POUNDWISE Padrayla Holdsworth answers readers’ letters Jan/Feb 06

Dear P.H. I am writing to ask for help in identifying this vase! The ‘British Crown’ trademark and the word ‘POMPEYI’ printed on the base both puzzle me. Is it possible that this refers to Portsmouth, or perhaps it could have been made in Italy and refers to Pompeii? The vase is one of a pair, the other is damaged. It is stoneware not porcelain, 12” high and at least 60 years old. Its decoration is a stylised depiction of flowers and flow- erheads, many of them embossed. The many colours are: dark pink, dark turquoise, pale yellow, pale grey, gold highlights, brown edging, cream background and the glaze is slightly crazed. J.B. Birmingham

Dear J.B. If you can help us identify who is responsi- The style of the mark you have drawn so beautifully sug- ble for this vase, please write to us at: gests one of the Staffordshire potteries. As far as I can tell no Antiques Info, Wallsend House, PO Box 93, one has been able to pinpoint who was responsible for this Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 3YR. range, which is loosely based on the wares of the Hungarian factory of Zsolnay, Pecs. Examples are not always marked with the ‘Pompeyi' mark and some simply bear a decorator’s hand painted mark. A likely date would be circa 1880. We shall publish your letter and incredibly accurate drawings in the hope that a reader can help solve the mystery.

Dear P.H. Dear P.H. I am an avid reader of Antiques Info, I buy every issue and have This silver paircase pocket watch, serviced and working, has a painted, ordered your four Price Guides. I have just started dealing at enamelled dial of a farming scene. It measures 56mm by 27mm and fairs, mostly in Essex, and whereas I have never been asked for carries silver hallmarks for , 1859. The movement is signed a ticket or a card, I have been told that if I traded in Kent I would ‘Jas Usher - Lincoln No. 453 Casemaker HWG 5’. Its cases are solid need one. Please could you tell me what this ‘card’ is, what it is silver, it has an enamel dial, brass movement and an iron chain. It was called and how I could apply for one? valued at £200-£300 in 2003, and my question is should I repair the Jimmy. damage to the split outer paircase? It also bears a fine hairline crack on Dear Jimmy, the dial and surface scratches to dial glass. About 5 years ago, a Kent Bill was passed in parliament. This P B. Chesterfield required all dealers trading in the county to be registered with the Dear P.B. Local Council. Local Councils issue Certificates for free and This is an attractive but not particularly unusual watch. I do not recom- these must be displayed at all times, for example if you exhibit mend having the case and dial repaired as the cost would be more than at a Kent fair. Trading Standards police the bill - and in fact were any ensuing increase in value. Prices for this type of watch have not present at a fair we attended recently. For more information, ring increased since 2003. In fact if anything the condition would mean a the helpline on 08457 585497 between 10am and 4pm. slight decrease in value during the last two years, as money has tend- ed to be concentrated in the purchase of rarer pieces in perfect condi- tion. I suggest a retail value of just £200 to £250.

Far right: a close up of the enamel display depicting a farming scene. Right: the brass movement. Above: the watch carries a label ‘James Usher & Son, Cornhill Lincoln’. Valued at about £300 in 2003, how much is it worth in today’s market? Dear P.H. A sample of Villeroy & Boch antiques from our I recently bought at auction a beautiful vase by Villeroy & Price Guide databases. Boch, circa 1870, but have so far failed to find out any information on the company. Please could you provide me with any information? S.W. Ashford Dear S.W. Today Villeroy and Boch is a large multinational company specialising in such things as sanitary ware (baths, sinks etc), tiles, glass, cutlery and tableware. They have factories in a number of European countries while their headquarters is at Mettlach (Rhineland, Germany) in the buildings of the former Benedictine Abbey, originally acquired by the Boch family in 1809. Villeroy and Boch lidded jug, The origins of the firm go back to the eighteenth century German early 20thC, shoul- when, in 1748, iron founder François Boch started ceramic dered form, neck enriched with production at Audun-le-Tiche in the Duchy of Lorraine. A Dear P.H. applied fruiting vines and pan- further more industrialised enterprise was started by the Please could you provide me with an approx- els of script, the body with a family at Septfontaines in Luxembourg in 1767. Nicolas imate value for this enamel pill box with procession of peasant figures. Villeroy commenced production of earthenware in Foot restored. Height 39cm. white and blue painted flowers? It was pur- Rosebery’s, London. Jun 05. Vaudrevange (known today as Wallerfangen) on the river chased in Germany during the Second World HP: £75. ABP: £88. Saar in 1791. His company merged with that of the Boch War by my father. It is engine machined with family in 1836. During the remaining part of the nineteenth painted enamel and possibly silver on a brass century the company developed new lines, including terra- or bronze base. It measures approximately cotta, porcelain and parian and had considerable success in 38mm high and 45mm wide, and the inside of both home and overseas markets. Villeroy and Boch took the lid is inscribed ‘September 1912’. On the over a factory at Schramberg, Wurttemberg which pro- rim of the lid, marks include ‘BC’, ‘935’ and duced porcelain, earthenware and majolica in 1883. It may an indistinguishable maker’s mark followed be there that your vase was made, but it could have come by ‘Franz Hiess u. Sohne Wien’. from the Mettlach works or one the firm ran in Dresden. J.M. Wokingham. You will note that some of the geographical areas where the company owned factories were those areas contested Dear J.M. Pair of Villeroy & Boch blue between France and Germany during the two World Wars. The enamel pill box appears to be silver gilt. and white baluster vases, deco- Franz Hiess and Son of Vienna appears to rated with foliage and boats, on As a result of the disruption, damage to and loss of facto- octagonal bases, marks, 13”. ries the first half of the twentieth century was a troubled have been the firm responsible for distribution Gorringes, Lewes. Jan 04. time for the company. However in recent years it has as opposed to being the actual manufacturer. HP: £90. ABP: £105. picked up and gone from strength to strength. They seemed to have specialised in high qual- ity decorative items of this type. I suggest a retail value of £100 to £125.

Dear P.H. I have a number of limited edition hunting prints: ‘Merry and worth a guinea’, ‘The huntsman loves the hound’ and ‘Happy are they who hunt for their own pleasure’. The first is numbered ‘313/500’, the second, ‘321/500’ and the third ‘217/500’. All carry the print- ed signature ‘Snaffles’ in the border. All prints are unframed and in fair condition, and it appears as though they have never been framed but placed in storage instead. I imagine that they are worth around £5 each. Can you provide me with any further information? J.C. Gillingham

Dear J.C. Printed signatures on apparently limited edition Snaffles prints point to a fairly recent product. These are however quite sellable and have a retail value of £30 to £40 each. Original prints with the titles you mention signed in pencil on the surround are worth £400 to £1,000. Sometimes the pencil signatures can be mistaken for printed ones, so one has to be careful! Dear P.H. The two smaller plates pictured here measure 7” in diameter and are clearly marked ‘Quimper’. The larger, measuring 9”, is marked ‘H R’ and I had always assumed this to be Quimper as well. I wonder if you could confirm this for me. I find Quimper quite difficult to date, and perhaps you could also help in this respect. S.B. Woodbridge

Dear S.B. I consulted Quimper expert Ivor Hughes about your query and he replied as follows: The manufacture of faience (tin glazed pottery) was recorded in the Breton town of Quimper as early as 1690. It was only from the mid to late nineteenth century that there was an upsurge in the production of decorative pieces. Amalgamations and off- shoots aside, there have been around six major producers in the past 150 years. The Henriot (HR signature) factory was founded at the end of the nineteenth century. Their earliest mark was HR, then HR Quimper and then, from 1922, Henriot - or HenRiot Quimper. In the 1980s they were amalgamated with their main rivals BB, when variations of the combined signatures were used. It can be very difficult to date or attribute pieces of Quimper from the marks alone. Quimper producers sometimes adopted earlier marks. Other towns sometimes tried to present their own marks so they might be mistaken for Quimper. Some of the better Quimper production bore reference only to the intended town of sale or the purchaser. On top of all that, the pieces were decorated by hand. There was nothing to stop any artist signing their piece in such a way as to show it was their work. Or they may have been in a hurry, or left-handed. Around half a dozen books on the market, all US published, include a comprehensive table of marks and dates, which are compiled under the auspices of the Quimper Museum and constitute an excellent starting point.

Dear P.H. I have what I believe to be an original 1888 first edition copy of the Boek of Newcassel Sangs collected by Joseph Crawhall and I wondered if you could give me some idea of value and where it might sell well. Joseph Crawhall’s intention in this book was to preserve ‘the best representative “Newcassel Sangs” by deceased poets’. The book is in good condition considering its age, the pages are quite a heavy paper and, although slightly brown at the edges, are not damaged at all. The cover is very simple with the Newcastle shield on the front and the words ‘TOLLE: APERI: RECITA: NE LAEDAS: CLAUDE: REPONE.’ and the price. ‘NEW- CASSEL SANGS’ is printed down the length of the spine. On the back is an engraving of a multi-arched bridge over a river. The only real damage is to the corners of the cover, which are a little scuffed. The cost of print- ing the ‘Sangs’ was covered by 120 subscribers committed to buying a copy for 12s 6d (later reduced to 10s 6d). The book contains the words of 38 songs, with the author’s name, date and music where available and there are over 120 illustrations. There is also a ‘Fore-speech’ by Joseph Crawhall, a copy of the original letter printed in the press requesting subscriptions, and a list of the subscribers. In addition, pasted in the front is an original memorandum to A.W. Tuer, dated 30 August 1888 from the publishers, Mawson, Swan & Morgan, and a receipt for the purchase of a copy. Tuer was one of the original subscribers and, himself, a well known pub- lisher. At the back, there is a handwritten letter from Crawhall to Tuer, dated 23 September, regarding a possi- ble further printing. S.T. Wakefield Dear S.T. Chris Albury, Valuer at Dominic Winter Book Auctions, (The Old School, Maxwell Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN1 5DR, Tel: 01793 611340, www.dominicwinter.co.uk) comments: “We think this might make up to a max- imum of £150 at auction. The fore-edge of the board looks somewhat browned but otherwise it appears to be in reasonable condition. It is helped by the inscription too. There is demand for the Crawhall books, some of which are signed limited editions. This does not appear to be so, although I wouldn’t think the print run was any greater than those anyway, so your copy is still reasonably uncommon for sale.” An alternative would be to sell at a northern saleroom. Tennants of Leyburn obtain good prices and they have occasional specialist cata- logued book sales. Michael Elston of Tennants tells me that the book department has national and international customers. They do tend to have good local topography sections, but also handle all other types of books, manuscripts, prints and photographs. (Tennants Auctioneers, The Auction Centre, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 5SG. Tel: 01969 623780). My feeling is that your best bet, if you are prepared to wait, is their next specialised book sale in March. Let us know how you get on! An 8” tall hand painted Chinese porcelain vase intrigued its owner. Purchased at a local auction house, it is marked underneath with a four character mark. The condition is not perfect as it has two inch long hairline cracks inside the neck, but the decoration is lively featuring Chinese zodiac creatures. Although very attractive, it is relatively recent, being of twentieth century date and therefore worth only about £50 retail. The marks are interesting. There are four from what would originally have been a six figure mark for the reign of the Ming emperor Xuande (1426 to 1435). His name is included in the mark on the base of this vase, but the Ming dynasty mark and the mark saying “great” have been omitted. Thus it reads Xuande Nian Zhi (Xuande Period Made).

Left: This is an attractive Chinese hand painted vase, but when These Xuande reign marks are not to be was it made? believed: this vase is 20th century.

This oil painting of Loch Awe Kilichin Castle is an example of an intriguing phenomenon in the art world. Measuring 12” X 20” it was bought at auc- tion for a mere £70 in 2004 and bears no damage. The owner discovered that the signature W.Richards which appears on the picture was the pseudonym for Francis E. Jamieson (1895-1950), an artist whose output was prodigious. He chose to paint under numerous pseudonyms, but not through a desire to avoid flooding the market with original Jamiesons. Rather it was because he had signed a contract restricting him to painting scenes on furniture for particular furniture stores. He ceaselessly painted Scottish highland views under a variety of names. As well as W.Richards, there was J.McGregor, Stanley Penn, A de Perrin, Graham Williams, Henry Stewart, H.B. Davis, Phil-Hipps and Aubrey Ramus. Prices for his work have risen in recent years, making this purchase a Not to be bound by his contract, Francis E. Jamieson painted this and many other very astute one. The picture has a current retail similar works under a pseudonym. value of around £300 to £400.

A famous sculptor, Hamo Thornycroft R.A (1850 to 1925) created this bronze plaque. A son of famous sculptors, he is well known for This bronze his statue of outside the Houses of Parliament and plaque was a for the familiar Mower and Sower figures in . The prize in a plaque measuring 11” X 6.5” is inscribed at the top ‘Open Horticultural Championship - Horticultural Prize’. Inscribed at the bottom are the Show back in words ‘Presented by Toogood and Sons Ltd, Seedsmen to H.M. The the nineteen King’ while along the lower right border is ‘Hamo Thornycroft, twenties. 1921’. The owner purchased it at a fair along with a large photograph in an oak frame of the plaque being exhibited with the other prizes at an old horticultural show. Plaques like this look more exciting than they are because clearly a number of them were produced and several have come on the market in recent years. I have seen some quite widely ranging suggestions for values for these plaques, but am Designed by Hamo inclined to feel that a fair retail valuation for his one complete with photograph would be £80 to £120. Thornycroft, this plaque was Anybody suggesting a much higher figure may well be unaware of the number of these there are about and presented by the Toogood that one sold for a mere £32 at auction less than two years ago. seed company.