Midcentury modern jardiniere is in Roseville's Bushberry style

Q: What can you tell me about this piece of pottery, which is marked "Roseville U.S.A. 411-4?" As you can see in the photographs, it is brownish with greenish overtones around the handles, leaf and berries. Any information would be appreciated.

A: Today's item came in as a computer disk, which we hesitated to open, not knowing what the heck might be on it (we didn't want to give our computer a "bad cold," or heaven forbid, a virus).

But finally we did open it and found this attractive small jardiniere, which we have seen also called a planter. One person on eBay called it a "candy dish" (we smiled). The maker is obvious because of the big "Roseville" signature on the bottom.

This is for a pottery company that was founded in 1890 by J.F. Weaver in Roseville, Ohio. The company was incorporated in 1892 with George Young, a former company salesman, among the principals. Their products at that time were mainly utilitarian household items such as stoneware flowerpots.

Under Young's guidance, the company expanded, buying Midland Pottery, and by 1896, Young was in complete control of the company. In 1898, the company bought Clark Stoneware Co. in Zanesville, Ohio, and moved the headquarters there.

In 1900, the company started making art pottery in competition with nearby Weller Pottery and Rookwood Pottery, which was located in Cincinnati. The first art lines were named Rozane — a combination of Zanesville and Roseville — and closely resembled the brown glazed wares made by Rookwood, Weller, Owens and others (Rookwood was the originator — the rest were copycats).

Other Roseville Rozane lines included Egypto (matte green — in the mode of ancient Egyptian pottery), Mongol (intense red, Chinese-inspired shapes), Mara (metallic luster with patterns) and Woodland (stippled background with floral design, glossy leaves). There were also other lines all hand done and so expensive to make that by 1910 or so the company was moving toward more molded designs that required less individual artistic decoration.

Collectors of midcentury modern (which is hot right now) find many of Roseville's molded art wares from this period to be quite interesting and very collectible. Bushberry came in three color combinations: blue (the most desirable), green and brown.

As for value, this small Roseville Bushberry made sometime between 1941 and 1954 when the company closed should be valued in the $75 to $100 range.

Q: This sideboard has been in the family for many years. The story handed down is it was made by a known Philadelphia cabinetmaker named "Barry" and it is signed. It has its original glass knobs. Any information and its value would be appreciated.

A: The man you may be referring to is Joseph B. Barry (1757-1838), who worked in Philadelphia. For a time, he worked with his son, Joseph, and there is also a note we found that he may have had another partner late in his career.

Barry was born in Dublin, but he trained in his craft in London, then immigrated to the United States, where he set up shop in Philadelphia. It is thought that Barry came to Philadelphia around 1790, but when the yellow fever epidemic of October 1793 hit the city, he fled the stricken town along with the federal government, which was located in Philadelphia at the time.

It is also said that Barry made the finest American furniture in the Boulle mode, which involves inlaying with tortoiseshell, brass and sometimes silver or pewter. It is a type of furniture named for French cabinetmaker Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), who worked as master cabinetmaker for King Louis XIV of France.

When Thomas Jefferson was the United States' second vice president — in office from 1797 to 1801 — he was headquartered in Philadelphia. Records show that Jefferson was a customer of Joseph Barry & Son. It is thought that after Jefferson was elected president in 1800, he may have taken some of Barry's furniture with him to the new White House in Washington, D.C.

It should be noted that Barry also produced furniture in Baltimore. We wish we had better pictures of the piece and would like to know just how it is signed. We have seen references to a Barry paper label, and we have also seen his signature (Jos. B. Barry) in pencil on bare wood, but we have no idea what is on the piece in today's question.

We are concerned because a piece very similar to this one was once attributed to Joseph B. Barry or William Camp, but is now thought to have been made in Baltimore by Edward Priestley (1778-1837). This is important because the asking price for the nearly identical American Classical period sideboard circa 1810-1815 and attributed to Priestly was $95,000! But to be certain of an attribution and a monetary value, the piece really needs to be seen in person by a specialist in American furniture.

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson have written a number of books on antiques. Do you have an item you'd like to know more about? Contact them at Joe Rosson, 2504 Seymour Ave., Knoxville, TN 37917, or e-mail them at treasuresknology.net.