Glass, china and pottery collectors and dealers are just beginning to become aware of the fact that there are paper pieces that can help them identify items - and often are nice decorative objects in their own right that they can frame or place beside it to advertise and identify the piece. Earlier cards are lovely and some even come as tobacco silks. It is some of the later period that we know less about, because many of these companies were small, regional companies or didn't last too long. Every now and then these companies mailed out post cards or inserted cards with price lists on them which are a micro- wealth of information.
For example, "Informal" true china by Iroquois gave out these colorful fold- over price lists. From this small piece of paper we learn that it is flameproof and would be replace for free if they broke. We learn that Informal was a design by Ben Seibel and what pieces were made and their cost. Set #745 was a 45 piece set and cost $69.95. This was probably in the late '50s or '60s. A 24 cup Samovar was only $19.00! This china was so durable and quality controlled that it was awarded the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.
Morris Jewelers gave away an 8 piece hand-painted Pastry service for free with any sale of $14.95 and valued this gift at $5. To top it off, this company said you didn't have to pay that $14.95 until 1960! And it was "in perfect harmony with festive, gay pastry serving occasions." Unfortunately, with apple and pear design, it doesn't have a pattern name on the card. If this is a set you have, wouldn't it be lovely in one of those small frames displayed with the set?
Canonsburg Pottery Company, which produced semi-vitreous dinnerware from 1900 to ? produced: Skyline Strawflower, Skyline Moss Rose, Skyline LaRosa, and Skyline Lynn which are all shown on a glossy chrome card.
Herend Porcelain produced the "Rothschild Bird" breakfast set, a pattern, "known in porcelain history for more than 200 years" and was being imported in and distributed by the John Mayer, Inc. store in NY City. The complete set? A hundred and five dollars and fifty cents and available by mail! Imagine having this set brought up to you on your breakfast tray as you sat propped up in bed or on you rocker or boudoir chair near the window reading your morning mail and await- ing the tardy arrival of your secretary! Well, that's how it is in the movies!
There are so many different sets of china, made by or distributed by small companies, that these small cards are priceless documentation for owners of the items or researchers. Provenance is fine, but knowing exactly what an item is, its name, manufacturer, age, and original cost are just as interesting. Sometimes flyers were sent out from companies about a line that they didn't get enough response from by their retailers and didn't bother to produce, so that only one or two sets might have been made. Companies do this even today.
Pictures showing factories such as Rookwood, Roycroft, Redwing, or items produced by companies like Hampshire Pottery, Corning Glass, New England and Sandwich Glass companies, even if they are sometimes not of the same period that the item was produced are interesting to display with those objects.
The more you know about what you collect, the greater your enjoyment, and for dealers, knowledge is everything. Sometimes that little bit of information that one gleans from these ephemeral little bits are what helps one score by knowing what something is. Guessing is one thing - knowing is another.
Many companies today that are making items are only using paper labels, or not marking them at all. Ten years from now, these catalogues that we are either throwing out or cluttering our shops and homes with, are going to be desirable, especially if those companies no longer exist. For example, the Drinkwater Company is no longer in business. I desperately want to know more about them, how many items they made and what these items sold for. All I know is they made neat stoneware kitchen witch figures and that we own or know of X amount of these neat kitchen witches. They are a company that hasn't been gone all that long.
What if you wanted to find out about items distributed by companies like Fritz and Floyd or Enesco. You would want their catalogues to be able to identify them or date them. Why do you think Hallmark ornament collectors keep those catalogues? Much of this modern, semi-modern items (1950-present) haven't made it into books. If you particularly want or need to know identification, it is much more difficult than one would think.
During World War II, when Dresden was bombed, all their records regarding the production of Xmas ornaments and figural light bulbs were destroyed. All the records of a major manufacturing town lost.
London during the Blitz lost irre- placeable records. Years ago I sent a listing to Tuck Publishing and asked if they could fill in any blank spots. Tuck wrote me a thank you note as they had lost everything and now they had at least a fragment. Could we send more?
Fires also wipe out a company's records and files as does relocation. Then, there are companies that couldn't care less, and are very nonchalant about their history. Sometimes they wake up and begin to reconstruct, while others never do. One company actually was offered an entire collection accumulated over 45 years of working for the company. Offered for free, catalogued and set up for display - and they turned it down! Many companies just throw out and burn stuff, including original artwork and all the documentation. With corporate buy-outs gobbling up small companies, and computer records that can crash, lost in cyberspace, deleted, or milleniumized, there will be just as great a crunch for documen- tation and information in the future.
The world can be grateful to pack rats, collectors, hoarders, rescuers, and those with a propensity for ensuring that some history will be salvaged, so you and I and later generations will know just a bit more about the items we collect and deal in today.