THE KOVELS | Antiques and collecting Ohio Coppertone pottery maintains high value

Art pottery is probably the most popular collectible seen at shows and shops today.
Samuel Weller opened a small pottery in Fultonham, Ohio, about 1873. He made unpainted flowerpots and other plain wares.
He soon found that by decorating the pots with house paint, he could sell them to housewives in nearby Zanesville.
His firm flourished, and he moved into larger and larger plants, still making painted flowerpots, jardinieres, hanging baskets, umbrella stands and other pottery.
In 1893 he built an addition onto his plant, and he soon started to make art pottery.
By 1915, Weller Pottery was possibly the largest art pottery in the world.
The company prospered and made all forms of ceramics until 1948, when it went out of business.
One of the pottery lines made in the 1920s and '30s was called Coppertone. It had a blotchy green glaze over a brown glaze that resembled patinated copper.
Many of the pieces were decorated with frogs, fish or plants.
Prices for Coppertone have gone up in the past few years. A vase of the same design as one that sold for about $425 in 2000, recently sold for $4,025.
Q. I would appreciate any information you can give me about a small trestle table I inherited from a friend. It is 26 inches long, 12 inches wide and 24 inches high. The sides are closed and carved with scrolls and leaves. There is a flat, open shelf a few inches under the tabletop, and there's a V-shaped shelf near the bottom. The sticker on the bottom reads "Imperial, Grand Rapids, Mich."
A. Tables like yours are often called bookstands. The V-shaped shelf can hold several books, and the flat shelf is designed to hold a few favorite volumes close at hand. The bookstand was manufactured by the Imperial Furniture Co., which operated in Grand Rapids from 1903 to 1954. Your bookstand probably dates from the 1920s or '30s.
Q. I inherited some old tools from my grandmother. There's one I can't identify. It's T-shaped and about 33/4 inches long. The stem is an inch wide at the bottom, with a recessed hole that's 5/16-inch square. The top of the T is the handle. The stem is embossed "The National Casket Co." Can you tell me what this tool is and when it was made?
A. Your tool is a casket key, a small crank-style wrench that locks a casket. The National Casket Co. was in business in Oneida, N.Y., from 1860 until 1960. Casket keys sell for a few dollars at flea markets and on the Internet. You now have to solve the mystery of why your grandmother had a casket key.
Q. Fifty years ago, a friend of my mother's gave her a large, metal sphinx-shaped candlestick. The friend had bought it at a pawn shop in Providence, R.I. It is about 18 inches long and 12 inches tall. The sphinx is stamped "Frank Daniels Comic Opera Co." on one side and "The Wizard of the Nile" on the other. The bottom is marked "N. Mullers Son & amp; Co." Can you give me any idea about the history of the candlestick?
A. "The Wizard of the Nile" is an American comic opera. It was written in 1895 by Victor Herbert, with words by Harry Bache Smith. The opera was composed specifically for a well-known comedian of the time, Frank Daniels. N. Mullers Son & amp; Co. must have cast the metal sphinx. Perhaps the sphinx candlestick was a prop for the set. Or, it might have been cast as a memento for Daniels or other actors in the opera.
Tip
Don't store vintage fabrics in plastic garment bags or cleaner's bags -- get cloth garment bags. Use a padded hanger, not a metal one. Be sure the fabrics are not exposed to high humidity or sunlight.
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