Antiques & Collecting: Spatterware

Spatterware and spongeware pottery are often grouped together, with the names used interchangeably. While they look similar, with color applied in patches of tiny dots instead of brush strokes, they are different techniques.

As the names suggest, spatterware was made by spattering paint with a brush or stick or by blowing it through a tube, and spongeware features paint dabbed onto the pottery with a sponge or cloth.

Spatterware and spongeware were made in England in the late 1700s and in Scotland by the 1800s. The most famous pieces were made in Staffordshire in the early 1800s and exported to America.

Collectors look for bright colors and designs reminiscent of folk art. Some popular designs have a picture, often a flower, house or animal, in the center of a plate and a spattered or sponged border. Others are entirely spattered or sponged in stripes or concentric circles.

Multicolored spatterware is often called “rainbow,” even if it has only two colors. With five colors in slightly slanted vertical lines, this mug lives up to the name. It sold at Conestoga Auction Company for $1,062.

Its unusual design and multitude of colors make it a rare design and very appealing to buyers, even with minor damage like a chip along the edge.

Q: I have a small painted opal glass box. Can you tell me anything about it?

Glass boxes like yours are often called dresser boxes, trinket boxes, powder jars, vanity jars and other names. As their names suggest, they were kept on dressing tables to store small items like jewelry, trinkets, hairpins or cosmetics. They usually had gilt metal fittings; some, like yours, had feet to match.

They commonly were used in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. This was the age of art glass. Glassmaking factories in Europe and North America experimented with new colors, finishes and decoration methods.

Opalescent, or opal, glass, which has a bluish-white or off-white color and slightly iridescent finish, was made by adding a heat-reactive chemical to the glass while it was molded, then reheating it.

Hand-painted designs, usually flowers, outdoor scenes or figures in old-fashioned dress were favored decorations on finished glass pieces; so were raised enamel patterns.

Boxes like yours tend to sell for between $50 and $100. Check the base for a mark; they are usually worth more if you can identify a maker.

Tip: Cups are best stored by hanging them on cup hooks. Stacking cups inside each other can cause chipping.

Current Prices

Castor jar, pickle, pressed glass, Daisy & Button, silver plate frame, lid, tongs, Victorian, 11 x 4 inches, $55.

Thermometer, Double Cola, Delicious In Any Weather!, dark blue lettering, red and blue graphics, thermometer to side, metal, working, 22 x 17 1/2 inches, $450.

Bank, building, yellow, green roof, brick chimney, Savings Bank, hand painted, tin, 5 1/2 inches, $510.