Antiques & Collecting: Artistic tiles

In present-day houses, tile is usually a humble building material, limited to bathroom or kitchen surfaces for its durability and ease of cleaning. To collectors, they are an art form, especially if they were made by the art potteries of the early 20th century.

Wheatley Pottery, the maker of this flowered tile that sold for $216 at Soulis Auctions, was one of them. Thomas J. Wheatley started his first pottery, T.J. Wheatley & Co., in 1880, but it closed within a few years.

After some time working with Weller Pottery in Zanesville, Ohio, which was at one point the largest art pottery in the world, he tried again. Wheatley Pottery opened in 1903 in Cincinnati.

In 1927, the Cambridge Tile Manufacturing Company of Covington, Kentucky, bought Wheatley Pottery. They stayed open until the 1980s.

My husband collected a series of gold-plated baseball cards from Danbury Mint a while back. He is downsizing and trying to sell these cards. To date, we have found no one who is interested. We have contacted Danbury Mint to see if we can find a value for the cards he has and they have not been helpful. Could you please offer some guidance as to whom we should contact? We have tried local sporting goods companies and some auction houses.

Danbury Mint made gold-plated baseball cards from 1996 to 2003. They released a new collection each year. The cards are made of cardstock with a very thin layer of gold.

Sets of 50 cards bound in an album sell for about $30 to $100 at auctions and resale sites like eBay. The website Sportlots.com values most of the individual cards at about $2 each.

Items like these that are marketed as “limited edition” or “collector’s edition” usually have relatively low values on the secondary market.

Many people buy and save them with the intent to resell, so the collectibles market gets flooded. There is little value to the gold in the cards because such a small amount is used.

Tip: Don’t wrap things for storage in newspapers. The ink can yellow paper, fabrics and ceramics.

Current Prices

Toy, Modern Farm Set, tin lithograph barn, plastic accessories, fence, animals, tractor, box, Louis Marx, $100.

Firefighting, helmet, white, painted, metal, leather placard, “Asst Chief,” “MFD,” interior label, Cairns & Brother, size 7 1/2, 14 inches, $150.

Silver-Continental, bowl, art deco, stylized leaves and seeds, pierced, gilt interior, glass insert, hallmarks, Steyl, 9 x 3 1/2 inches, $550.

Pottery, vase, Santa Clara, blackware, tapered neck, etched figures, signed, Nancy Youngblood, 1980, 2 inches, $755.

Coin operated, trade stimulator, “Drop A Cent In The Slot,” pin field, cigar rewards, oak case, canted sides, early 1900s, 18 1/4 x 17 1/2 inches, $840.

Radio, Emerson, FC-400, Aristocrat, Catalin case, onyx, wrap-around grille, cream and brown, spring-loaded handle, Norman Bel Geddes, 8 x 11 x 5 1/4 inches, $1,020.