By Anne Gilbert
Enquirer contributor

It's colorful, a bit primitive - and expensive. That is a brief description of spatterware pottery.

Originally known as "spattering" in 18th century England, by the mid-19th century the pottery was also made in Scotland, Wales, France and briefly in America.

By the early 1960s it was rediscovered by American collectors, as part of the craze for anything that resembled Pennsylvania Dutch. This once-humble pottery, with its handpainted and spattered folk motifs, rose in price from a few dollars to $25 a plate. These days, prices can be $600 for a single plate.

At a Garth's auction in Delaware, Ohio, a blue spatterware plate with a peafowl sold for $3,335; the estimate had been $300-$600.

From the early 19th century through the Civil War, women filled their cupboards with spatterware. And, why not? A fine painted plate cost only 9 cents.

The earliest spatterware was made by dipping a sponge into a color and dabbing it on the edge or surface of the cup or dish. This often was used as background for a "folk art" design outlined in black.

Less expensive, and still to be found, are pieces decorated with stick-spatter. Transfer prints were used either for borders or the center. Pieces of sponge were then cut into floral, leaf and geometric shapes, then fastened to the end of a stick and dipped into paint.

The cheapest and least durable spatterware is "sponge blue," made around the 1880s in Ohio and New Jersey. It tends to chip easily. The white earthenware was sponged, usually heavily, with a single color or a combo of blue and green, or blue, tan and brown.

How can you spot a reproduction? Early spatterware was stacked in piles for drying after being decorated. Thin triangular platforms were placed at the bottom of every dish to separate the pieces. This created three unglazed dots the size of a pinhead on all the flatware pieces.

Q&A

While cleaning out my late sister's house I found a large stack of "Look" and "Life" magazines. They are from the 1960s and '70s. Is there a market for them?

Magazines are popular with collectors, but they don't fetch high prices. The exception would be those with special-interest covers, such as stories about Marilyn Monroe or historical events. They could sell in a book shop or memorabilia show for $50. Average magazines sell for $4 at the same places.

Contact Anne Gilbert by mail: c/o Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202. Photos cannot be returned.