#Collect #Pfaltzgraff #Pottery #Uncertain #Market #WorthPoint
Stepping into the world of thrift and vintage, I’m immediately mystified by the shifting value of Pfaltzgraff pottery. Some pieces have exorbitant prices, while others are a steal, all patterns considered.
What is causing this continual about-face, and what does the future hold for the oldest pottery company in the United States?
A History of Determination
The story of Pfaltzgraff, a name sometimes mispronounced (the “P” is silent), is one of gritty persistence. Founded in 1811 by immigrant German potters, little is known about the company before Johann George Pfaltzgraff opened his shop in Freystown, Pennsylvania, in the late 1830s. The company relied on the area’s abundant blue and red clay for its high-quality stoneware and bone china dinnerware. By 1889, two of Pfaltzgraff’s sons, Henry and George, opened H.B. & G.B. Pfaltzgraff in York, Pennsylvania. Equipped with two horses, three kilns, and stencils to replace time-consuming hand painting, the brothers set the company on a path to success by adapting it for mass production.
Where other pottery companies failed, Pfaltzgraff persevered by changing and growing through the Great Depression, two World Wars, and a devastating factory fire. It entered the 1950s with a strong giftware and dishware line called Gourmet Royale. By 1964, the newly renamed Pfaltzgraff Company dominated the dishware market with classic collections, including Country Casual and Heritage. However, business escalated in 1967 with the introduction of the Yorktowne pattern, featuring sturdy gray stoneware with stenciled blue flowers mimicking the company’s early 19th-century salt-glazed pieces. Nearly 70 percent of sales came from the Gourmet, Heritage, and Yorktowne lines.
By the early 1980s, imports accounted for two-thirds of all earthenware sold in the US, forcing Pfaltzgraff to zero in on the growing bridal market. As a result, out of the top fifteen casual dinnerware collections brides chose in 1989, six were Pfaltzgraff.
The company introduced its bone china line in 1988—a risky move since Pfaltzgraff was known mainly for its casual earthenware pieces. However, once again, the company eclipsed the bridal market.
One Last Business Move
In 2005, Lifetime Brands bought out The Pfaltzgraff Company and moved manufacturing to China and Thailand. In the mid-2000s, the company introduced miniature replicas of authentic Pfaltzgraff pieces for its 2011 Bicentennial Celebration. These reproductions include Yorktowne Soup Tureen, crocks, jugs, pitchers, and a miniature reproduction of the Derby Dan ceramic cookie jar from the 1940s whimsical Muggsy line.
Navigating the Secondary Market
I checked in via email with Jennifer Hudzinski about Pfaltzgraff’s place in a turbulent resale market. The Pennsylvania native has spent over twenty years researching all things Pfaltzgraff, including combing through the York Historical Society archives, where the firm’s historical business records are kept. She is also active in the “Pfaltzgraff Collectors Buy Sell Trade” Facebook group, which has over 9,500 members.
Hudzinski offered a few tips that successful Pfaltzgraff collectors and resellers rely on as they search for that elusive piece:
• They are aware of frequently skewed secondary market pricing. Hudzinski said that dealers set prices on averages they see online, and some companies (we’re looking at you, Replacements.com!) are notorious for artificially inflating secondary pricing by adding almost a 300 percent markup per item. “By all appearances, they have no real care for the actual average sale price and only care what they can get away with charging,” she said, which upends the fair market value and creates a hostile reselling environment. “You’ll have one person thinking they are setting a fair price, and another feeling like they are being ripped off.”
• They stay informed on what product lines are flooding the market. “I’ve seen Village canister sets go for $50 one week and go for $150 a month later,” she said, “simply because in the first instance several people were selling that particular canister set and then later there was only one set available for sale. It’s ever changing, ever evolving.”
• They check not only a product’s maker mark but also examine its weight and glaze finish to help determine age and value. “Quality is inherent in these two things because a heavy enough glaze to last can’t be supported by flimsy pottery.” Meanwhile, Hudzinski added, overseas manufacturers use thinner glazes and shorter firing times, thus producing a cheaper product that usually fails within a few years.
• They pass over Pfaltzgraff’s contemporary pieces that are generally of lesser quality than their authentic counterparts. However, Hudzinski predicted that older collections will eventually return to fashion “simply because most people don’t have it in them to go through the process of a hunt for a set of dishes piece by piece.” For example, she said, four Pfaltzgraff lines—Heritage, Yorktowne, Village, and Tea Rose—have yet to fall out of fashion, adding that Heritage, an all-white earthenware line, has been the company’s most in-demand product for over seventy years.
• They realize that although Pfaltzgraff pieces made in the 1920s are now considered officially antique, prices are only slowly catching up. “People like me are simply waiting for the antique community to step up and say yes, Pfaltzgraff is of value and should be treated as such,” Hudzinski said.
Although Pfaltzgraff has made business changes that the collector community is reluctant to embrace, Hudzinski sees it as yet another savvy move to remain relevant in the future.
“Now the company endures, and I believe that is what’s important,” she said. “While many of the youth today favor the quick, easy cleanup of paper plates and plastic cutlery, at least on holidays and other special occasions, even those youth tend to lean toward nostalgia and tradition. I hope for Pfaltzgraff to take part in those traditions, even if the dishes only come out a few times a year.”
All this makes me notice parallels between this brand and others like Pyrex and Longaberger—brands that went unnoticed for years and are now coveted once again by a new generation of collectors.
“Pfaltzgraff is on a cusp right now,” Hudzinski said, noting that several of its pieces resting on thrift store shelves will change from vintage to antique within the next few decades. “I find myself anxious to begin the preservation process now,” she said. “I don’t want to find that three decades from now that pieces commonly found today are rare then.”
If you have questions about Pfaltzgraff pottery, contact Hudzinski at [email protected].
Between excursions to hunt for antiques and vintage décor, Lynda Houston is busy restoring her 1950s cottage in Cincinnati, Ohio. She and her partner, Dave Beck, operate TheRustInPeaceShop on Etsy.
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