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Message:: [QUOTE="afantiques, post: 185083, member: 25"]I posted this in anther place, but it is relevant to so many questions posed by members that I thought to re-post it here. =================================================== The thing about antiques and a lot of old stuff is that usually the maker is irrelevant and there is no named or numbered 'pattern'. Stuff just is what it is. If the item is correctly described that is all you can do. It is extremely rare that you will come across anything where the maker's name is significant or makes any difference to the value. Nowadays it is the kiss of death to be an 'unbranded ' product, and people are conditioned by experience to expect this to have always been true. Forget this for antiques, judge an item by the quality and appearance. A valid question might be  "Is this a fine, mediocre or rubbish gizmo" and a good thing to do is train yourself to make this distinction without having to ask. Pretty much the same applies to artist's signatures. Usually they don't mean nearly as much as people think. A good art expert can spot a picture worth attention across a room, if you are not much good at picking out the fine art from the wallpaper, it will be a rare occasion when a signature will help you.[/QUOTE]