Antiques & Collecting: Many styles of Mitchell & Rammelsberg furniture

If you never lived in Ohio you’ve probably never heard of Mitchell & Rammelsberg furniture. The company started in either 1836 or 1847 in Cincinnati. It made top-quality Victorian furniture with hand carving and steam-driven woodworking machines making the parts. It became Robert Mitchell Furniture Co. in 1881 and didn’t close until 1940.

Pieces often were marked “M & R,” or the inside of a drawer might be stamped “Mitchell & Rammelsberg.” Only a few pieces of a bedroom set were marked, so many pieces today are identified by the design and quality of the work. The company worked in many styles, from Classical to Egyptian Revival.

It also made dining sets, desks, sofas, hall trees, occasional tables and other pieces. Buyers pay the most for mahogany and the least for walnut, but the design, carvings and trim also influence the price. A mahogany bedroom suite with bed, table, chairs and dressers sells for thousands of dollars today, but they are scarce.

I have a decorative porcelain dish marked “Not for food serving, may poison food.” I’m not sure if it’s an antique. Can you explain the marking?

The wording on your dish indicates it is not an antique. In 1971, the Food and Drug Administration set regulations on the amount of lead in glazes on ceramic dishes used for food. The standards have been revised since then and now also include regulations governing the amount of cadmium in the glaze.

Cadmium is often used in bright red and orange glazes. The words marked on your dish are a label the FDA requires on dishes that contain unacceptable levels of these metals.

Ceramic dishes made in Asia or Mexico, especially those with bright colors, are more likely to be unsafe than those made in Europe or the U.S. Acidic foods can cause the metals to leach out of the glaze if the dish hasn’t been fired properly and the glaze completely sealed.

Enjoy your dish as a decorative piece, but don’t use it for food. There are some unlabeled antique dishes that have high lead or cadmium glaze.

Current Prices

Occupied Japan toy, dancing couple, windup, celluloid, pink, blue, original box, 5 inches, $50.

Basalt bust, Shakespeare, collar, buttons, convex base, impressed Shakespeare, marked, 12 x 8 inches, $150.

Snuff bottle, Peking glass, turtle, white opal glass, cobalt coiled snake, gilt stopper, 3 inches, $375.

Ivory, card case, pierced, curved, people in garden, different scenes on reverse, 4 x 2 inches, $630.

Tip: Put a piece of plastic jewelry under hot water and, when warm, smell it. Bakelite smells like formaldehyde; celluloid smells like camphor mothballs; and Galalith, a 1920s plastic, smells like burnt milk. Lucite does not smell.