A Legacy of Quality

Whenever I do appraisal programs, I am struck by the quality of the things that have been handed down from past generations. I see all manner of items that were expertly handcrafted, and often of the finest materials. These are the things, we say, that are made the way they don’t make them anymore.
I was particularly aware of this at a recent appraisal fair at the Marketplace@Teaberry on Route 9 in Clermont, where usually the only thing that distracts me from the neat stuff there is the quality of the cheese steaks at their in-house café.
There was a big crowd at Teaberry that day, and over 35 items were brought, but one item stood out. It was a sterling silver muffineer, a large shaker for sprinkling confectioner sugar on pancakes and the like. The lady who brought it in said it had been handed down through her family.
She was a very lucky lady, I told her. Any sterling sugar shaker might be valued from $300 to $600, but this piece was made in Denmark by Georg Jensen (1866-1935) around 1920. I would appraise it at about $2,500, and it could fetch $3,000 or more. There is a Jensen muffineer (very modern in design) on sale on the Internet now for $5,900. That’s a lot of muffins!
The thing about Jensen silver is that it’s not manufactured; each piece is made by hand. Jensen started making silver in Copenhagen in 1904. By the time this muffineer was made, he had over 250 employees and outlets in London, Paris and New York. Some consider him the best silversmith the work has ever known.
The Jensen marks are either his name in a crowned wreath, or a lower case “g” next its mirror image “jg” under a crown. The lady told me her family had left her quite a few pieces with these marks. I congratulated her husband on having married so well.
Other quality items handed down included an exquisite porcelain head doll made by Armand Marseille, a Russian with a mysterious French name who made dolls in Germany staring in 1865; an amethyst blown glass vase handmade by the Clevenger brother (Allie Reno and Tony) in Clayton, N.J. in the 1930s; a pair of crafted World War I German binoculars, expertly crafted by Voightlander Braunschweig; and a large GE logo medallion made of enameled heavy cast bronze; yes, real bronze.
I took photos of more items than you see here, many of them passed down from parents and grandparents. Some things might not have been appreciated at first, but good quality has a way of getting to you eventually.
Smart folks use the quiet moments of summer vacation time to make decisions about re-decorating the home for fall or gift-giving for the holidays. Here on the Jersey Cape, scores of locally-owned antiques and specialty shops are filled with ideas, and their shelves are stocked with lots of things made the way they don’t make them anymore.
Now is the perfect time to think about the quality of the things that we will be handing down.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is the author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions and appraisal requests to: aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.