Some kids’ furniture could be heirlooms

Design-conscious parents who want the best for their children are looking for contemporary furniture pieces that may someday be heirlooms. Today’s nurseries are either very traditional and nostalgic or filled with the latest colorful plastic tables and foam seats.

One 2008 table has transparent legs so children can fill them with rolled-up drawings. A Spanish designer has created a fantasy animal chair and an Italian has designed “Puppy,” a plastic stool.

During the 1700s and 1800s, children’s furniture was exactly like adult furniture, but smaller. By the 1930s, a few designers were making special children’s pieces. Alva Aalto’s birch stacking stools came in child sizes. And a child-size version of Panton’s 1960s cantilever chair made in bright colors has been a best-seller.

So if you have a house filled with country or Victorian pieces, you can find antique child-size furniture to use. But if your house is decorated in a modern style, your children can have special furniture in colors and shapes not seen in full-size furniture. Will the innovative furniture inspire children to be more imaginative? Some think so.

I found a stainless-steel kitchen utensil I cannot identify. It’s a small ladle with a long handle, but the narrower side of the ladle’s cup isn’t open for pouring. Instead it has a little closed end that wraps around the edge of the ladle. The ladle is marked “Nevco Japan.”

Your utensil is a nut scoop. Some nut scoops look like little shovels, but others look like little ladles with a closed end on one side of the cup. The end helps prevent nuts from falling out before you can pour them into your hand. Nevco was a New Jersey importer that was in business during the 1970s. It also may have been operating earlier and later than that. Nevco imported a lot of kitchen wares and utensils from countries all over the world.

My mother-in-law has been collecting Avon bottles at various farm auctions in her area for the past 30 years. She must have close to 400 bottles. Most of them are in very good condition, but they’re empty and weren’t sold with their original boxes. She has always assumed that the bottles would be worth hundreds of dollars when she was ready to sell. Now that time has come, but we don’t know how to go about evaluating the collection or finding one or more interested buyers.

Avon Products, Inc., dates back to 1886, although it didn’t start using the Avon name until 1928. Collecting Avon bottles became a fad in the 1960s and was an enormously popular pastime for about 20 years. That’s no longer true, but there are still dedicated collectors out there. Most bottles without boxes sell for only a few dollars today, although a handful of figural bottles might sell for up to $40 each. If you want to get rid of your mother-in-law’s whole collection all at once, contact small museums in your area to ask if they would be interested in the collection as a donation. Then you should contact your tax adviser and learn how the donation will benefit your tax situation. If you want to sell the whole collection, try running an ad in the Avon Times, published in Kansas City, Mo. The Avon Times reaches dedicated Avon collectors. If you want to do more work and sell one or a few bottles at a time, use eBay or another online auction site. That way, you’ll reach a lot more possible buyers than you would at a flea market in your area.

I have a gold-plated costume jewelry pin with crystal and sapphire-colored stones set in white metal. The pin is marked “Boucher” in block letters and is numbered 6637. Who made this pin and what is its value?

Marcel Boucher (1898-1965) opened a jewelry business in New York in 1937. He designed both fine and costume jewelry. His costume jewelry is known for its stones’ colors and resemblance to real gemstones. Boucher’s wife continued designing Boucher jewelry after her husband died. She ran the company until 1972, when she sold it to Dovorn Industries. All of Boucher’s pieces were signed and given inventory numbers. The block-letter “Boucher” signature on your pin was used from 1955 to 1971.

A friend who was an antiques dealer in New York in the 1930s gave me a ceramic slop pot. Inside the lid there’s a note that says, “Kovel pg. 160, Wheeling Pot. Co.” Please explain.

Wheeling Pottery was in business in Wheeling, W.Va., from 1879 until about 1910. The note inside the lid refers to the page where Wheeling Pottery’s mark is shown in our first marks book, “Kovels’ Dictionary of Marks: Pottery and Porcelain, 1650 to 1850.”

Write to Kovels, The Herald, King Features Syndicate, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019.

&Copy; 2008 by Cowles Syndicate Inc.

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.

1882 State of Nevada Carson City Savings Bank note, made out to Wagner Co., Indian graphics, 8 3/4 by 3 3/4 inches, $55.

Air Force Academy cadet uniform, hat, jacket and trousers, 1970s, size medium, $80.

Monach Peanut Butter tin, picture of lion on front, by Reid, Murdoch &Co., Chicago, 55 lbs., 13 by 14 inches, $110.

Borden’s Farm Products toy delivery wagon, black and white horse pulling white wagon with logo on each side, 1930s, 20 by 9 by 5 inches, $135.

Salt and pepper shakers, Piel’s Beer brothers Bert &Harry, ceramic, 1960s, 4-inch Bert, 3-inch Harry, $215.

Writing-arm Windsor chair, worn green paint, high comb-back, shaped seat, adjustable-height hinged writing table, drawer under seat, bamboo turnings, 1890s, 45 inches, $475.

Sterling silver flatware soup ladle, Florence Nightingale pattern, Alvin, 1920, 10 1/2 inches, $500.

Joan Crawford figural mug, gold-luster Oscar statuette handle, caricature of Crawford’s face, stamped “Hollywood Mugs by Barclay,” 1940s, 5 by 5 1/2 inches, $675.

Rookwood vase, three handles, image of American Indian titled “Edward Quick Bear, Sioux,” dark brown glaze, 1901, 8 by 6 1/2 inches, $1,200.

Mickey Mouse passenger train set, No. 1549, clockwork locomotive with ringing bell, tender with painted image of Mickey, Lionel, 9 by 13 inches, $1,430.