By Ralph and Terry Kovel
Antiques & Collectibles
Special types of furniture are made for special needs,
like the telephone table or the 18th-century writing-arm Windsor chair.
Municipal water plants that sent running water into the house were not common in the United States until the 20th century. That meant that instead of flush toilets, people used just a large bowl known as a potty or “thunder mug.” The well-to-do sometimes had furniture made to conceal the bowl or to make it easier to use.
These special pieces of furniture are not popular with collectors today, so they are sometimes altered to hide their original purpose. Large wooden chairs were made with holes in the seat above a low shelf that held the bowl. Today the seat with the hole might be replaced or upholstered.
Sometimes a bedside commode was made that looked like a small table but had a cupboard space or drawer that hid the potty. Today, the bowl is removed along with any signs it was there. The resulting pieces have been altered and restored so much, they are of lower value than they would be in original condition.
Examine furniture carefully, especially from the bottom, to find signs of changes, such as extra nail holes or unusual patterns of darkening wood.
Our Danish grandmother left us a plate that is a mystery to us. It’s stamped “P. Ipsen Eneret” on the back. The scene of trees and a cottage on the front appears to be hand-painted.
Your plate was made at a factory in Copenhagen, the largest city and capital of Denmark. The factory, P. Ipsens Enke, was founded in 1843 by Rasmus Peter Ipsen of Bornholm, Denmark. The mark on your plate dates it to between 1871 and 1917. The Ipsen factory closed in 1955.
I purchased a mint-in-the-box Sonja Henie composition doll for $795. Now I see that her head is unmarked and her body is marked “Wendy Ann, Mme. Alexander, New York.” She does have a Sonja Henie wrist tag. Is she authentic?
Don’t panic. If your doll is 131/2 inches tall and fully jointed, and if her face matches the distinctive dimpled face of the Sonja Henie dolls, your doll is genuine, and you paid a fair price. Only Madame Alexander had rights to make Sonja Henie dolls. Henie (1912-1969), from Oslo, Norway, won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and went on to become a major movie star. Madame Alexander’s Sonja Henie dolls were made from 1939 to 1951 in eight different sizes, with different marks on the heads and bodies. The smallest is 7 inches tall and the largest, 21 inches. The 131/2-inch doll, made in 1939, has an unmarked head and a back marked “Wendy Ann,” like yours. Other Sonja Henie dolls had Sonja Henie marks or were completely unmarked.
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