Out of Brussels

Antiques & Artwork, Inc.

News Update

We hope that you’ve enjoyed our first newsletter in April.

This Newsletter is for the months of May and June combined, since we are taking a vacation from June 15 until July 5.

Our website has been up for 6 months now and we are very happy and grateful for your visits, your comments and your orders.

Your opinion and feedback are very important to us, so please keep sending us your thoughts and we also encourage you to complete our satisfaction survey which we send out after your order has been shipped and received. It helps us to evaluate our services and make improvements where needed.

Our group of MajolicAddicts is growing fast and we hope that you will convince your friends and other collectors to sign up as well. As you know, signing up as a MajolicAddict takes only 2 seconds and it offers great advantages, such as savings of 10% on your first online order and monthly Newsletters, which include new shipment previews, notice of special events and sales, and informative feature articles.

Some further good news for our customers: No more Handling Charges for online orders. Until now, there was a standard handling fee of $20.00 per online order, which was automatically added to your online invoice. By dropping these charges with immediate effect, we are increasing the value of our product offering. Shipping charges will remain in effect as before. For more details, please refer to the "How to Order" section on our website at www.outofbrusselsantiques.com.

We have a new shipment on the way - more on that to follow in the "Coming Up" section of this newsletter!

Finally, we have to make a minor correction to our previous Feature Article about the History of Majolica. We talked about the contributions of French artists onto English majolica with one of them being of course Paul Comolera and not "Collomera". We apologize for that.

Feature Article

Majolica Oyster Plates

Oysters!

It took some courage to swallow the slimy creature the first time, but now I’m hooked. I love oysters and I love to serve them on my oyster plates!

Some History - Blame it on the Victorians...

People have been eating oysters for over three thousand years, but they were without any doubt most popular during the 19 th century. Victorians were absolutely passionate about oysters. At that time, oysters were plentiful and inexpensive and Victorians of every class consumed them in huge quantities. I don’t know whether it was because they strongly believed in their aphrodisiac qualities, but some people ate several dozens to 200 oysters at once! No wonder that the 19 th century is sometimes called the "Oyster Century".

Oysters were sold on the streets and served in restaurants, bars, special oyster saloons, as well as at home.
Eating and entertaining was an important part of Victorian culture. Victorians entertained with great enthusiasm and dinners of 15 courses were not unusual.

Beautiful, specific-use tableware became very fashionable and a must for every 19 th century hostess. The table setting was changed entirely with every course and a different plate and utensil were being used for almost every single item on the menu. Can you imagine that by the end of the 19th century a proper complete sterling service of utensils for eighteen people consisted of over 400 pieces?

It’s in this era that majolica was born.

The crab servers, the sardine boxes with sardine-laden lids, the fish services decorated with scallops and fish, the game dishes, the beehive-shaped cheese bells, the strawberry plates with matching creamer and sugar baskets indeed all reflect the gastronomic enthusiasm and creativity of the Victorians.

With oysters being a favorite seafood course, it’s no surprise that the oyster plate became immensely popular. In fact, the oyster plate came standard with about every full dinner service.

From 1850 until the beginning of the 20 th Century, thousands of oyster plates were produced mainly in Europe and England, but also in America and Japan.
Well known French oyster plate producers are Sarreguemines, Longchamp, Luneville and Gien.
We definitely can’t forget about Wasmuel, the Belgian company which produced some very unusual examples that we’ve had for sale many times. Some of their plates are now being sold for over $1,000.00. Please see item M4278.

Famous English producers are Minton and Wedgwood.

Oyster Plates - Basic Styles

Oyster plates were made in many different materials (majolica, glass, porcelain, silver, pewter…). Their shapes, designs and colors were only limited by the imagination of the artist who created them.

We need to mention that over time, the appearance of oyster plates has changed, according to the way they were used.

The earliest oyster plates were designed to serve oysters on the half shell on crushed ice. They had very deep wells and almost looked like soup bowls. In this case, an under-plate had to be placed underneath to catch the water that was running from the melting ice. Needless to say that this way of serving could get very messy which was kind of unpleasant for the hostess and her guests.

In order to accommodate the hostess’ desire for neatness and the guests’ wishes to have the oyster liquor with the meat, another style of oyster plate was designed, so that oysters could be served on the half shell without ice. This plate had larger, but less deep wells. The problem with this style was that the shell scratched the plate and eventually ruined it.

So, yet another style had to be created. Why not make a plate with recesses in the shape of the oyster shell itself and serve the raw oyster directly on the plate, without the shell or ice?

Plates of all 3 styles were used throughout the 19 th Century, but it’s the latter style, which we are familiar with today and which is most collectible.

This type of plate was usually hand-painted and elaborately decorated, often with wells looking like real shells or animals. For examples of wells that look like real shells, please see items M4435-M4438 and items M3860-M4066. For examples of animal-shaped shells, see item M3949 and item M4278.

Oyster Plates - More Variety

As stated before, oyster plates were produced in many different shapes.

You can find round, square, crescent, fan-shaped, triangular, animal-shaped, oval and scalloped edge examples. Please see our selection of fish-shaped plates, e.g. items M4305, M1290, M1192, M3882, M3731 and M3876. We also have some plates with scalloped edges such as items M3764, M4015 and item M3982, and don’t forget to check out the flower-shaped platter, item M3909! We have the matching plates!

The number of wells usually varied between 3 and 6 for individual servings (although we currently have some plates with 7 wells, see item M4438 and item M3982.

Usually, there will also be a special space for things like sauce, lemons and bread or crackers. For a lemon-shaped center, see items M4401, M4274 and items M3539, M2575, for a space for sauce, please see items M3292, M3778. For a bigger space for bread, see item M1062.

There are plenty of "oyster shooters", which are used for serving a single oyster, whereas the oyster plates with 2 wells are considered rare.

Larger plates, platters and even 3-tiered servers were made to hold one, two or three dozen oysters at once. Please see items M3645, M3052 and items M3353, M3903.

Frequently Asked Questions About Oyster Plates

Let's now answer some questions we get asked all the time.

Why are oyster plates so collectible?

Like we said earlier, it’s the beauty of oyster plates that drives collectors and decorators. It’s a fun and interesting undertaking since so many different patterns were made, with many one-of-a-kind designs.

Some collectors only collect certain patterns, makers or colors, but it’s also a lot of fun to mix and match patterns and colors!

Tip: Along with oyster plates, some collectors collect escargot or snail plates and plates for Terrapin stew, made from a certain type of turtle. Those pieces look great mixed in with the oyster plates. A combination with asparagus plates is very pretty as well.

How do I determine the value of an oyster plate?

Just follow the rules that are used for any other antique.
Availability / rarity, age, color, pattern and condition determine collectability and pricing.
Certain patterns are rare, certain colors, like cobalt blue are desirable and any example with animals is very popular, but we strongly encourage you to buy what YOU like.

Clam plate or egg plate?

Although some wells look like clam shells, they are oyster plates!

For an oyster plate with clam-shaped wells, please see items M4074 and M3517.
The Belon is a favorite French oyster. It has a more rounded shape and is typically much smaller than the American oyster, so that any well, modeled after the Belon oyster, can easily be mistaken for a clam.

Besides, clams were not popular at that time and they were a lot smaller than oysters, so it is doubtful that these plates with large wells were made to serve clams.

Many people refer to oyster plates as egg plates. The holes of an egg plate are evenly shaped (like an egg) and much smaller. The egg plate is usually very different in shape and larger. They usually don’t have fish, seaweed or ocean motifs, bur more egg-related decorations.

We, at Out of Brussels Antiques, have always had a special interest in oyster plates and we will continue to bring you our interesting and affordable selection.

If any of you have special requests or comments please don’t hesitate to let us know

Finally, let’s have a look at our bestsellers:

The classic designs

Basket weave design, originally designed by the French company Longchamp (Item M4074, item M4436, item M4014 and item M2565)

Seaweed design, designed by the French companies Sarreguemines and Gien (Item M4308, item M 3753, item M3877, item M2549 and items M4065, M3870)

Saint-Clement design with lemon in center (Items M4401, M4274, and items M2575, M3052, M3756, M3539)

The more extravagant designs. Lately, the modern looking oyster plates are very popular.

Many of them are made in Vallauris, France between 1930 and 1950, in pretty colors and fun shapes. Usually less expensive, many collectors actually also use them.
For some great pieces, please see item M4435, item M4274, item M3301, items M3903, M3638, M3755 and items M3982, M3949)

Quimper and other faience plates

Quimper is the name of the French company that produced the popular faience pieces, among them a lot of oyster plates. Although this is not majolica, we do carry it. See examples M4284, M4267.

Books

If you want to read more about oyster plates, here’s what we recommend:

Collecting Oyster Plates, Jeffrey B. Snyder, Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 2002

Oyster Plates, Vivian Karnitz and Jim Karnitz

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Web Update

In an effort to constantly improve our website and make it more user friendly, we have made a change to the catalog listing:

We have deleted the "Animals Category".

All animal-related items can now be found in their respective categories, meaning that a rooster pitcher is now under "Pitchers" and a piggy bank is now under "Banks".

For all remaining animal items that could not be placed in an existing category, we created a new "Miscellaneous Category". For example, the monochrome monkey vide-poche is now in the Miscellaneous Category.

Also keep in mind that all our fish items, as well as escargot (snail) items are shown in the "Oyster and Fish Category".

We hope that this will make things less confusing.

Also, don’t forget that, from now on, we are eliminating the $20.00 standard Handling Charges for all online purchases.

Coming Up

A new shipment has left Europe this week and will arrive in about a month.
It promises to be one of the best we’ve ever had and we will tell you all about it in our next Newsletter, which you can expect by the end of July.

Out of Brussels Antiques will be closed from June 15 until July 5, 2005.
We regret that we will be unable to process orders or ship items during this period.
E-mails will not be processed daily, however we will retrieve our voicemail on a regular basis.
If you have any urgent questions, please leave a message at (336) 272-72185 and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
We apologize for the temporary inconvenience.

 Our upcoming shows

Scott Antique Market : June 9 – June 12

Please make a note of it that we will NOT be at the next Metrolina Show in Charlotte (July 1-July 3).

We hope that you’ve enjoyed this Newsletter and we invite you to read more on our website and visit our catalogs at www.outofbrusselsantiques.com.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Take care!
Liesbeth

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