Van Briggle Pottery is an American art pottery company that was founded in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1901 by Dutch-American potter, Artus Van Briggle. The company was known for its Arts and Crafts-style pottery and its iconic matte glazes in natural colors. Van Briggle’s innovative glaze techniques and unique designs quickly gained popularity, and the pottery became highly sought after by art collectors.
The company experienced several changes in ownership and location over the years, but continued to produce handcrafted pottery until it closed in 2012. Today, Van Briggle Pottery is considered to be some of the finest American art pottery and is highly prized by collectors.
Collecting Van Briggle pottery is an excellent choice as it is still available at somewhat reasonable prices. Other familiar pottery names like Roseville, Weller, Rookwood, and McCoy which have been collected for much longer have seen their prices peak and then fall. Bottom line — they’ve simply been over-collected. Even today when you come across a piece, most likely it’s still overpriced. Why? Because once a brand hits its peak price, sellers of the brand are reluctant to sell for less.
This makes collecting Van Briggle pottery not only less-costly, it enables you to build a collection that’s more unique than the ubiquitous brands mentioned above. Don’t let the fact that Van Briggle pottery is still producing and selling pottery today cause you to be hesitant to collect it. As you are interested in Van Briggle pottery — or you wouldn’t be visiting our site — this is an advantage. Not only can you choose from a variety of older pieces, newer ones are also available.
After all, hopefully your interest in Van Briggle pottery is because its alluring look and feel, and the variety of subject matter. The fantastic mermaid piece is an excellent example of the uniqueness of Van Briggle pottery — as are the assortment of pieces with an Indian motif.
If your interest in Van Briggle pottery is strictly monetary, then you’re not a collector but are in the reseller group. Resellers are also welcome to our site as it is an excellent resource for quick information about colors, marks, and approximate manufacture dates.
As for pricing, we are reluctant to provide information on pricing because of its relative nature and volatility. The bottom line when it comes to pricing is that something is only worth what you can get for it at the time you are trying to sell it. There are simply too many variables affecting pricing to be able to provide reliable and realistic price ranges. These include:
- Scarcity of the item you are interested in selling.
- Condition of the item — collectors demand items with no chips, cracks, hairlines, or repairs.
- Location where you are trying to sell it — items bring much more in NYC than they do in Evansville, Indiana.
- How you are trying to sell it — via eBay, an auction house, on Craig’s List, or at your local flea market.
- State of the economy and consumers’ ability to spend money on their collections.
- Recent publicity about the item — like being featured in a woman’s magazine like Country Living.
- Impact created by reality shows like Pickers, Antique Road Show, and others that tend to arbitrarily inflate prices.
Because of these factors, it’s simply not possible to provide realistic price ranges for any particular piece of Van Briggle pottery. It would be a disservice to site visitors to do so. Too often it sets up a value expectation that cannot be realized. This isn’t an issue for most collectors. For you resellers, there are other online websites that are willing to provide price ranges.
You can find more information on Van Briggle pottery by clicking the links across the top and down the left margin of this page.
Good luck with your collecting.