Tang Pottery and SBCD - Paris Pottery Blog

     I had an hour and a half today to treasure hunt, so I went to two thrift stores. One is a large chain store ran and operated by a local church and the other is a small thrift store owned by the Assistance League of Salt Lake City and operated exclusively by elderly volunteer ladies. The first store was one I dreaded going to. It’s overcrowded and lots of junkers are there every single day. They get a shopping cart and perch themselves right next to the swinging doors where they roll out the latest donated items. They pride themselves on being the first to pick every new lot. I feel a bit out of place in the store and I refuse to squeeze and push people aside to look for the new rolled out items on the cart. So if I miss $100,000 hopper edging because I won’t push past people, I will just have to live with that. I also hope my years of sifting through junk looking for pottery have afforded me a keen eye to see what others can’t without having to be rude.
     Today at this store in the display case I found two small terra-cotta figurines. They looked old, they smelled old (yes I smelled them), and the form seemed right. I believe they could be around 1,200 years old. On the service they appear to be Tang Dynasty female tomb figures. The faces are expressive and the terra-cotta edges are smooth rather than sharp. You can tell they’ve been handled a lot, as there’s a darkness to the areas where one naturally holds. What’s left of the paint is distinct worn off layers, and the style of hair and clothes is appropriate. My main concern is how prevalent Chinese fakes are today and without the TL test (thermoluminescence), which costs on average $500 to administer, it is impossible to tell. But they are nice and too good to pass up. I bought them for five dollars a piece.

Possible Tang Dynasty (618-907) Tomb Figures Female 

     The second store was a breath of fresh air compared to the last one. It’s small, clean, and easy to look through with a spare 30 minutes. At this store I picked up an art pottery pitcher by SBCD (Santa Barbara Ceramic Design). I  recognized the mark from a small but beautiful arts and craft flower vase I found last year. SBCD was founded in 1976 by Raymond Markow. With a large portion of creative pottery manufacturers moving to Asia during this time, SBCD was a unique West Coast home grown producer of hand thrown, hand painted decorative and functional art pottery. Their unique pieces are indicative of the arts and craft movement of early American pottery companies like Weller and Roseville. While the craftsmanship is impeccable, unfortunately late 20th century arts and crafts pottery is not always a big seller these days and I’d be lucky to get $40 for it. I bought it for the price of seven dollars. I’ll keep you posted.

SBCD Toucan pottery pitcher by Alvaro Sumon a local Chicano
artist most famously known for his painting La Llorona, The
Wailing Woman (see below)