Featured What has happened to the pottery market?

I used to have American art pottery as a major portion of my retail mix. I sold many pieces in the $100-500.00 range and a few pieces even higher. These days, I can't sell any pottery over $30.00 unless I want to give good pieces away for a tiny fraction of their previous value. I have had 20 pieces in the $20-100.00 range in my retail space for about a year without a single sale. These are pieces that I have at about 1/3 of their previous value, yet still no sales. Niloak, early Brush-McCoy, Zanesville, Peters and Reed, and Weller in the $20-40.00 range. Early Haeger that is impossible to find and other pottery both domestic and foreign at what I consider good prices, just sits. About the only halfway bright spot I have seen is modern Van Briggle and McCoy at very reasonable prices. I gave up trying to sell Roseville, Rookwood, Fulper and any of the better pottery quite awhile ago. I am pulling the rest here shortly.

Comments appreciated. What are others seeing? Any hope for a rebound?

 

Hi Brad,
I put my art pottery to rest in the attic for a while. The prices have dropped so much nothing is selling. I wrote to Rago and he says unless the piece is so rare they will not handle it at this time.
greg

 

Unlike Beanie Babies, it will probably bounce back in the fullness of time, though probably not soon enough for the generally geriatric sellers on this board.

It's a full time job keeping track of what is hot and what's not, and I have a personal tendency to pay over the current odds for what was hot a few years ago, not really realising that the item is now unfashionable.

Since I am generally not buying to sell now, that is not really a problem, I can just buy stuff I like more cheaply. My heirs and assigns may be able to make a profit, I won't.

The only safe way to go is to pay peanuts for everything.

One exception is really fine items. For them, markets are much steadier, supply is small and demand is steady.

 

I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to buy such things but I do, somewhat, know the usual suspects when I spot them. I can only wonder what I've passed by.
~
What I would like to find a few of are pieces from NJ, especially from Jersey City, but have only seen one plate out here years ago...and didn't buy it.

 

Along this line,I bought a couple of Royal Doulton figurines for a few dollars thinking Id gotten a steal. Got them home,checked the prices on fee bay,and was astonished at the going rate ! Only the rarest of the rare is fetching good money,and my mothers collection,wich a few years ago (last time I really checked) was worth a little bit has lost 75% of their value ! My personal theory is that since China has flooded the pottery market with pieces that are hard to tell from the originals that its killed the market. That,plus those who were really into pottery and porcelains are either not spending or dying off.

 

There is an outfit called Ebay. People didn't know anything, but knew how to sell
the trash they were left after their parents died. So much good Art Pottery and Good glass were given away on Ebay. Their are only so many collectors for each collectable.

 

The bottom really has fallen out. I only buy bits of it if I want to live with them myself or have a recipient in mind. No point in buying it otherwise. Some glassware has gone the same way. The old collectors are dying off and the young ones don't want to deal with it.

 

recently bought a Mougin art deco vase from a German auction house for a third of the normal price.

 

I have a few inherited pieces that probably would have been worth a nice amount 10 years ago. I plan on trying to sell them this year even though it's likely to be disappointing.

Wish I'd sold them 10 years ago!

 

I've been using the weak art pottery market to add a few pieces to my collection. Pieces of Roseville Pottery that would have sold for $275-300 in 2005 are selling for under $100 today. Recently at a local estate auction I was able to pick up some mint condition pieces for prices ranging from $15 to $25 dollars. Granted they were common lines, I still think the price was too good to pass up. Recently I'm trying to limit myself to better patterns when buying Roseville. One of the Roseville Thornapple pieces that I bought for $60 still had the antique mall tag from the previous sale which was for $275, Yikes! The market for Rookwood Pottery seems to be a bit stronger than Roseville with the average common piece down only 50% or so in my limited experience. On the other hand Hull Pottery seems to have fallen off a cliff with pieces that used to sell for $100 locally sitting unsold for $25 in shops. McCoy seems to have fared OK but with the slew of reproductions out there I'm kinda wary of it.

Anybody think that the market for good art pottery will bounce back anytime soon or will the pottery market continue its death spiral for now? Some of the prices I'm seeing on nice vases are not really that much higher than brand new junk pottery in the big box stores.

 

As a teen in the mid 2000's I went to a lot of estate auctions with my parents who collected Roseville Pottery. There were a lot more collectors then, mostly elderly couples, and the competition for good pieces were fierce. I think now we are seeing those large collections created by those collectors being disbursed by uninterested heirs for pennies on the dollar. My parents and I knew an elderly couple that had accumulated over 1000 pieces of Roseville pottery in addition to substantial amounts of Rookwood, Hull, and Weller. The couple's children had no interest in collecting and saw the collections as junk.

 

Kids.....what can ya do.....you can't make them love the stuff you love....

 

I think there is probably a lot of current fashion involved too. Ceramics have always been subject to whims and popular styles. Don't know when art pottery might make a comeback, could be next year, could be next century. Maybe the styles in the next big movie or some famous person's taste in things will usher in change....who knows?

 

It aint coming back kids. Yesterday's collectors won't be resurrected.

 

Good stuff still sells. You can't pick up McIntyre period Moorcroft cheap, or Martinware or Tinworth/BArlow Doulton Lambeth.

 

People that would have been collectors yesterday, today are struggling to eat and pay the rent and worried about tomorrow. Collecting is the last thing a lot of the up and coming generation is going to do.

 

I agree that the economy is hugely responsible for the decline in prices for collectibles. Probably also for the decline in people bidding on auctions. When most people had disposable income, auctions were fun. When they can't risk getting carried away and bidding higher than they could afford, not so much fun.

 

Not too long ago I watched a number of the U.S. Antiques Roadshow episodes where they compared valuations from earlier shows to more recent ones. It seemed like most often the items that held their own had historical interest and/or fit the current popular home decor styles.

 

I'm actually having a little luck with more recently produced pottery. Marshall Studios, Turtle Creek, and Louisville Stoneware have all surprised me recently. I have picked up all three brands very cheap when they show up at local auctions and turn them for a nice profit. Granted they don't sell for three figures but still, if I can pick an item up for $5 and sell it for $40 I'm a happy camper. So I've started to pay more attention to the decorator market.

I do agree it's impossible to sell almost any pottery through a mall space. A lot of pottery sales around here were to out of state dealers who were able to mark up further and resell. Those folks are gone. And those of us still collecting have pretty mature collections and/or are out of space. In my case, I still pick up pieces occasionally but I wait for a bargain price. I know there's another one out there cheaper. As has been noted, for whatever reason new collectors aren't out there and collecting in general has fallen out of fashion. I have also noted, as 42Skeezix said, that unusual and old American stoneware is still an exception. Wish I knew that market better.
Don