Posted 3 years ago
OldGeezerS…
(2 items)
An item from my childhood that I believe now to be only a cookie jar and not used for making tea or coffee. Might someone out there help and give me more information about it? I haven't been able to find an exact or very close type of it so far while searching online.
What is the size?
Thanks for your prompt reply Gilliam.
Sorry, I simply forgot to be sure to include its overall measurements.
They are as follows:
10 inches - spout tip to handle end
6 inches - high with lid in place
6 inches - wide at top edge to edge
4 inches - circle opening for lid to rest in
Hope these measurements fulfill your request to aid in a determination.
Thanks again!
You gave me a smile with your tea pot-looking cookie jar….that’s a perfect way to keep a stash of cookies just your little secret!
It’s Porcelier
art.pottery, Woo hoo! I'm so glad that you were able identify the maker.
OldGeezerSurvivor, About Porcelier:
*snip*
1927 The Porcelier Manufacturing Co. worked in East Liverpool, Ohio and South Greenberg, Pa. until 1954. It made vitrified china teapots, bowls, cups, sugars, creamers and small electrical appliances. The items are now collectibles.
*snip*
http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1926_1927.HTML
Your pattern:
*snip*
Dutch Boy & Girl
by Porcelier
Item#: 126342 Pattern Code: PCEDBG
Description: Boy&Girl Holding Flowers, Tea/Coffee Set
Pattern: Dutch Boy & Girl by Porcelier
Status: Discontinued. Circa: 1942 - 1950
*snip*
https://www.replacements.com/china-porcelier-dutch-boy-and-girl/c/126342
More about Porcelier and their Dutch children patterns:
*snip*
HISTORY: The Porcelier Manufacturing Company was founded in East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1927, and moved to South Greenburg, Pennsylvania, in 1930. The company made vitreous china teapots, sugars and creamers, bowls, cups, and light fixtures. From what I found during my research, it closed in 1954, due to its inability to compete with the new plastics industry.
DESCRIPTION: This teapot is made of ivory vitreous china with a hand-painted, bas relief Dutch girl holding flowers. This single Dutch girl pattern was the first of their Dutch children patterns, and was made during the 1920s. (The Double Dutch Girl pattern came out in the 1930s, and the Dutch Boy & Girl came out in the 1940s.) Around the top and bottom of the teapot are bas relief vines and leaves, with a pink flower just above the Dutch girl.
*snip*
https://www.etsy.com/listing/234710190/vintage-art-deco-porcelier-single-dutch
Thank You very much keramikos for your efforts in providing me a short history of the item's maker and time periods. Now I can provide a bit more history to descendants (or someone getting this at an estate sale) about this rather than only to say "Mom had it when I was a kid and I got it after she passed".
OldGeezerSurvivor, You're welcome. :-)
Kudos to art.pottery for providing the company name.
Prior to them providing that crucial piece of information (I couldn't recognize the makers mark on the bottom of the cookie jar), all I could find was a surprising number of cookie jars styled to look like teapots, but none of which looked like yours. Once I had the maker name, I found plenty of twins.
It sounds like you've got a pragmatic attitude towards the future of this family artifact, and that seems good to me.
It might be one of those "it was always there" items for you, and I totally get that, but I also understand that to other people, even other family members, it might just be another doodad to deal with after you're gone.
Porcelier seems to have had a relatively short history, which is good from the standpoint of narrowing down the vintage of a particular piece that they made.
Hopefully, the company and pattern history comport with your own recollection of the cookie jar.
Porcelier also made light fixtures. Here's one at CW:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/235443-small-white-ceramic-milk-glass-porcelier
They also made fancier, glass ones, plus other items:
*snip*
Once upon a time there existed a company called Porcelier.
The unusual name derived from the fact that the company made things largely out of porcelain. And glass.
Today, one can buy Porcelier toasters (made, incredibly, out of porcelain) and Porcelier coffee makers and Porcelier tea sets and Porcelier waffle makers and…Porcelier lighting fixtures.
*snip*
https://restoringross.com/why-fixtures-by-porcelier-are-so-stunning/
East Liverpool, OH was a center for ceramics:
https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/East_Liverpool,_Ohio
They even have a museum dedicated to ceramics, housed in a beautiful old building that used to be a post office:
https://www.themuseumofceramics.com/
Now that I'm slightly more awake, I tried to track down more information about Porcelier, specifically when it was in South Greensburg, PA, because that is where they were located when they made that particular pattern.
Here are a few tidbits from a Worthpoint listing of a Porcelier waffler maker (yes):
*snip*
Porcelier moved its company to South Greensburg, PA when it purchased the vacant American China Company plant in 1930. Porcelier graced the American home with its wonderful line of lighting fixtures, kitchen and fine dining items over the next two decades well into the '50's when the company was dissolved and sold the building and seven acres of land to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Industries in 1954. Sadly, the building is no longer t having been torn down to make way for a more modern building.
*snip*
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-porcelier-ceramic-porcelain-waffle-maker-art
The plant may have looked like this (from a Google Books copy of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites by Edward K. Muller Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1994 - Government publications - 399 pages):
*snip*
Porcelier Manufacturing Company 220 Huff Avenue South Greensburg Construction Date ca 1930 DESCRIPTION Original brick building is painted white and partially covered with turquoise siding two stories measures 280 x 280 flat roof recently reconstructed of felt foam glass and pitch brick foundation six over six light double hung windows in horizontal bands on first floor multipane casement windows in horizontal bands on second floor extensively remodeled with additions to original buildings and the construction of new buildings The kilns and original machinery have been removed The Porcelier Manufacturing Company is now owned by PPG Industries HISTORY The Porcelier Manufacturing Company acquired the former manufacturing facility of the Pittsburgh American China Company in 1930 and began manufacturing ceramic products lighting fixtures percolators and bowls These products were sold to such large department store chains as Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward The firm employed 307 workers in 1935 292 workers in 1941 and 359 workers in 1947 Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company acquired the 80,000 square foot facility in 1954 and added new buildings in both 1955 and 1956 PPG Inc maintained a work force of 100 in 1954 primarily producing curved laminated windshields for automobiles and trucks The former Porcelier Manufacturing Company plant building is now used by PPG as a warehouse and distributing depot for automobile glass parts
*snip*
Dunno exactly when PPG gave up the ghost, but nowadays, that site is occupied by, among other things, an outfit that makes LCD displays:
220 Huff Ave, Greensburg, PA 15601
https://goo.gl/maps/khfQH9RNYZH2kKJp9
Where Google Street View fears to tread:
https://www.commercialcafe.com/commercial-property/us/pa/greensburg/south-greensburg-commons/