Tiffany Studios also made practical objects

#MiddleburyCT #Antiques #RockerBlotter #CookieCutters

Tiffany Studios is synonymous with luxury and decorative items like jewelry, useful pieces made of precious metals and elaborate stained-glass lamps. The company also made practical objects, such as its line of commercial desk accessories made from about 1890 to the 1930s.

This rocker blotter sold for $161 at a Cowan’s auction. Today, it has more value as a piece of Tiffany craftsmanship than as a useful desk accessory. (Kovels.com)

Desk sets include items that office workers are unlikely to see today, like this rocker blotter in the Bookmark pattern. It sold for $161 at Cowan’s auctions in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Tiffany Bookmark series featured the marks of early printers surrounded by panels of raised leaves and flowers. During the turn of the century, office workers would have used a rocker blotter along with a fountain pen and ink stand. Many people who have written with a ballpoint pen have smeared the ink. Fountain pen ink would have taken even longer to dry.

People would speed up the drying with a sprinkle of sand or powder and, later, by blotting it with special paper. This rocker blotter would have held sheets of blotting paper to use on documents written in ink.

Q: I inherited a set of very old metal cookie cutters from my mother. I’ve never used them but have childhood memories of the cookies made with them. Can you tell me a little about old cookie cutters? How can I determine the age and price?

A: With “farm” style currently a design favorite, early cookie cutters with their rustic look are fun to collect and display. Cookie cutters are thought to date from about 1475, with the first American cookie cutters made by tinsmiths in East Berlin, Connecticut, about 1720. Tin was the primary material for cookie cutters until 1920, when aluminum became popular. Plastic replaced aluminum after World War II. Metal cookie cutters with “bullet” handles are especially wanted by collectors. Early cutters usually have backs made of uneven pieces of scrap tin.

TIP: Silverware that has been tarnished by eggs will come clean if rubbed with damp salt.

Current Prices
Jewelry, pendant, dice, textured gold, glossy gold pips, 1800s, 3/4 inches, $75.
Toy, Girl Cycle, girl on motorcycle, lithographed tin, vinyl head with rooted hair on rider, friction works, box, Haji, Japan, 1950s, 8 inches, $195.
Rookwood pottery pitcher, Cherries & Leaves, standard glaze, three-sided form, shaped rim with elongated spout, Rookwood flame mark, artist cipher for Amelia Browne Sprague, 1891, 5 1/2 x 7 inches, $220.
Civil War Union canteen, metal, brown wool cover, cotton strap, three sling loops, stopper with ring and chain, 7 3/4 inches, $530.
Poster, Take Up the Sword of Justice, classical figure with arms up, holding sword, ship Lusitania in background, linen backing, Bernard Partridge, London, 1915, 27 x 19 inches, $630.
Clock, shelf, burlwood, ebonized accents, arched bonnet, five brass finials, white and brass face, Whitington & Westminster chimes, bracket base with brass feet, England, c. 1900, 15 x 9 x 8 inches, $2,000.

For more collecting news, tips and resources, visit www.Kovels.com
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