Roseville for Raymor swinging coffee pot

Yesterday I happened to see a listing on eBay that I consider noteworthy. It is a swinging coffee pot designed by Ben Seibel and produced by Roseville for Raymor.

The fact that it has a slight hairline crack is more than made up for by the low starting price of $60 and its remarkable design, especially since I've seen some sellers list them from $500-1500. I find this one of the most fascinating coffee pot designs to come out the the last half of the 20th century, and this one would display beautifully.

All images from ebay.com - rameau1000

Late to the debate

I either have the best timing in the world or the worst. Before I was even aware there was a raging debate about who designed Interplay for Iroquois, it ended.

According to Michael Pratt at modish, collectors argued for years about the possibility that either Russel Wright or Ben Seibel designed the line, but they could come to no consensus.

A few years ago, Pratt found a mention of Wright as the designer in a trade journal article on tableware settings. He had also found another reference stating that Wright had created a new bowl for the line. Still, collectors were skeptical.

Eventually, however, Pratt found an article in the September 6, 1952, New York Times entitled "Dinnerware Mixed, Plain and Patterned," which stated definitively that the dinnerware was designed by Russel Wright. The article went on to explain that the solid pieces were meant to be mixed and matched with the patterns.

As far as I can tell, the line was produced in solid white and colors called Charcoal and Golden Melon. Patterns were called Arabesque, Fleur de Lis and Woodvine (sometimes referred to by sellers as Leaves Berries)

Interplay coffee pot (left) in charcoal and white after dinner coffee pot (right)
modish.net

Interplay coffee pot and after dinner coffee pot in Golden Melon
modish.net

Interplay Fleur de Lis

Interplay Arabesque
modish.net

Interplay Woodvine
modish.net

An offshoot of the Interplay line is Carrera Modern, a string/drizzle pattern which utilizes most of the same shapes.

Carrera Modern ad
ohioriverpottery.com

I love a good trade

Back in February, I posted about my collection of Iroquois Harvest Time by Ben Seibel that I'm mixing and matching with pieces of granite gray American Modern by Russel Wright., and I mentioned that I might need a larger cabinet to store it in.

Yesterday I traded my SIL the blond glass front case it was in for a teak corner unit by Nathan. Almost all of the furniture we have in the shop is teak, walnut or rosewood, and we've been talking about setting up a small room vignette with blond furniture. Hence the trade, about which I'm saying yippee and other expletives of delight.

The cabinet fit perfectly in the corner of my dining room, and my china looks so much better in it than in the bookcase. I guess that's because, as the name implies, the case is for books...not china.  Here's the before picture:

Before

Now check out the after photos, and you'll see why I'm so happy with the trade. I finally have a proper place to display the china collection!

After

And more after

And a close up of the china in its new home

Ben Seibel and the Haeger "S Series"

In the world inhabited by serious collectors of china and other ceramics, an unsolved mystery frequently raises a debate. Did Ben Seibel design the "S Series" for Haeger or not?

We recently picked up this beautiful blue 16" Royal Haeger pitcher at auction which was attributed to Ben Seibel. As I always do, I began to research the piece.

Royal Haeger flower pitcher

I located a forum discussion about the same Royal Haeger flower pitcher in a shiny black glaze.

modish.net

Some of the forum participants were convinced that this is a Seibel design, while others needed more proof. A couple thought the pitcher was reminiscent of Seibel's Forum International pitcher:

Forum International
modish.net

However, I think it is even more similar to the design of the pitcher in the Impromptu series that Seibel did for Iroquois.

Iroquois Impromptu Pyramids
modish.net

For now, the jury is out until someone finds an old ad or some archived piece of Haeger history. What do you think?

Pronunciation Guide

From the ridiculous to the sublime

At the front left is the tiny box used by the careless seller of the salt and pepper shakers. Behind it is the huge box and the two smaller ones...yes, three of them...that the seller of the samovar used, along with more than ample peanuts and bubble wrap. Granted, the salt and pepper set is much smaller than the samovar, but it was clearly too large to ship in that tiny box, as the sad picture in an earlier post proved. On the other hand, the seller of the samovar promised to be ultra-cautious and was. 

So, yes, the samovar is here, and after holding my breath till I was sure it arrived safely, I placed it in the preeminent, first-thing-you-see position atop the cabinet that contains the rest of the Iroquois Harvest Time by Ben Seibel and the granite gray Steubenville American Modern by Russel Wright. And if you look behind the glass, you'll see the recently repaired salt shaker, a reminder that these lovely pieces of history are too precious to take for granted.

The beginnings of my collection of Harvest Time and American Modern in granite gray.
I think a larger cabinet may be in order very soon.

Ben Seibel and his work for Iroquois

Ben Seibel (1918-1985) was born in Newark, New Jersey. He started his education at Columbia University, studying painting and sculpture. He then became interested in industrial design and attended Pratt Institute. World War II interrupted his studies, and he spent almost four years in the Air Force. After the war, he worked briefly on the design staffs at Raymond Spilman and Morris Sanders. In 1947, he started his own design firm, which he operated until his death in 1985.

Early in his career, he was asked by the financially ailing Roseville Pottery to design a line for them that would revive sales. His design was popular, but it was not able to save the company. However, it did make a name for him in the design world.

He produced an extremely large body of work, designing for American Can, Brueton Furniture, Cherokee Nation Pottery, Cosmos Products, Duncan and Miller, Fostoria, Gilley, Haeger, Henry & Miller, Jaxton, Kasuga, Krischer Metal, Laurel, Levco Mfg., M. & L. Manufacturing Company, Mikasa, Morgantown, Carl Lendinara Furniture Company, Oneida, Oxford Hall Silversmiths, Park Techniques Design, Pfaltzgraff, Raymor, RLR, Roseville, Stand-Built Upholstery Corp., Steubenville, SFC Associates, Vermont Pacific, Westwood and Wilton.

His designs included fine china, stoneware, pottery, flatware, cutlery, cookware, ashtrays, glassware, wood accessories, metal accessories, furniture, clocks, electric food warmers, lamps, textiles, tea kettles, and even plastic cutlery for Dixie Cup and children’s tableware for Campbell’s Soup.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have decided to collect his Harvest Time china, so this post will focus on his work for Iroquois. I'm becoming so fascinated with his designs, however, that I'm sure I'll touch on other aspects of his work from time to time. You'll get an idea from the following list just how extensive his list of designs really is, since this represents work for only one of the thirty-one companies listed above.

Seibel designed four lines of tableware for Iroquois: Impromptu in 1956, Informal in 1958, Inheritance in 1959 and Intaglio in 1964. (There is possibly a fifth line called Interplay, but most authors on the subject have found no pictures and have very little information other than the name.)  Each line had its own uniquely shaped pieces. Within each line, there were sets employing numerous decal patterns, as well as accent pieces in solid white or white undersides with a color on the top, which are referred to simply as Accent. Because he was so prolific, even the most knowledgeable collectors find it difficult to catalog all his work with complete certainty.

The Impromptu line included the following decal pattern sets:

• Autumn Harmony
• Aztec
• Beige Rose
• Blue Doves
• Bridal White
• Colonial Pink
• Colonial Blue
• Cosmos
• Country Garden (sometimes called Country Time)
• Dutch Treat (sometimes called Blue Delft)
• El Camino
• Fjord
• Frolic
• Garland
• Grapes
• House of Flowers
• Jarninieres
• Knollwood
• Lexington
• Luau
• Parasols
• Pins and Beads
• Pompon
• Pyramids
• Spring Flowers
• Stellar
• Tiara
• Vision
• Wild Rose
• Wild Violet

Impromptu Pyramids
modish.net

Impromptu El Camino
modish.net

Impromptu Stellar
modish.net

Danton China
modish.net

There is a starburst decal pattern set marked "Danton China" that is shaped like Impromptu, but even expert collectors are stymied about it, because its mark is unlike that of the Impromptu line.

The Informal line included:

• Blue Diamonds
• Blue Vineyard
• Bombay Blue
• Bombay Green
• Georgetown
• Harvest Time
• Hearts of Gold
• Knollwood
• Lazy Daisy
• Madrid
• Old Orchard
• Rosemary
• Sleepy Hollow
• Teuton
• Thane

Informal Blue Diamonds
modish.net

Informal Accent in blue
modish.net

Informal Harvest Time
replacementslimitred.com

My note: Since I found and bought the samovar so quickly, I have to find the Harvest Time lazy susan now. It must be mine! :)

The Inheritance line included:

• Baroque
• Beige Rose
• Cotillion
• Dynasty
• Grecian Gold
• Knollwood
• Medallion
• Pompon
• Su-Shi
• Sheer White
• Gold Band
• Platinum Band
• Teuton
• Thane

Some of his previous decal patterns were repeated in this style.

Inheritance Su-Shi
modish.net

Inheritance Grecian Gold
abenseibeldesign.com

Inheritance Medallion
abenseibeldesign.com

The Intaglio line included:

• Dahlia (Blue)
• Dahlia (Golden)
• Ivy (?)
• Old English Blue
• Old English Pink
• Painted Daisy (Blue)
• Painted Daisy (Pink)
• Rosette (Jade)
• Rosette (Sun)
• Diamond White
• Woodale

Intaglio Dahlia
abenseibeldesign.com

Intaglio Painted Daisy
abenseibeldesign.com

Intaglio Rosette in the color "Sun"
abenseibeldesign.com

From abenseibeldesign.com; portrait of Ben Seibel (copyrighted to Michael Kaplan) via abenseibeldesign.com

Pronunciation Guide

Big Love

I've never been one to take things slow and easy, and I'm probably too old to start now. While some people have the patience to scour thrift stores for months to find the pièce de résistance of a new collection, I tend to go for broke from the start.

This usually keeps me from getting a $350 piece for $2, but even so, I sometimes find what I consider a pretty good deal. That's what happened over the weekend.

I started collecting Iroquois Harvest Time a few days ago with an 18-piece score on Craigslist. I fell in love with the Ben Seibel design at first sight and started looking for good deals on dinner plates and saucers. While looking, naturally I found the "oh wow" pieces of the set...the samovar and the lazy susan.

The samovar, which stands a whopping 15 inches tall, usually goes for $240-$350, but Saturday I found one listed as mint on eBay for $99, with a Buy It Now price of $145. I kept an eye on it all that night and the next morning, and it didn't have any bids. I was getting hopeful. Then a few hours before the auction ended, someone bid the minimum. A few minutes later, the same person apparently got worried that the first bid was too low and bid again. And again.

At this point, I was pretty sure she'd run her maximum bid up to the BIN price, but I couldn't be sure. The only thing I could do was wait till the last possible second and try to beat her by a few pennies. With 15 seconds to go, I bid...and won!!!  Her maximum bid had only been $122.77, so I was able to get the samovar for less than the BIN price after all.

$125.27 may not be Salvation Army great, but it sure beats $350.

Iroquois Harvest Time samovar by Ben Seibel--
the eBay photo of my latest purchase

Now I'll be on pins and needles till it arrives all in one piece. When it gets settled in with the rest of my collection, I'll post a new photo.

Update: Here it is with the rest of the pieces in my Harvest Time collection, plus a few Russel Wright pieces in gray.

Harvest Time for Iroquois by Ben Seibel

I can sometimes be fickle. I admit it. Not long ago I posted about my intention to start collecting Metlox Aztec. I was very excited about it and had tons of it on my eBay watch list, but just as quickly as I became interested, my wandering eye found Harvest Time, designed for Iroquois by Ben Seibel.

To be entirely honest, I always had a tiny itch of misgivings about the Metlox. I love the design, but I couldn't quite figure out how a collection of Aztec, paired with the beautiful granite gray Russel Wright American Modern the kids got me for Christmas, was going to look with my larger collection of Russel Wright Iroquois Casual in ripe apricot and avocado yellow, which will be in the same room. The warmth of my existing collection and the cool starkness of the proposed new gray and white collection seemed an incongruous pairing. I am admittedly a decorator first, and then a collector, so how everything looks together is important. No jangling juxtapositions for me! I'm certainly not into matchy-matchy, but I can't be happy if a space isn't cohesive, and I wasn't feeling the flow when I pictured the room with those two collections of china. And then, out of the blue, came the perfect solution.

My SIL sent me a link to a set of china on Craigslist, and the minute I saw it, I knew that Harvest Time, with its gray and rust colored leaves on a white background, along with coordinating Accent pieces in burnt orange were going to look perfect in my dining room. Even better, after researching Harvest Time, I decided it would hold up to daily use as well as my Iroquois Casual, because it was advertised for its durability in the same way the Russel Wright line was.

Here is my latest Craigslist find, along with some of the Russel Wright I already had:

My new Iroquois Informal Harvest Time by Ben Seibel (1958)
with my Russel Wright Iroquois Casual in the background

The new Iroquois Informal Harvest Time
paired with granite gray Russel Wright American Modern

I got a coffee pot with lid, a sugar bowl and creamer, a divided vegetable bowl, a small burnt orange coordinating Accent bowl without the leaf decal design, four plates and seven cups...a great start on a full set in just one stop...and at a great price! The lucky streak continues...

Pronunciation Guide