Eddies of Mexico City Plateria Sterling/Chinese Pottery Find

[bigcaddy64]

This coffee/tea set was my consolation prize on after a whole morning of ?misses?. I hit my usual route and, while I was finding some good stuff, I also was a bit late to a few sales where I missed some amazing deals.


After a few hours of hunting, I decided it was time to get home and start getting ready for a party we were attending later. As I pulled down the street into my neighborhood, I spotted a sign and figured I had time for one more sale

To everyone that hasn?t been to my house, I?m right in the middle of a large, circle shaped upper middle class neighborhood from the 1960s that still retains lots of its old style ranch homes, including a man made lake.

As I drive down the street to the house, I see a truck drive past me with what appeared to be a Knoll Saarinen table/chairs and some other items piled high! I quickly park and see what?s up for sale but the stuff in the driveway is pretty average. The owners relative comes over and starts chatting which is how I find out the whole house is open for looking.

We go inside and the house is nearly empty. The man with the truck bought nearly everything and it was filled with mid century stuff including musical instruments, art, furniture, stereo stuff etc.

I start picking through the leftovers and end up spotting a single butter knife that appears to be Sterling. As luck would have it, it was Sterling and the woman escorting me through the house said there?s more stuff like that in the next room.

Sitting on a bench was the tea set, looking like it had been painted black. After picking that up, we walked to another room containing a big China cabinet filled with more great treasures. I picked through those and found a few more pieces including the 2 little plates pictured.



I definitely am happy I scored the tea set but still wish I found the sale sooner. It was posted on Facebook which is the one thing I don?t have/search for sale on but I guess that?s going to change now. The pricing was ?give it away? rates so it would of been an excellent sale.

My question on the tea set is this: Has anybody found pieces from Eddie?s before? All I?ve found is a brief mention that it was a silver retailer in Mexico City but that?s about it. I?m curious to know the stores history and when it operated. My pieces aren?t marked so I have no idea who made them, only that they were store brand marked along with 0.925 and Mexico

 

[Elvis]

Awesome score!!!

 

[Yang Hao]

Both pottery pieces look to be Japanese. The one on the left says 九谷青窯 and under that looks to be 文書画. The one on the right says 清山。

 

[Red-Coat]

Yes, Yang Hao is quite right. Both plates are Japanese.

The mark on the first one says “Kutani ware” and then some characters that I think loosely translate as something akin to “registered design” (although I’m not completely sure about that). ‘Kutani’ means ‘Nine Valleys’, which was both a village in Japan known for its porcelain, and a large area surrounding it with numerous pottery industries. The ‘FF’ letters underneath show it was produced as export ware to the West and I’m pretty sure it will have been commissioned by ‘Fitz and Floyd’, who used that mark. The company was founded in 1960 by Pat Fitzpatrick and Robert Floyd in Dallas, Texas importing high quality china and giftware sold exclusively through top end retail outlets and swanky department stores.

The second plate is Satsuma ware (in the loosest sense). You’re showing the mark upside down. The ‘red cross in circle’ would be at the top and is the kamon (family crest) of Satsuma's ruling Shimazu clan. Originally it denoted their direct involvement in an item’s production, but in the age of mass production and export to the West was nothing more than a marketing tool with no respect for age or authenticity. The mark below is for Kiyoyama/Kyoyama, which is a family name that will be the name of the actual pottery but the mark was in use for multiple generations with a wide range of dates. I would think it not earlier than Taisho period (1912-1926) and more probably post WWII… perhaps the same kind of date as the Kutani plate if they came from the same source.

For the tea set, as you’ve already found, ‘Eddie’s’ is not well documented and they sold pieces by numerous silversmiths, many of which aren’t marked. Without a mark to assign to a maker/designer they’re difficult to date but the bulk of them seem to be from around the 1950s onwards.

 

[bigcaddy64]

Yes, Yang Hao is quite right. Both plates are Japanese.

The mark on the first one says “Kutani ware” and then some characters that I think loosely translate as something akin to “registered design” (although I’m not completely sure about that). ‘Kutani’ means ‘Nine Valleys’, which was both a village in Japan known for its porcelain, and a large area surrounding it with numerous pottery industries. The ‘FF’ letters underneath show it was produced as export ware to the West and I’m pretty sure it will have been commissioned by ‘Fitz and Floyd’, who used that mark. The company was founded in 1960 by Pat Fitzpatrick and Robert Floyd in Dallas, Texas importing high quality china and giftware sold exclusively through top end retail outlets and swanky department stores.

The second plate is Satsuma ware (in the loosest sense). You’re showing the mark upside down. The ‘red cross in circle’ would be at the top and is the kamon (family crest) of Satsuma's ruling Shimazu clan. Originally it denoted their direct involvement in an item’s production, but in the age of mass production and export to the West was nothing more than a marketing tool with no respect for age or authenticity. The mark below is for Kiyoyama/Kyoyama, which is a family name that will be the name of the actual pottery but the mark was in use for multiple generations with a wide range of dates. I would think it not earlier than Taisho period (1912-1926) and more probably post WWII… perhaps the same kind of date as the Kutani plate if they came from the same source.

For the tea set, as you’ve already found, ‘Eddie’s’ is not well documented and they sold pieces by numerous silversmiths, many of which aren’t marked. Without a mark to assign to a maker/designer they’re difficult to date but the bulk of them seem to be from around the 1950s onwards.

Thanks for the valuable info on those pieces. I'm always happy to learn and will have this bit tucked away to remember when i find more stuff.

Ill make some more posts this afternoon with more finds from this past weekend. Its been crazy out there and the finds even crazier!! I would need a week off just to process/prep all of my finds for photos and research.