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Book Review: Kovels' Buyers
Guide to Modern Ceramics Mid-Century to Contemporary: Marks and History
The Kovels' two books on
marks set the standard for books covering general marks on ceramics,
and they remain the best value in that area, and their general price
guide remains popular. I've never purchased any of their other
books, but they are one of the "names" in the field. That's why
it was so surprising and disappointing when I got a copy of the Buyers
Guide to Modern Ceramics.
Okay, despite the part that
says "Kovels in-Depth-Report", I knew that at 64 pages it couldn't
really be that much in depth if the printing was above the microscopic
level, and I did think that $19.95 was rather steep on a per-page
level, but I was curious, and there was money in my account. Of
course, I was particularly curious because I know that Terry Kovel has
collected W. German pottery for several years, and the Kovels' site
said the book had material "from Arabia of Finland to West German
pottery".
Sadly, this book is almost
entirely a waste of money. It’s not only not worth the
$19.95, it’s not even worth the cost of shipping. To begin
with most of the companies in it are well-known and well-documented
with no new information added and nothing that actually helps a buyer,
novice, expert, or anything in between.
The book begins with a
two-page introduction about the art pottery movement, and the last
paragraph states that, “This report is a brief introduction to
the studio potters and similar factory pottery of the last half of the
20th century.” That’s rather different from what the
cover claims. The book then moves on to “Art and Studio
Pottery”, and this is the section that comes closest to any
value, but only because US studio potters have been so poorly
documented.
Included are 20 potters
(counting families as one unit) ranging from Carlton Ball to Beatrice
Wood. Each section includes one picture and one sample mark plus
one or two paragraphs for biography and a brief description of the
work. Potters covered are not ones that beginners should be
dealing with due to cost, and more experienced collectors will already
know these names and marks.
This section is followed by
“American and European Studios and Potteries with a few pages of
names, dates and marks covering 50 people and companies. However, it
repeats those from the previous section, so there are only 30
additional names. Included are Fulper, Roseville, and several
other familiar names that don’t fit the time period or only
nominally fit into it.
The largest section of the
book (18 1/2 pages) is “Factory-Made Everyday Pottery and
Designers”, and it’s a disappointment for anyone with more
than a passing acquaintance with pottery. There are about 28
companies covered, which gives a rough idea of the amount of coverage,
but the problem is in which companies are included. We get Brush,
Hull, and Nelson McCoy, Kay Finch, Florence and other well-known
California potteries, plus Frankoma, Haeger, Hall, Homer Laughlin, Red
Wing, Shawnee, and Watt. Almost all of the companies in this
section are very well documented, and once again many of them really
don’t belong in a booklet on “Mid-Century to
Contemporary”.
This is followed by a chart
of company names, years, and sample mark, but once again, this list
includes the companies just covered, so there’s not much
additional material. If you have the Kovels’ book of marks
for this period, you certainly don’t need this information here.
The section titled
“Designers” covers 9 people with brief biographies followed
by a chart covering just those same 9 people, but the biggest
disappointment comes in “Importers-Erphila and Other
Hard-To-Identify Marks” In 4 pages, we cover Erphila,
Harmony House, Holt-Howard, Raymor, and West Germany. Yep, all of
West German ceramics is tucked into one paragraph.
In that one paragraph, we
get a quick skimming over the time period, styles, and a list of 9
companies. There are no details, no designers, nada. Most
of the information comes from about 8 years ago or so and is vague
enough to be worthless. It’s also moderately confusing when
shifting between talk of the pottery in general and the sub-category of
fat lava.
As with most parts of the
book, a
novice researcher can find more information in 10 minutes or less on
the internet or with a quick trip to the library or bookstore.
This booklet is little more than a compilation of already known
material with no clear reason why it needs to be added to
anyone’s research library. I will continue to use and
recommend the Kovels’ books on marks, but from now on I will want
to see any of their other works in person before I spend my
money. If this were a movie, the rating would be
“Turkey”.
Forrest D. Poston
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