco figurine

There have been many ceramic companies owned by members of the Goldscheider family, which can confuse today’s collectors. Friedrich Goldscheider moved from Pilsen, Bohemia, to Vienna in 1885. He started the Goldscheider Porcelain Manufactory and Majolica Factory, a company to make ceramics.

He hired famous artists including Michael Powolny, Demetre Chiparus and Josef Lorenzl, and the company soon had an international reputation for excellent figurines and other art deco pieces. Friedrich’s sons, Walter and Marcell, joined the company and the business became worldwide in the 1920s and 1930s.

But Hitler’s rules led to the family fleeing to England in 1938; their company was given to others, but was no longer successful. Marcell started a Goldscheider factory in Staffordshire.

Walter had a successful company, Goldscheider-U.S.A., in Trenton, New Jersey, after 1940, but he returned to Vienna in 1950 to revive their old company.

He closed it after three years and sold worldwide use of the Goldscheider name to Carstens, a German company. They used it until 1963. About 1988, Peter Goldscheider made a small number of pieces in Austria.

Recently, a major book about the Goldscheider family and their ceramics was published with more history, details, artists’ names, marks and pictures. The added publicity will probably encourage higher auction prices.

I have a chair that looks like it is made of long, curved horns. When and where were these used?

You have a very American chair. Chairs made of buffalo, elk or Texas longhorn steer horns were made from horns left behind at slaughterhouses or discarded by hunters. The horns had a graceful curved shape and when positioned carefully, they created a chair frame with a curved back, legs and arms. An upholstered seat was added and, in some cases, some trim from other pieces of horn. Matching footstools also were made.

The chairs were not made for comfort, but were popular with hunters and those who wanted memories of the old West. There are pictures that show President Teddy Roosevelt and President Abraham Lincoln both had horn chairs that were gifts. Your chair could bring $1,000 or more at auction.

Current Prices

Hall tree, Victorian, walnut, shaped back, mirror, metal coat hooks, lower section, open umbrella stand, drip pan, 1800s, 81 x 29 inches, $190.

Calendar, 1946, Huffman Transportation Service, patriotic glamour girl image by Rolf Armstrong, full pad, matted, frame, 36 x 19 inches, $260.

Match safe, silver plate, advertisement for Home Insurance Co. on one side, embossed fire pumper wagon on reverse side, c. 1900, 2 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches, $415.

Hooked rug, Shaker, squares, blue, red, green, brown and black cloth, layered, mounted for hanging, 1800s, 36 1/2 x 37 inches, $585.

Tip: To hang an old Coca-Cola tray, use a wire plate holder. The bent parts of the holder that touch the tray should be covered with plastic tubing. This plastic tubing is sold for use in fish aquariums.