Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Frankoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain...

...oops, that's not how the song goes...got a little confused there!

Anyway, I haven't done a lot of treasure hunting lately, this summer has just been too busy (as you can tell from my lack of blog posts)!


I have never been too fond of Frankoma.  It has never been my style.  But, after looking at the awesome set that Mick has at the Casablanca while I was there for the big party, I've been keeping my eye out for it.  I'm still not sure that I completely love it, but I wanted to get a few pieces and try them in the house to see what I thought.

I visited some friends in the town where I went to college late last week and while I was in town, I stopped at an antique mall.  I was stunned by the amount of Frankoma in this place.  Seemed like almost every booth had at least one or two pieces.  I saw many other pieces that I was interested in, but I was sticking to a strict budget on this trip.  So, here's what I picked up:


This vase has an attractive form, and reminds me somewhat of something that we might have made in the pottery factory that I worked in for my first job.  Has one small chip on the bottom.  The white specks on the right toward the bottom are not flaws, just left over sticker residue.  I felt it was a decent deal at $5.


I love the color green, so this Prairie Green dish caught my eye right off the bat.  Very attractive shape with no flaws.  It was also $5.


I love the shape of this butter dish lid (too bad that the base was no longer with it).  It is also finished in the Prairie Green color.  $1.


I also picked up this Imperial planter (which I have seen references to as being made by Hull - anybody know if that is correct?).  The orange color with the white splotches is very attractive, plus it matches my late 60s / early 70s inspired living room (the living room is avocado, burnt orange, and brown).  $4.50.


On a separate trip, I found this beautiful large atomic pattern mid-century platter.  I love the shape, and the white has some speckles in it.  I'm sure that one of my readers knows the pattern name.  It is marked Grant Crest on the back, but I've never heard of them.  This was one of the first things that I found in this store and I almost grabbed it right from the start, but I have a method to shopping at these places.  Firstly, I was the only customer in the store so I wasn't too worried about someone else grabbing it.  Secondly, my method is to walk through the whole store and take everything in, making mental notes about things that I'm interested in, then after going through the whole store with a first pass through, I go back to the things that I found and look them over again.  After this, I pick a few things and leave the rest.  I feel that I got a great deal on this platter...it was $3.95.


The real McCoy...I was at a garage sale a few weeks ago and came across this McCoy planter.  The price sticker on it read "$3.00 - old".  Well, I don't normally run across pieces of McCoy at garage sales, and it had such an interesting shape on its four feet.  The white glaze is attractive as well, it has a matte finish.  So, here it is!


Lastly, I found a pair of Pyrex cups.  I really like the blue color of the stripes.  10 cents each.

Well, that pretty much sums up my finds for the past two months.  Not a lot, but I feel that what I have found are quality pieces.  Have a great Wednesday!

7 comments:

  1. I'm not familiar with Francoma but I really like the Prairie Green colors.

    That atomic dish is totally fabulous. Unfortunately I don't know anything about it either.

    I would've grabbed the McCoy planter myself just because It's an interesting piece.

    And the Pyrex cups....well! You know how I feel about Pyrex!

    Have a great day :)

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  2. I love white McCoy/USA/Hager pottery! Good finds!

    MaryD

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  3. I too never much cared for Frankoma but the market seems to be getting flooded with it right now--in a short time I found two cornucopia planters and a nice vase. I prefer Weller to all other potteries (Roseville, McCoy, etc.) but the price point on Frankoma makes it much more accessible. Those are really great pieces. And guess what--I have NO IDEA what pattern that platter is, but it's awesome and I love it!!!

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  4. When I read "Mick's Awsome Set" It reminded me of how I was telling you 'how much care' I take o this set and that mug came tumbling out of the cabinet onto the stove! Haha I had a feeling you'd be into the Prarie green. What you need now is the Waggon Wheel pitcher (that was so popular in prarie green they pop up all the time) and I'll keep and eye out for a bottom to the butter dish.

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  5. Mick, there was a wagon wheel pitcher in the store that I almost bought. It was a yellow-gold-brown kind of color. It was like $7 or so, but it had a chip in the rim and on the base. I decided that I could probably spend a little more and get one in better condition.

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  6. I have the matching bowls to your pyrex coffee cups. They were wedding gifts to my parents when they got married in 1962.

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