Treasure Box Wednesday: Brushing Up on Brush McCoy Pottery

There were just two things in the Treasure Box for this week-- one of which I shared with you good folks on Sunday.

The other was a vase that had caught my eye several weeks ago, in a McCoy display at the We Miss Back When antique mall in Apollo, PA. The color and shape were absolutely my taste. Regular readers probably know by now my love of these organic-looking art pottery pieces in cool pastels. And this one seemed so finely-done.

The mark on the bottom of the vase said "Brush Company." And because I had already selected a more inexpensive, small McCoy piece from the mall, I ended up passing on the vase. Budget just wouldn't allow.

It was this week, I was in the area and finally made the purchase for my collection. (And on sale, no less!)
Interestingly, the vase does seem to be a part of the McCoy company's lengthy history. The company had many names, many mergers and many smaller companies branching from it since the turn-of-the-1900s, and the Brush Company was one of those early iterations.

If the vase is truly from the Brush Company itself-- and not a part of the later merger called "Brush-McCoy"-- then the vase had a very small window of opportunity for production.

According to my Collector's Encyclopedia of McCoy Pottery, the Brush Pottery company was a one-kiln operation in the Putman section of Zanesville, Ohio in 1907, started by one of the later general managers of McCoy pottery, George S. Brush. Due to a fire, the Brush Pottery only existed from 1907-1908.

Brush-McCoy began in 1911.
So I still need to verify the mark on the bottom of the vase to determine if it's really just Brush Pottery or not, but either way, it's probably a pretty old piece.

No matter-- the point, as with anything a person collects-- is that I love it. The smooth, creamy matte finish... The leafy, feathery shape... It sits with McCoy cousins in its color palette as a central focal point like it's always lived there.

And I was wondering-- do you folks collect anything that you've had to do some research on?