Northshore Magazine

Northshore December 2019

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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106 Pickers can make a living because they have good instincts. Usually, though, it takes years to develop them. This young picker changed his life when he bought that vase. Doing research online, he learned the "M" and "P" stood for Marblehead Pottery and the sailing ship was its logo. Then he saw some eye-popping prices. He sent photos to Skinner, the Boston-based auction house. A 20th- century design specialist, Dan Ayer, didn't hesitate. He drove 250 miles the next morning to pick up the vase for consignment. Not just an early piece made in Marblehead (around 1909), this Marblehead Pottery vase is a rarity due to its design. Experts think the landscape was based on images of Ipswich marshes painted by the esteemed artist Arthur Wesley Dow, and only three others like it are known to exist. The other initials, "A" and "T," designate the vase's designer, Annie E. Aldrich, and decorator, Sarah Tutt. Ayer estimated it would sell for $10,000 to $12,000 at Skinner's next 20th-century design sale, to be held that December. When the catalog came out, word spread, and on auction day, there were multiple contenders: Five had left absentee bids, three sat in the audience, and ten were on the phone lines. One phone bidder went up to a level characterized by some as "shocking" and others as "crazy." Unnamed by Skinner and described only as "a private collector," he or she can now claim to have paid the highest price for any Marblehead Pottery piece ever sold at auction—$303,000. Marblehead Pottery itself began as workshop for people suffering from so-called nervous conditions—nervous breakdowns, if you will. Today a medication and counseling would undoubtedly be prescribed, but in 1904 the Harvard-trained physician Herbert J. Hall, who pioneered "occupational therapy," arranged for his charges to engage in arts and crafts. Basket weaving, metalwork, Two summers ago, a 19-year-old antiques picker cruising New England yard sales happened upon an earthenware vase. Only 8½ inches tall, the piece was glazed in a matte yellow and decorated with a landscape of haystacks. He turned it upside down. The bottom was incised with an "M" and "P" flanking a sailing ship. A couple of other initials marked the bottom as well. He bought it along with a snowmobile helmet for about $60. Top to bottom, Marblehead Pottery bowl with "Stalking Panther" pattern, 1920, wheel-thrown earthenware with incised and glazed decoration, 7 5/8 × 9 inches, impressed factory mark. Panther Bowl from the collection of Peter Lynch Marblehead Pottery, pair of bookends with sailing ships, circa 1910, cast in shades of blue, 5 1/2 × 5 1/2 × 3 inches, impressed factory mark. Opposite page, Natzler ceramic collection, master Bedroom, Marblehead © 2018 Peabody Essex Museum PHOTOGRAPH © THE PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS PHOTO CREDIT: STEPHEN PETEGORSKY. SHOT FOR LYNCH CATALOG

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