Old kitchenware, from pots and pans to small utensils such as mixing spoons, large draining spoons, jar openers, egg beaters, and so on, is not only an affordable option for collectors but is also usable and practical in modern kitchens. Many of these were better made than their modern equivalents, which is why the older versions have lasted in the preferences of today’s cooks.

Mom preferred the various small kitchen utensils she found on the secondary market. Many of these, such as large cooking spoons and egg beaters, had wooden handles, usually painted red or green. One of the most useful items she passed on to me was a jar opener that I often use today to remove stubbornly clinging jar lids. This item was also made with green handles as well as red. Items with the paint on handles in good condition are especially sought.

Mom had a special fondness for antique egg beaters, which appeared in antique shops in a surprising array of styles – and, yes, she still used many of them until she passed. She especially liked old graters and beaters that were screwed onto glass containers that could collect what was being chopped or ground.

Guys, too!

My dad was also fond of working in the kitchen, years before cooking became popular among men. His favorite utensils were cast iron frying pans of various sizes from the very small to the very large. His favorite brand was Griswold, manufactured in Erie, PA, for almost a hundred years, from 1865 to 1957. Wagner is another brand of old iron skillets popular with collectors. Prices today on old cast iron pans can be in the low three figures.

Keeping cast iron pans in good shape is a surprising, if easy, challenge in a process we probably wouldn’t dare use with modern cookware. Dad always took preemptive charge of cleaning these pans after use because Mom was obsessed with using dishwater to clean them, which Dad said increased the chance for rust in the iron and also caused food to stick to the heated surface when the pan was next used. Dad simply dry-wiped the pans clean after use so that a film of oily patina remained on the surface. After my dad used these pans and retained their patina, food never stuck to them. If my mother had gotten to cleaning the pan first her way, he’d season it with oil before putting it away (we never got sick!).

Kitchen Pottery

Not everything made in the past for kitchen use was made in metal. Pottery was popular in everything from kitchen mixing bowls to cannister sets.

Some of the oldest of the mixing bowls were yellowware, sometimes accented with a wide, colored stripe near the rim. Other examples of pottery and ceramic kitchenware included cannister sets for ready access to basic ingredients such as flour, sugar, coffee, tea, or salt (Some cannister sets could also be found in metals such as tin, and these were often quite a bit more colorful than the ceramic versions).

I’ve been a member of the Fenton Art Glass Collectors of America, founded in 1976, for several years. Unfortunately, I joined not long after Fenton itself ceased making glass in 2011. When the factory was in full swing, it was a big part of many club members’ lives; they got to go on tours and see how the glass was made, to find unusual pieces in the gift shop attached to the factory, and to attend many special sales events held on site. Today, the only way we can purchase much of that special glass is through auctions.

Fenton Art Glass is not some collecting fad, here today and gone tomorrow. On the contrary, there is a resurgence of interest in this glass, including among younger collectors who were just tykes — or even just a spark in their parents’ eyes! — when the factory closed. There’s something for every glass collector in what Fenton made, from the antiques made in the 1910s to the items made right up to the factory’s closing.

In 1990, there was a rift in the Fenton collecting community when the National Fenton Glass Society (NFGS) split off from the Fenton Art Glass Society of America (FAGCA). The majority of members in the two groups are today in a cordial relationship with one another, and many members belong to both clubs. Each holds its own annual convention, and since they occur back-to-back on the calendar, many conventioneers stay to attend both.

Start of a Glass Menagerie

By the time I attended my first FAGCA convention in 2013, the Fenton Gift Shop (now relocated and dealing in Mosser Glass made from Fenton moulds) was still open at the factory and still finding Fenton glass in forgotten storage corners of the huge factory. I bought as much of it as I could afford, and in those final years the gift shop was still open at that factory location, I also purchased several clay models of Fenton animals that never had the chance to go into production.

I started collecting Fenton with the idea of focusing just on the glass “critters,” and even ended up writing a book about them: Fenton Art Glass Beasts, Birds, and Butterflies (currently out of print but due out at a future date in an expanded edition published by the Museum of American Glass in West Virginia). When I began collecting the animals, I could buy most of them in the $25-$35 range. It’s not unusual, though, for the cost to go into three figures, especially for the larger animals such as the Alley Cats (from a mould acquired from US Glass Company in Tiffin, OH) and the Happy Cats and Happy Kitties made as club glass for FAGCA.

When my parents passed, my sisters and I inherited our shares of their vast Fenton collection (Luckily, we all liked different glass treatments!). That’s how I got interested in collecting Fenton Art Glass more generally, everything from vases to baskets and pitchers. I’m sure many readers will be able to relate to this expanded appetite in what they collect!

Even though most of the best-known are no longer operating, the sheer number of potteries born in California could well have made it the ceramic capitol of America. The earliest California company was Pacific Clay Products, founded as early as 1892, but even it didn’t begin making figurines until the early 1930s. While it’s the oldest, Pacific Clay is also one of the few potteries still open in that state today.

Pottery is distinguished from porcelain and other ceramics by appearance and manufacturer. Generally speaking, pottery is heavier and more opaque than porcelain and tends also to be visually distinct from porcelain. It has been said that porcelain “allows the light to pass through it,” but I haven’t found that distinction to be especially helpful (perhaps except for dinnerware) as most figurines and vases tend to be too dense and solid for light to pass through them.

The Big Names in Figural California Pottery

Among the California potteries that made at least some figurines were Metlox Manufacturing, Kay Finch, and Sasha Brastoff. But the best known of the figural potters were Freeman-McFarlin, Hagen-Renaker, and Josef Originals.

Freeman-McFarlin Pottery, named for its owners Maynard Anthony Freeman and Gerald McFarlin, operated from 1951 through 1980 (when it was sold to Hagen-Renaker, which operated it until 1985). Among Freeman McFarland’s most iconic and easily identifiable models are its cats, from the very large to the quite tiny. Characterized by large ears and eyes, a few of these were designed by Maynard Anthony Freeman, sometimes identified by the name “Anthony” in the impressed mark.

Larger Freeman McFarlin cat models were sometimes gilded entirely in gold, while others had a more natural glaze. The smaller models were sometimes made as bobble heads.

Hagen-Renaker was founded in 1944 and is one of the few California potteries still operating today. It is perhaps best known for its miniature animal models. Retail price points on its miniature animals are accessible to a child’s pocketbook at $3-$5 for many of those models, and even the more expensive of them can cost as little as $15-$20. Larger models can sell anywhere from $50 to a few hundred dollars. H-R had an entire stable of talented artists working for it. In addition to animal figurines, H-R also made some wonderful bird models.

Many of the most desirable Hagen-Renaker figurines can now be found only on the secondary market. For example, H-R made several models commissioned by the Walt Disney Co., including a tiny Thumper figurine, issued in fall 1956 and closed in spring 1960, that I bought at an antique shop for $2. Designed by Helen Perrin Farnlund, it can be priced as high as $65 to a seller who recognizes it.

Some Hagen-Renaker figurines have been counterfeited (for example, the miniature spotted fawn reclining model with big eyes made at HR in 1949-52 and 1965), and it can be difficult to authenticate them if they are separated from the cardboard H-R tags glued to their underside at retail sale. As the genuine versions of copied H-R models generally retail for less than $10 on the secondary market, it may be that these were copies made by hobbyists for their own use rather than by counterfeiters for profit.

Although it is perhaps best known for its small ceramic doll models, Josef Originals, in business from 1946 to 1985, also made some small miniature animals and birds. Among them is a series of cartoon brown mouse models in various positions and holding various objects. These cuties can be found on the secondary market for $10 or less apiece.