Van Briggle Pottery

Ceramics, History, Marks, Pricing

Van Briggle at the Antique Faire

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Van Briggle pottery flower frogEvery second Sunday of the month, I make my early morning trip to the local Antique Faire here in Sacramento. This particular morning, my antique-hunting efforts were particularly fruitful. I started off looking for a few particular items, slowly meandering up and down aisles while I enjoyed my hot cup of coffee. I found one of the items I had on my list, a sterling napkin ring. I continued my browsing, when I happened upon a particularly chatty vendor. He had all sorts of weird and unique items of interest on his tables. It didn’t take me long to spot a flower frog with a dull-matte glaze. Instantly, I thought “Van Briggle!” I was familiar with the glaze and color, and the A-mark underneath the frog confirmed my thoughts.

Van Briggle pottery flower frogThe vendor saw me holding the frog and asked me if I knew it was Roseville pottery. I slyly said, “No, I didn’t know that.” I told him I would like it, and paid him $10. The flower frog had a beautiful checkered pattern on the top and was shaped like an upside-down sunflower with the Persian Rose glaze. This was one of the more unique flower frogs I would now own.

I continued to browse the aisles after my Van Briggle purchase, but I was hurried as I couldn’t wait to get home and add this piece to my collection.

I love collecting Van Briggle because of its colors and the matte-finish

Buy Van Briggle Pottery

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There are multiple venues to pursue in expanding your Van Briggle pottery collection. There is the option of buying directly from the Van Briggle website, where you can get the most recent pieces of art offered. You can find coveted Van Briggle vases and other pieces on Ebay, often for great prices. As you become more and more familiar with how to quickly identify a Van Briggle piece of pottery, you may even stumble across a hidden treasure at a garage sale or estate sale.

Buying Van Briggle pottery secondhand from a garage sale or estate sale will be one of the most exciting experiences you can have as you expand your collection. You have the hunt of searching through boxes, on top of tables, and items scattered through an estate. You carefully pick up your piece of primitive pottery with that dull matte finish and look under the bottom. You notice a large V, followed by the rest of that telltale Van Briggle signing. Perhaps you will even find an original cast, signed by the potter himself!