Shawnee Tales
Sept 2020
by Lin Romberg
Long hot summer is hopefully coming to a close - Arizona has set records all summer.
A collector posted on Facebook a Smiley with hand painted flowers - very unusual jar - there are not many of them around. There is also a Lucky with the same hand painted flowers on the base - Shawnee was nothing if not consistent on some of their decorations. I had an interesting experience with the Smiley of mine with these flowers - friends had spotted a Smiley with hair while traveling in Pennsylvania and called me when they got home to share the information. When I called the shop the owner insisted they could not ship the jar, after practically begging one of the employees offered to take it to a pack and ship location to have it shipped. I was so uneasy about it being damaged in shipping that I almost said just ship the head. Thank goodness I did not. Imagine my surprise when the jar arrived as I unwrapped the base first seeing the hand painted flowers, my heart definitely skipped a few beats. He is a treasure and such a wonderful memory attached - friends are definitely a blessing in this hobby! Would love to find the Lucky one of these days!
Another collector found a gold Muggsy on a recent antiquing jaunt and it has writing inside the base of the jar - a nice find as his wife's name is Donna! He sent pictures of a nice assortment of gold Muggsys.
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There was a post of Facebook about the Pennsylvania Dutch series. A couple of us have almost complete sets with just the batter pitcher missing. It is a difficult piece to acquire - seems the few that have been found over the years have all be in the Northeast, not necessarily PA but makes sense! When I started collecting forty years ago all we had was a catalog sheet copy showing it and may of us doubted it's existence!
This line also came in solid colors of blue, green and yellow. I have a tall creamer in blue with hand painted flower but unable to locate it to photograph!
This brings to mind a special piece a friend decorated for me. They had sent me a picture of a jar like this and knew as they walked in the door from work their phone would be ringing - it was. Took me quite awhile to find a clean cold painted Smiley for him to decorate - I absolutely love the jar and the friendship - such a unique piece! Have had him for probably 25 years now!
Had hoped to address some of the bank jars but the pictures did not arrive so hopefully next month.
I am hearing from more of you that the antique markets are opening and hope to hear of some good finds.
Doug's Corner
Two items from my mailbox.
#1 - Who made this worm?
#2 - Interesting similarities.
"The difference I think is that the terrace Ceramics were done using Shawnee molds & this wagon was done using a Shawnee planter thus the smaller size,.. similar to the pony planter in Orange that is on your website that I sent some years back. The opening in the bottom leaves open the the possibility of a lamp base".
"Robert Heckman designed the Pennsylvania Dutch Kitchen Pottery for Shawnee Pottery in 1948. The early American folk art design with the brightly colored tulip and heart is a line that many collectors seek.They made a wide variety of these kitchen pieces as shown in this picture.However, there is one piece that has eluded even the most conscientious collectors...the beater jug. This piece appears in the Pennsylvania Dutch catalog, but has never been found and photographed " in the wild"!
Shawnee also produced other Pennsylvania Dutch style pottery which were glazed in solid colors of yellow, blue and green. The last picture is often referred to as "Old Style Pennsylvania Dutch", but there appears to be no official documentation of this claim."
