While they’re less often used today, most readers will be familiar with egg beaters – items with a top handle and hand crank above a pair (usually) of beaters that rotate when the hand crank is turned. The first of these appeared as early as the 1850s. The earliest examples were made in the United States and in England. An early design by Dover Stamping Co. in the US was issued in 1859.

There was no standard design for these beaters, and makers experimented with a variety of forms. Most were made as independent tools to be used with a bowl of the cook’s choice, but there were also versions that were attached to a glass or metal container to hold the contents during mixing. Some were even attached to table or counter clamps similar to those used for meat grinders (“Early Rotary Egg Beaters,” Home Things Past, homethingspast.com/2012/02/19/antique-egg-beaters). Of this latter style, one 1875 housewife commented, “Ah! and what a silly was meself…to be thinking it was a coffee-mill, when I saw you a-screwin’ it on to the table!” (https://www.victorianpassage.com/2008/11/the_dawn_of_the_egg_beater/).

My mom collected old egg beaters of various forms and delighted in finding new versions. The handheld types were made in so many different forms that she had an old wooden barrel full of them. I confess it’s surprising to me that an item so relatively simple to use was made in so many different forms, the inventors of which each insisted that theirs was best.

Whisks – simple handles with non-mechanical mixing wires attached – were also popular and were used to whip lighter items such as liquids and eggs while beaters were generally used for thicker challenges such as batters or frostings. The beaters were especially useful in whipping up egg whites to make meringue, a process that, before the advent of the egg beater, took as much as 90 minutes by hand! By the 1870s, the Dover cast-iron rotary beater reduced that time for beating egg whites to a froth to just 5 minutes. Between 1903 and 1908, Clarence Taplin made a beater that he claimed was an improvement in ease of use, strength, durability – probably in no small part because it was made of a metal that wasn’t cast iron! (Terry Kerston, “The Labor-Saving Rotary Egg Beater,” Lacrosse County Historical Society from the Lacrosse Tribune, Sept. 17, 2016).

Egg beaters were made in so many different forms by so many manufacturers that they could be purchased for as little as 10 cents apiece – albeit a dime meant a lot more in the late 19th and early 20th century than it does today. When my mom was collecting in the 1970s and ‘80s, she could pick them up in antique stores and second-hand shops for less than $5 apiece. Today, depending on age and condition, each can sell anywhere from about $20 to $50 or more; at the higher end, we’re talking hundreds of dollars. Still, there were so many beaters made in so many different forms that you shouldn’t be surprised to find some much cheaper at your local antique mall. Be aware also that egg beaters have been made right up to the present day, so not all of them are antiques.

Most dealers will come across items for possible acquisition that we haven’t seen before and about which we may know little or nothing – beyond perhaps a gut intuition that it’s something special or worth gathering. For those of us who do decide to sell such items, the best strategy is to try to find out what it is before we try to sell it. Pricing it right and moving it out may well depend on what we can tell potential customers about it.

They don’t call it the Web for nothing

Our first instinct may be to look for information on the Internet, AKA “the Web.” It’s a quick information fix and may seem preferable to investing in books and other print material for research. But beware: just as a spider spins its web the better to catch its unwary prey, so, too, can the unwary searcher be trapped by the widespread misinformation on the Web. Especially when it comes to antiques and collectibles, websites often cannibalize – usually word for word – from other websites that have plagiarized it from someone else and so on, back and back to the original source which as often as not will not know what it’s talking about. It would be fairly easy for an unwary dealer or collector to get trapped in that web of misinformation – especially when it weaves a compelling fantasy about the value of the item.

You can search eBay auctions, current and completed, and sometimes find other items the same as or even identical to the item in your own possession. Remember, though, that eBay is only one source of internet information, and when I really want to find reliable information on a piece, I’ll often exclude eBay (by adding the phrase ¬–eBay¬, with the minus sign, to my search terms).

Another way of searching for like items to yours is to do an image search. Most people have access to Google, and there’s an “image” search option right there in the upper right corner of the search page. The images come with a URL where they can be found; clicking on a particular item will also give you a link to the page where you can find the item. The images that come up will be found on a variety of sites, including but not limited to eBay.

Print source alternatives

Back in the 1980s and ‘90s, collector books were being published by the dozens. There often were entire floor-to-ceiling shelves in large bookstores that were devoted to what seems to have been a peak consumer interest in antiques and collectibles. Today, one is lucky to find a couple of shelves modestly stacked with books that would be only generally relevant for our trade. Many of these will be mere “price guides” with photos and brief captions that include a suggested value (which unwary readers may take to be the value but which is often inflated). Sandra Andacht’s and Judy Schiffer’s books come to mind as sources of reliable value information on Asian porcelains. Unfortunately, some of the best books are out of print, but you can still find them on eBay and used book sites.

James Measell has several books on Fenton and other American art glass still in print, and I don’t know anyone alive who has more knowledge of collectible American glassware than he does. While I have nowhere near Measell’s expertise, I have made it a point to do research on what I collect and have written books that are still in print or in process of release on Fenton Art Glass and on Lladró porcelain. I provide in-depth information to support my estimates of value.

Whether you are a collector or a dealer, don’t rely on rumor or online auctions alone to identify your inventory. The more dealers can show they know what they’re talking about, the more customers will trust their inventory.

The history of tea and its dispersion is not entirely known nor clearly understood, but it appears the first tea appeared in China at least as early as 350 BC. Eventually, tea drinking would expand across the world, to North and South America, Europe, India, Africa, and Japan.

In its earliest imported form, tea was considered a delicacy, highly prized and extremely expensive. Early tea caddies were made of wood (e.g., mahogany, walnut, and rosewood). They were equipped with lock and key to protect the precious contents.

Tea’s worldwide range led to many antique tea-related instruments for storage, brewing, and serving. Teapots came into use in China during the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century. Prior to the advent of the teapot, tea leaves were either chewed or ground into a powder that was mixed with hot water in tea bowls. The tea bag wasn’t invented until the 20th century, according to an article from NPR.
In China, tea was a celebratory and somewhat formal drink on occasions such as weddings and other family gatherings. A full tea set would include at least the teapot, teacups, tea strainer, kettle tray, and tea leaf holder.

The East India Co. in China had a monopoly in worldwide tea distribution until the 1830s and, like most monopolies, was able to name its price. Once tea started to be imported beyond China, prices began to moderate.

Teapot History

Earliest teapots from China were made of fired clay. The first European teapots were made of silver and looked like coffee pots, coffee also having reached Great Britain in the early 17th century, according to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Porcelain teapots came into vogue later in the 17th century in China, which exported the form to Europe. Silver and other metal mounts “were also used to mask cracks or breakages to the handles, finials and spouts, caused by the perilous sea journey,” according to the museum.

By the 16th century, Japanese potters had moved the handle from the side to the top of the teapot, and most of these top handles were made of woven plant materials such as bamboo and reed. These were inherently non-durable, so most such handles are either missing or replaced with later materials.

Tea Strainers

Utensils called “mote spoons” came into vogue in the 17th and 18th centuries. Steeped tea could be poured through the perforated spoon, which would strain out the tea leaves. These spoons, which had long handles, weren’t entirely successful at keeping out the leaves from the cup. Thus, they gave way fairly soon to other forms of tea strainer that kept the leaves enclosed and away from the tea water.

Tea strainers as we would eventually come to recognize them were a 17th-century invention. They eventually came in a variety of shapes, but the earliest ones were ball-shaped. Tea strainers consist of screening to enclose the leaves, keeping them away from the hot water in which they are steeping.