I’ve received so many inquiries about Limoges china lately that when I got yet another email last week I decided it was time to answer all the questions in a column. The big question, of course, is: How can I sell my Limoges dinnerware set?
For the first half of the 20th Century, Limoges dinnerware, especially sets from one of the Haviland companies, was the china-closet china in many fine American homes. It was the “good dishes” brought out on holidays and special occasions.
Now many of those sets, or what’s left of them in partial sets, are coming on the market, and owners are finding the market for them is not what it used to be.
It saddens me to see so many people trying to sell their old Limoges, especially on an unappreciative market. I am a counseling folk to hold to on to their Limoges, use it make every day a special occasion.
When setting a table with it, notice the hundreds of hours of detailed hand-painting it took to create it.
Some day the market will re-awake to Limoges. In the meantime, you can find some sets for sale in antique shops these days for less than $100 a place setting. Sets that are more valuable will lots of hand-painting, irregularly shaped borders, and heavy gold as well as fancy handles and finials.
Decorative Limoges, like vases, planters, boxes and candlesticks, are still holding their value. There is still interest, too, in the fish and game sets and oyster dishes.
Since we are on the subject of French ceramics, I’ll share with you an email that came all the way from France. In it was a picture of a tete-a-tete tea set for two on a ceramic tray. It struck me as crude and inelegant, and I didn’t imagine it would be worth much.
The handwritten mark on the bottom reminded me of a pottery class signature, except that it was so long and unpronounceable: “Henri Leon Charles Robalbhen—Henri Laurent Desrousseaux.”
The story behind the names goes back to 1896, when popular Parisian painter, Henri Laurent Desrousseaux (1860-1906), was prevailed upon by his agent to cash in on the then current craze for art pottery.
They came up with the marketing name Henri Leon Charles Robalbhen, and created very hands-on, crafty looking pieces in stoneware. Desrousseaux rounded up some of his Parisian artist friends to do the decorating.
Now the Robalbhen pieces are highly sought after by collectors of Arts and Crafts and early Modern art pottery. I found vase on the Internet that are selling or have sold in the range of $2,500 to $3,500 and more. I couldn’t find a tea set, but the one in this photograph was probably be priced at 1,500-$1,800, even with one missing cup.
The column on items from the wreck of the Sindia off Ocean City brought scads of letters. That ship’s cargo was a textbook of the variety of Japanese export ware that was popular in the U.S. at the turn-of-the-century.
I thought I had covered all the important items and how to recognize them, when along comes an email with a picture of something different.
In many ways, the 13-inch vase looked something like Robalbhen, craftily hand painted. This was a piece of Japanese studio ware (1870-1930), probably from Kutani, and made at the same time as the French piece. Even though the French artists were copying from the Japanese at that time, this Japanese piece, at about $400, is worth much less.
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.
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