Summer break 2012

This past season was a bust, with Bob and I wondering just what to do in the future. Looking over our records, our income has been steadily dropping, even as we've diversified our offering. The local shows have frankly become pathetic, with several just a step away from a glorified flea market, but billed and recruited by promoters as Antique shows. Somewhere along the line the divide between the true junk for sale and the better quality but affordable pieces has turned into a chasm. What was reasonable has become overpriced, to be replaced by (dare I say) Chinese knockoffs and packages of athletic socks. It turns my stomach. I know my only future lies with the internet business, yet I am stuck in a quagmire of an overwhelming amount of inventory and where to start and how to keep track of it. I am encouraged lately by the internet sales, and to date haven't had a complaint that hasn't been easily resolved. It's a world apart from doing a show; just the physical effort is draining for both of us. I find it psychologically difficult to play "show and tell," negotiating great (really great!) prices on goods, only to have people say they are just looking and walk away. It's not a good market for a seller as far as face to face retailing goes, for us. I've been talking forever about putting more items on the website. Seems that any task that would benefit myself is destined to take a back seat, at least for this past, extremely stressful past year.

The image I chose for today is a Wedgwood Jasperware mini vase in a highly collectible sage green colour, produced in limited quantities and not every year. It features the familiar "Sacrifice" figures, the molds for the bas relief having been used for over 220 years. I like my history.

How the season is shaping up

PLEASE: no liquids near the keyboard.

We've had 2 sales this holiday season. One transaction was with a gentleman in Belgium for a Wedgwood Jasperware item on the website. Despite daily (and sometime, hourly) attempts on both our ends, we were both unable to make the eCrater e-commerce work to our mutual benefit. It took over four weeks of back-and-forth emails, some good faith, and more than a little bit of "so THIS is why the global economy is messed up" on both sides before the transaction was SUCCESSFULLY completed. AND the customer, despite initiating the business in the first week of November, was able to take receipt of the item before Christmas. It was a real nail biter!

The second sale, not so exciting, is also not so successful. Seven soup bowls of Queensware, again shipped and taken receipt before Christmas. Only the customer ordered the incorrect variation of the design (one has a smooth edge - what I've got and shipped him; the other has a ruffled or scalloped edge, which is what they wanted, but I haven't any of). So that sale is coming back for a full refund.

No matter how many photos you take, or how careful the wording is in a description, people will see what they want to see and read what they want to read. Especially when Christmas is 10 days away.

Wedgwood - where it's now made

It's confusing. Wedgwood was sold, became part of a conglomerate, smushed together with Waterford crystal and Royal Doulton. You go into a good department store, and yes, you can still buy newly produced items. They are *lovely*. They say "Wedgwood - England" on them. And NO, they are NOT made in England. Virtually all but premium manufacturing was outsourced (that must be one of the ghastliest modern terms coined) to Indonesia in 2009.

Quality is as good as anything produced in Barlaston. And yet - to mark these goods with the country name "England" is misleading.

To be clear: "Made In England" backstamped on items means the Wedgwood piece was made in England. "Wedgwood - England" is amorphous and is not an indication that it was made in the UK. For the record, Time Travelers deals only with the former, and passes on the latter. We do so primarily due to the age of the items we buy and sell. We also do it, though, in solidarity with the spirit with which the original company was founded.

Here's a link to the Wedgwood family blog, and their views on the state of what eventually befell the family business:

http://wedgwoodfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/production-has-no-wedgwood-family.html

The photo of the lilac Jasperware 3-part tea set dates to 1959, when this delightful color was produced in limited quantities. The date stamp on the "Brewster" shape teapot is clearly marked, and makes this a desirable and unusual find. So often pale colors (in my opinion) used in Jasperware don't do the bas reliefs justice; but this is not the case with this lovely set.

Workin' on the website

Nobody's harder on yourself than you. Boy, don't I know it. Having made several starts in good faith, going as far as sifting through entire boxes of inventory and picking out the pieces that I wanted to add before others, I then did - nothing.

Well, not exactly NOTHING. We hauled the tub of stock upstairs so I could start taking pictures. It's a big box. Takes up a lot of room; not an attractive addition to the living room. This was at the end of April. And you know, Life happened. (No excuses, other priorities made themselves known and we took appropriate action.) Life is still happening, what do you know? But I'm making the motions now to start adding more items to the eCrater store.

I have been in touch with another antique dealer friend of mine, someone with similar interests, and offered to carry some of her items in our store too to diversify her business model as we have. Of course, the offer was made right when I stopped doing work on the website, which compounded my feelings of guilt. But now I'm starting to schnibble away at the project; I'll never consider it work as long as I have the passion for the items we collect and offer for sale, which is the best part of all.

(I'm a little weary of this "baby steps" stuff, though - sheesh!)

And, from my friend's items added to the website, I present the double egg cup. This one is from Wedgwood Edme, in the "Conway" pattern. From the website description for the item: "The double egg cup from Wedgwood has several supposed uses. One is to protect a second soft boiled egg and keep it warm while the first is being held in the smaller of the two cup openings. Another is to provide a secondary type of consuming the soft boiled egg - in the larger cup, the soft egg can be scraped out of the shell and mixed with salt and pepper, and eaten with a spoon. In my house growing up, we thought the purpose was to serve juice in the large cup - and when we were done, the cup was turned over to serve the soft boiled egg in. (That seems to have been a use particular to our family!)"

Enjoy.

Finds of the week - yes, from the same place

The first is the most impressive personal collection of Wedgwood Queensware I've ever seen, anywhere. I received advance notice of an estate sale and was able to procure this incredible, *131* piece collection of the cream-on-lavender dishes, with a few lavender-on-cream. It comprises 12 5-place settings with a generous number of serving dishes: platters, oval bowls, a covered casserole, a gravy boat, cream and covered sugar, ashtray and cigarette holder (used as a toothpick holder and tray), and 2 different styles of soup bowls, 6 of each.

My understanding is that the owner's mother acquired them in the 1960's and 70's. The condition of these dishes is excellent - there is a single cup that bears a crack; everything else is pristine.

Queensware was developed by Wedgwood for Queen Charlotte, who was so delighted with the result that she allowed the design to be named in her honor. It has been in production ever since - that is, up until the company's recent journey into receivership (the British term for bankruptcy). A private venture firm has purchased the company, but the future of Wedgwood remains uncertain.

And then there's this other acquisition. This would be a musical, mechanical, casket shaped cigarette dispenser. When wound up and the wooden button depressed on the side, the "Death March" plays. Open the top of the casket and a single cigarette is presented as the music is played. I can't say I'd ever seen one of these before! (And from the same estate.)

A special addition to the website store

I'm very happy to add this beautiful, 1930's era Wedgwood Blue Dip tea set, in the St. Louis shape, to the Time Travelers store at eCrater. Items such as this come up rarely at auctions such as Bonhams and Sothebys, and we're thrilled to have found the set and have it on offer. It's in perfect shape and was obviously in the care of a loving collector before we came across it.

This link takes you directly to the item in the store.

Still in the process of transferring files from the eMac to the new laptop. Yesterday spent a LONG time moving all the photographs of items in the inventory over; important, because I still want links to work on tools like Squidoo and this blog, so I need the source files in the right places.

I rediscovered another resource for my Wedgwood knowledge in the course of going through my old bookmarks, too; and that's a comprehensive listing of the color names and visual representations of the Jasperware that Wedgwood has ever issued - what a wonderful tool. It's the Wedgwood Jasper Color and Date Guide, and there's the link to it.

Whew! What a lot of work for a morning - time for a cuppa tea :-)

I had a busy week!

Three sales this week - I am flush with success. Two teapots and a book, and I'm so happy that the eCrater store is truly bustling - and that the listings on Amazon have come back to life. Something having to do with the school year starting up again, I think.

I do hope that the customers are pleased with their purchases. That's the only suspense of shipping the items off - I don't get to see their happy faces when they open the boxes.

Bob came back from a business trip (er, that would be with his day job) with treasures that he found at an antique shop in Savannah that was having a moving sale. Some Wedgwood Jasperware - great! - and a pile of interesting photographs, which I'll take the time to sort through, slip into protective plastic sleeves, and leave for others to wonder just who the people in the pictures are...

Quite a nice bunch of stuff

The estate sale we went to couldn't have been better. Close to home, and just overflowing with lovely, well cared for items that had seen a lifetime of love. We whizzed through the home and quickly built up a pile of some very special things to take away with us.

I took a quick photo of what we found. Briefly - some Wedgwood Jasperware ashtrays, including a Winston Churchill, and, to my delight, a Canadian 1967 Confederation one (which you had to know what it was just by the abstracted symbol of a maple leaf on it - no mention of Canada or 1967 at all). I was tickled pink to find it, because I'm a closet 1967 memorabilia collector. Also a covered trinket box, and a horse and chariot ashtray, both in the classical Grecian relief that you often see on the Jasperware pieces.

Silverplate - some serving pieces, like a large ladle, a small lade, a cake server, a sauce boat, and a sugar and creamer set. All terribly tarnished, but with TLC, some time and my favorite silver polish, they will all soon be gleaming, and will command decent prices.

A very pretty hand painted teapot in a soft teal color with gold handle and spout. So pretty and a practical size.

A covered cheese dish - something you just don't see any more. Very old, most definitely antique. It's lightly crazed all over and does have some staining from age, but I don't think it's a detraction. It's a special piece and in great condition.

A Stangl 1960's flower vase. I'm just starting to learn about and appreciate American pottery, and I'm glad I spotted this tucked away in a china hutch at the sale. It's in some very "Florida" colors - turquoise and gold - and still has the label on it from the factory. Mint condition.

A Venetian glass decanter set. Something special for company in a deep turquoise glass with gold lace decoration. It has all 6 glasses present in the set.

We also picked up a covered casserole dish that caught our eye, cream with green relief decoration. It just looked like something that people might like.

So that's the shopping for today. We are really pleased with what we found!