Goodwill find is a Rose Medallion oval platter
Dear Helaine and Joe: I found this piece in a goodwill store and paid $ 6 because it was clean. When I got home, I noticed that there were quite a few tips around the rim. I’m wondering what I bought, but is it worth more than the amount I paid?
Thank you very much.
— KT
Dear KT: God congratulates Goodwill Industries on what they do every day. And once in the blue moon, thank you for the big bargain that appears in one of their thrift shops. In very rare cases, the discoveries are so good that you can send the children of a lucky buyer to college, but in most cases it is a big return on your investment.
Thrift shops are generally the best place to find bargains of all kinds. Wedding dresses worth thousands of dollars sell for under $ 50 (wear only once or twice). Or there’s a picture of Jackson Pollack that was bought for $ 5 and turned out to be worth millions of dollars (lucky buyers were offered $ 9 million).
The work in question today is of Chinese origin and is a type of pottery with 18th century roots in and around Canton City (now Guangzhou). Prior to 1842, this was the only Chinese port open to European trade. A variety of porcelain for export to Europe and North America was made from many pottery and shipped to the canton, where it was hand-decorated.
The Chinese despised these products for their bad taste, but the Europeans loved them. The captain filled the bottom of the ship with porcelain that acted as a ballast. Stone was often used for this purpose when ships departed Europe, but was replaced by “China” on the return trip due to the significant improvement in voyage profitability.In the second half of the 17th century, new colors were added to the Chinese palette for porcelain decoration. It was pink — the Chinese called it a “foreign color” — but it could range from soft shades to almost ruby shades. Collector refers to this enamel-colored porcelain type, “Famille rose” or Rosaceae, within its decoration scheme.
Some of the best-known examples of Chinese exports using powdered enamel are called rose cantons and rose medallions. Both patterns have decorative panels or medallions. The rose canton was completely floral, but in the rose medallion, the floral panels alternate with other panels that contain human representations (birds and butterflies are also sometimes represented).
The rose medallion oval platter in today’s question was probably made in the mid-19th century (1830-1860s). Works made after 1891 are generally marked as China, and works made after the beginning of World War I are often marked as made in China. If the work is marked in Made in Hong Kong or Kanji, it is of modern origin and of little interest to collectors.
The chips in this piece are minor and should be worth about $ 300. If perfect, its value would have been close to $ 500.