Easter is a time for church services and prayers, but it is also a time for special activities for adults and for games and toys for children.
Many countries decorate eggs, but the Easter Bunny hiding eggs is a North American tradition. It is an idea that came from early Dutch settlers. In England, children decorate eggs, but they don’t hunt for them. Instead, they exchange chocolate eggs.
In the Netherlands, people celebrate by lighting fires at sunset on Easter Day. In some Scandinavian countries, children paint eggs. They also go door-to-door dressed as witches and decorate pussy-willow bushes or branches with feathers or small objects to bless the house. They are given candy in exchange.
But the strangest modern way to celebrate Easter belongs to Norway. There, it is a day to solve murder mysteries. Television shows feature detective stories, magazines print mystery stories to be solved and new mystery books are put on sale.
Collectors of Easter memorabilia in the United States want only the familiar Easter Bunny and eggs. There are special candy containers, toys, stories, printed fabrics, Easter baskets, chocolate and ice-cream molds and other collectibles. Collecting Easter items is a growing hobby. Most expensive are the candy containers and toys.
I found a stoneware bottle at the old house where I grew up. The only words on it are “Knickerbocker Root Beer.” The bottle is light gray and about 9 1/2 inches tall.
If your bottle is 12-sided, it’s probably an early root-beer bottle made in Ohio or New York. Durfee’s Knickerbocker root beer was an early brand, bottled in Rochester, N.Y., from about 1847 to 1852. Today the bottle is valued at about $125.
I just got a very old silver wax holder. It is a very small box. What was it used for? There is still wax inside.
You have a sewing tool. Beeswax was used to strengthen thread and to keep it from knotting. Waxing the thread makes it easier to thread a needle. Wax is still used by some tailors. You can buy a modern wax holder today at a fabric or craft store. Be sure to keep the beeswax clean if you use it.
My latest find in bookends is a pair that looks like a woodcarving of Scotties. It has a “Syrocowood” label. Do you know what it’s made of?
Syroco, spelled Syrocco by some collectors, is made of wood “flour” — waxes and resins that were molded to form many different types of decorative objects.
Adolph Hostein, owner of the Syracuse Ornamental Co., created it in the 1890s. He was a woodcarver and sold his work, but needed a way to make more pieces. So he carved a figure from a block of wood, cast a mold, then made replicas.
Finished pieces like your bookends look like handmade wood carvings. The company name was changed to Syroco Inc. in the 1930s.
Syrocowood was used to make radio-case parts, furniture trim, moldings in houses and many small gift wares, such as corkscrews, pen sets, picture frames, trays, coasters, humidors, napkin rings, pipe racks and more. Because they were well-designed and inexpensive, they were popular even in the 1930s Depression years. Other products were made as new plastics and new designs were developed. The company closed in June 2007.
I just started following auctions and would like you to tell me why so many catalogs describe a small round-top table as a “gueridon.”
You will see that word in catalogs published by some of the upscale auctions. It is a French word for a small, round, ornate table with either a carved figural support or curved columns, and sometimes both. This style of table was introduced in France in the second half of the 17th century and was originally designed to hold a candelabrum. The word is derived from the name of a fictional character in popular songs and farces of the time.
My grandmother died 55 years ago and left me a beautiful white porcelain bowl with applied white flowers all over the outside. The stamped mark on the bottom is a circle with a crown on the top. The initials “KTK” are inside the circle and the words “Lotus Ware” are under the circle. Please tell me who made the bowl.
Your bowl, in excellent condition, is probably worth $500 or more. Lotus Ware was a line of mainly bone china made from about 1891 to 1898 by Knowles, Taylor and Knowles of East Liverpool, Ohio.
The company was founded by Isaac Knowles in 1853. When John Taylor and Isaac’s son, Homer Knowles, joined the firm in 1870, its name was changed to Knowles, Taylor and Knowles.
The formula for Lotus Ware included real animal bones, and a German-born potter named Henry Schmidt personally applied the filigreelike leaves, flowers and jewels that decorate many of the pieces. Plain white pieces often were sold to women who decorated them at home. Lotus Ware was delicate and much of it broke in the kilns, so the line was discontinued.
Write to Kovels, The Herald, King Features Syndicate, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019.
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On the block
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
Hershey’s candy box, milk-chocolate kisses, image of little boy and girl on lid feeding each other a kiss, blue box, 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 x 3 inches, $65.
Rabbit candy container, cardboard, brown flocking, carrot in backpack, glass eyes, Germany, 1920, 6 inches, $135.
Silhouette, gentleman wearing top hat, cut by Master Hankes, c. 1840, 4 x 2 3/4 inches, $530.
Cut-glass glove box, hobstar and fan on cover and base, metal rim, 4 x 10 3/8 inches, $595.
Sterling-silver flatware berry spoon, lily pattern, gilt-washed interior, scalloped rim, Whiting, c. 1902, 9 inches, $615.
Effanbee Suzanne doll, composition, socket head, blue eyes, blond hair, five-piece body, 1940, 14 inches, $720.
Woman’s jacket, salmon silk embroidery with bats, flowers, pagoda and green-and-gold threaded four-claw dragon, blue border, Chinese, c. 1930, 37 1/2 inches, $825.
Louis XV-style kneeling bench, giltwood, padded, rectangular top, floral-carved frieze, raised on carved cabriole legs, 1880s, 47 x 11 1/2 inches, $900.
Dedham coffeepot, rabbit, square handle, elongated spout, bulbous, lid, 8 1/2 x 7 inches, $1,540.
Ferris Corset display, “The Good Sense Corset,” three ladies on couch in corset and long stockings, 14 1/2 x 23 1/4 inches, $5,400.
Steelcraft Stutz Tandem pedal car, convertible, two-seater, dual side-mounted tires, front and rear bumpers, headlights, radiator, hood ornament, luggage rack, blue, 1935, 61 inches, $6,325.
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