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Annual Porcelain Ornaments for 2011

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Many china and porcelain manufacturers offer Christmas ornaments for sale, and many of these are dated with the year they are issued. Often these dated ornaments are part of series, with one offered every year, allowing the purchaser to spend a reasonable amount of money in any given year, but to accumulate a nice collection of porcelain ornaments over time.

Another focus of dated ornaments are the commemoration of significant events in the ornaments owners’ lives. Weddings, first homes and new babies are popular events for which special ornaments are made. Usually purchased as gifts, they can be the beginning of ornament collections that the recipient then begins adding to each year.

Here are some of the porcelain ornaments available for 2011.

Wedgwood

Wedgwood is offering a Wedgwood blue and white snowflake, a house ornament, Baby’s First Christmas inn the form of a small carousel, available in pink or blue, a blue jasper ornament and a couple’s first Christmas in the form of a wedding cake. Without a year identified on the ornament: an iconic teapot, a cup and saucer ornament, a white luster Snowflake ornament, ball shaped ornaments with a Sleigh Ride, the Nativity, Santa in Flight, and Skating Pond, a white Snowflake ball ornament, and flat cameo ornaments with Santa (red background), Tree (dark green background), Snowman (dark gray background) and Madonna and Child (light blue background).

Lladro

Lladro has a dated bell and a ball ornament for 2011.

Goeble

Goeble, maker of the Hummels, has a Hummel bell, a Hummel figurine ornament as well as an angel bell and a regular bell ornament for 2011.

Precious Moments

Precious Moments has a Santa ornament, a penguin ornament, Baby’s First Christmas with either girl or boy, an angel, a ball and/or figurine ornament with the same figure, and a couple’s first Christmas ornament specifically for 2011.

Danbury Mint

Danbury Mint has an interesting Celtic Heart ornament for 2011, and a German ornament in the form of a building decorated in blue on white with red and green accents.

Spode

Spode has a couple’s first Christmas ornament, a Baby’s First Christmas, and a new home ornament. Their regular in-a-series ornaments are a bell, a reindeer and a spoon ornament.

Belleek

Belleek has a Baby’s First Christmas in the form of a Teddy Bear, and a couple’s first Christmas ornament.

Royal Dalton

Royal Dalton has used their Royal Albert Old Country Roses on their 2011 bauble ornament. There is also an Old Country Roses Figural of a train engine.

Royal Copenhagen

Royal Copenhagen’s additions for the 2011 dated ornaments consist of a cat figure, and a drop ornament decorated in their signature blue on blue style.

Bing & Grondahl

B&G also have a drop ornament, decorated in blue on blue as well.

Lenox

Lenox is one of the major players, if not the major player, in the dated porcelain ornament world. They have a number of continuing ornament series as well as commemorative ornaments.

The commemorative ornaments include: Baby’s First Christmas in the form of a flat baby buggy, a 3-D rattle ornament, a 3-D Winnie the Pooh ornament and a flat rocking horse ornament. For the bride & groom, there is a bride’s cake ornament, a flat wedding bells ornament, and a first home ornament in the shape of a house.

In their continuing series of ornaments, there are also flat and 3-D ornaments. In the 3-D selection, there are the spire ornament, the pierced ornament, a Christmas tree, a bell, a Jewels bell, a ball ornament, an angel, two Santa Claus figures, Tinkerbell, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, a nutcracker, and, finally, a moose.

The flat ornaments include a snowflake, a gingerbread man, a snowman, a gift package, and a ribbon-form wreath. Lenox easily takes the prize as the top dated Christmas ornament manufacturer.

Dated ornaments can make wonderful Christmas presents for those who already have plenty of sweaters and ties. They are special not only in the year they are given, but in the years following, as they are unwrapped and put out each holiday season. If you are looking for a gift for someone who has everything, consider a dated Christmas ornament.

See some of these 2011 ornaments.

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Stoneware

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Stoneware is defined by the fact that the clay body itself vitrifies enough for the unglazed vessel to be water-tight and very durable. These wares are often glazed for aesthetic reasons, but the simplest are formed and fired just once and are useful at that point. Crocks for preserving foods and jugs for storing drinks, as well as a plethora of other useful items, are formed from these kinds of clays, which can be found in many parts of the world. All pottery that self-glazes is considered stoneware, the opposite of which is earthenware, which must be fired twice, the second using a high-fire glaze, to be water-tight.

Originally thrown on the wheel, stoneware can also be hand formed, press molded, drape molded and slip cast. Because of the uninspiring looks of most of these clays when fired, exterior decoration and or the use of glazes was common to make the vessels more eye-catching or to identify the contents of the container.

Industry Standard Categories for Stoneware

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoneware)
Traditional stoneware – a dense and inexpensive body. It is opaque, can be of any colour and breaks with a conchoidal or stony fracture. Traditionally made of fine-grained secondary, plastic clays which can used to shape very large pieces.
Fine stoneware – made from more carefully selected, prepared and blended raw materials. It is used to produce tableware and art ware.
Chemical stoneware – used in the chemical industry, and elsewhere when resistance to chemical attack is needed. Purer raw materials are used than for other stoneware bodies.
Thermal shock resistant stoneware – has additions of certain materials to enhance the thermal shock resistance of the fired body.
Electrical stoneware – historically has been used for electrical insulators, although has been replaced by electrical porcelain.
(end of Wikipedia quote)

Finishing Techniques

Albany slip, a clay suspended in water: the formed items is dipped into the slip and fired. The result is a smooth, opaque brown surface. Sometimes only used on the inside of the piece while the outside was finished using another technique.
salt glaze: salt is added to the kiln at a high temperature. The sodium reacts with the clay body to form a glassy finish.
alkaline glaze: a drippy olive of brown finish, smooth and uniform, used in the southeast US.
Bristol glaze: a glaze which gives the vessel a white opaque finish, it often used as the base for spongeware, or combined with Albany slip to produce brown and white ware.

Decorating Techniques

sponging: using a contrasting glaze lights applied using natural sponges to get a spotty/mottled effect and a orange peel texture.
incising: lines or other figures are scratched into the vessel once it is formed and air dried. Sometimes having minerals rubbed into the lines to make them stand out more vividly.
impression: a coggle wheel is used to impress lines of squiggles or other shapes around the vessel
application: hand-formed or press molded decorations are applied to the vessel while still damp using slip. These can be anything from a mask or face to Classical scenes or wreaths of ivy leaves or grapes.
stencil: a stencil is used to make areas open for the design. A colored glaze is sponged over the openings in the stencil. Several stencil may be used with different colors to provide more complicated designs. Also used for applying the maker’s names, volume indicators (qt. or pt. for example) or intended contents.
slip: slip of a contrasting color, or even the same color, is spotted or trailed on the outside surface, giving it visual interest.
decals and copper prints: on fine stoneware, simple or complicated designs can be applied to the stoneware using decals or copper transfer prints. Dinnerware that is not hand-painted is usually decorated in this way.

Items made from Stoneware

storage for food and drink: jugs, pots, jars, crock, water coolers, bottles, flasks, canteens.
vessels for serving or consuming food and drink: mugs, pitchers, punch bowls, sugar bowls, salts, bowls, goblets, glasses.
cooking utensils: bean pots, churns, mortars.
household containers: face jugs, inkwells, spittoons, chamber pots, hot water bottles. flower pots, urns, banks, tobacco humidors.
Non-containers: doorstops, figurines, miniatures, toys, whistles.

Stoneware covers a lot of ground, and you may already own more of it than you think. Even leaving out dinnerware, don’t you have a crock, or bean pot somewhere? Perhaps as a family heirloom? And, given the list above, isn’t there something on the list that piques your interest? For me, I would like to see stoneware figurines and miniatures, and if I see very many, I bet I own a few soon thereafter.

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China Knife Rests

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One small item of china or porcelain that makes a nice collection and display is the knife rest. These small bars of china keep the knife, preserved by the diner from one course to the next, from lying on a table cloth or the table and leaving remains of the meal there. Today, they are pretty much in the same class as place cards, but they were once part of any table setting, along with open salt cellars and napkin rings. Now they are the epitome of grand dining, except for where the place setting is so grand that there is a different knife for each course, as needed.

Antique Knife Rests

Porcelain and china knife rests are an easy collection to start. Ask in most antique stores and there will be one or two you can look at. China knife rests in the popular china patterns of the past are easily found, like the Blue Onion pattern. Sometimes an entire set in the original packaging is available. You can find knife rests at estate sales as well.

New Knife Rests

New china knife rests are less easily found. They are sold in sets of six or eight, and may be as plain or as fancy as any china table accessory. Knife rests today are also made from several metals, including sterling and silver plate, as well as pewter, and they are made from other materials as well.

Use of Knife Rests

Knife rests are and were used where the table setting of flatware has only one knife for the entire meal. As food course follows course, the knife is placed on the rest when the previous plate is leaving the table and the next course is coming out of the kitchen. Whether the meal is served on a bare table top, place mats or linen tablecloth, no householder wants the remains of any course on the table when the meal is complete. Hence, the knife rest.

Older versions of the knife rest may be combined with a napkin ring or an open salt dip, but most are single function items. Many are long enough, or have two flat places, so the fork can be saved for the next course as well as the knife. Carving sets also frequently have knife rests, which can also have a place to rest the carving fork when not in use.

Chopstick Rests

Chopstick rests are a version of the knife rest from a different eating utensil tradition, showing that the concern for reusing the eating utensils while not making a mess on the table is relatively universal. Chopstick rests have the same advantages as knife rests as a collectible, but the sets will come in odd numbers, usually five, as odd numbers are luckier in the East. Most chopstick rests are made from china or porcelain.

Chopstick rests are frequently in the form of animals or food items, and are rarely larger than a couple of inches. Knife rests are generally from two to four inches long. Both versions of this utilitarian items rest securely on the table, as there is no point in having a knife rest that wobbles and dumps the eating apparatus onto the tablecloth after all the effort of making and having a rest to prevent that very thing.

See knife rests.

Learn More

Many antique and collectibles books may have a section on knife rests, or list knife rests among other glass and porcelain table items, but for pictures of many knife rests, see Knife Rests by Virginia L. Neas, Glassy Mountain Press, Pickens, South Carolina, 1987.

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Southwest Pottery: Mata Ortiz

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Mata Ortiz is actually a town in the northern Chihuahua State of Mexico. From this town a whole new type of Southwestern pottery is emerging. The style of the hand-built pottery and its fine decoration make this pottery an exciting addition to the traditional forms we have seen for a hundred years or more.

The Story of Mata Ortiz Pottery

Now seeing the emergence of the third generation of Mata Ortiz potters, this style began in 1960s with a man named Juan Quezada. It is most unusual in the ceramic world to be able to identify the beginning of any style, but in this case the Twentieth Century’s avocation of record keeping comes in handy. From this one man’s experiments with local clays, firing techniques and methods of decorating the pottery has come a whole village of potters turning out beautiful works, and their receiving the recognition from the art world from the beginning.

P7240268 © by Ant Ware

The Mata Ortiz pots are made from clays and methods that leave the leather stage absolutely smooth and able to take the finest lines in their decoration. And the fine lines are used to delineate areas for decoration in geometric-like shapes, but the style of the Mata Ortiz frequently does not extend the same decoration all over the pot. Considerable variation may be found on a single large pot, although smaller ones may have a uniform decoration.

Red versus Black Pottery

Mr. Quezada and the potters who follow his lead have discovered the differences between aerobic and anaerobic firing techniques, and the changes in the resulting pots. The same form and decoration, red and black on a cream colored pot using the aerobic method, turns shiny and matte black on a pot fired using the reducing (anaerobic) method. Thus the Mata Ortiz pots can be found in either coloration.

Mata Ortiz pottery © by a rancid amoeba

Mata Ortiz pottery is recognized by the art and craft world as the fine work it is, and therefore there are substantial prices involved when the pots are large or when they are made by known potters. The small pots have reasonable prices, and pieces by new potters are less expensive. Look for one or two you like and watch their expertise grow as they continue to make pottery over time. Or pick a motif you like and buy from many potters as this Southwest pottery continues to grow and evolve.

See more Mata Ortiz Pottery.

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Southwest Pottery: Santa Clara and San Ildefonso

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Since the mid-Twentieth Century, Santa Clara and San Ildefonso Pueblos have been known for the black pottery they make. Although the forms they make are also made in the reddish-brown clay color, the potters of the two pueblos are far more famous for the black pottery.

Thin Walled Pottery vs Thick Walled Pottery

Some of the Santa Clara and San Ildefonso pottery is made with thin walls and some with thick walls. The thin walled pottery is generally decorated with a black on black decoration where shiny black motifs stand out from a matte black background. There are also thin walled pots that are shiny black all over. The difference lies in areas that are polished using a stone and those that are not, once the pottery is leather hard. The same technique is used on the terra cotta pottery to make red on red patterns.

The thicker walled pots are carved with wavy lines, small dots and other forms of decoration. These may also be polished in part or in whole to make the surface shine. On some pots, integral handles arch over the pot as a handle for functional as well as aesthetic reasons.

Marie Martinez is one of the most famous Twentieth Century Santa Clara potters, and there are more today than before. The coil built pots are smooth to the touch as well as to the eye, and the color on color makes the decoration more subtle than much of Native American pottery. Here again, once you have seen it, you can identify it. Fortunately, Santa Clara and San Ildefonso potters sign their work, although the use of the pueblo name in the signature is less common that at other pueblos.

Not all black on black pottery comes from the New Mexican pueblos. The Mata Ortiz potters, newly developing their talent and use of materials, also create black on black pottery. These pots are more eccentric in their shapes, and the decoration is often at least in part a grid where tiny shiny and matte squares alternate. But more about the Mata Ortiz later.

The pottery from the San Ildefonso and Santa Clara Pueblos can be found in most major collections of Native American pottery, but also still on the market for those who enjoy its sensuous look and feel. Work with reputable dealers if you must have authentic Santa Clara pots, or buy what you like if you want the style and feel, and leave the worry about authenticity to others.

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Southwest Pottery: Jemez

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(pronunciation: hay-mis)

Jemez pottery on one where the basic terra cotta color of the clay the vessel is made from is used as the basic canvas on which the decorators work. The beautiful reddish brown of the coil built pottery is decorated using black and a lighter shade of the terra cotta which is a creamy, pale orange. These three colors are the basis for the traditional Jemez pottery decoration.

Much of the Jemez pottery is decorated with geometric patterns, with lots of triangles, slightly curved on the sides to accommodate the shape of the pot. The painters of this pueblo also use small arch shapes to decorated around the neck of vases and in other areas. These may be drawn in black and filled in with the pale orange color, or may be drawn in the terra cotta color on an area previously covered with the pale orange slip.

Jemez Storyteller Figures

The Jemez potters also create storyteller figurines, and small circles of figures call friendship bowls. These bowl-shaped pots have the head and shoulders of four or more figures added to the rim, and the all the figures face towards each other. Some friendship bowls have the full figure of the people either hanging on the side of the pot or lounging in the pot if it is a low sided pot. These are a nice addition of the traditional motifs of the human figurines made by the Native Americans.

Jemez Melon Pots

Another new development in the Jemez Pueblo is the carved pottery by Marcella Yeppa and others. These pots have much thicker walls than is traditional, but the clay is deeply carved into vertical or swirled rounded vanes, yielding an emphatic melon shape. These pots range from small to medium, as the technical problems with making large ones, including the weight of the final pot, preclude larger versions to date. These pots, once seen, are immediately identifiable, and are fascinating.

Cross-Fertilization of Pottery Styles

With the increased communication between different pueblos and Native American groups, a lot of cross-cultural fertilization is now taking place. Jemez pottery sometimes has the white slip to emulate the pottery of the Acoma, and the Acoma have adopted the storyteller figure from another First People. To offset the problem of identification by the shape or decoration of the pottery, most modern artists sign there pottery with both their name and the name of the pueblo or people they belong to.

Many of the Jemez potters continue to use the traditional methods and shapes for their pottery, and you can find their work in many stores that carry Native American pottery and artifacts. You will also find new forms and decorative patterns as well, made by the residents of this ancient community.

The photos on this page are by the author.

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