Vase

Q: Enclosed is a picture of my hand-painted Nippon vase; it is 11 inches tall and has an Egyptian design on the front. All I know about it is that it was a wedding present to my husband's parents in 1917. I would like to know anything you can tell me about it.A: Your Nippon vase was made in Japan in about 1910 to 1915. It would probably sell for $365 to $385.Q: I have some china with this mark on the back. Please identify the origin of my china.A: This is not a maker's mark; it is the British Registry number.

Even though he's been dead 153 years, Edgar Allan Poe still prompts passionate postmortems in the Land of Academia. Poe scholars will assemble in force today at the Baltimore Sheraton North Hotel in Towson for the second International Edgar Allan Poe Conference. The gathering begins on the 153rd anniversary of the day in 1849 when a printer found Poe "utterly stupified" and barely conscious at Cornelius Ryan's tavern on East Lombard Street. Poe died four days later, Oct. 7, 1849. The conference will close Sunday with the laying of a wreath at Poe's grave in Westminster Cemetery at Fayette and Greene streets.

Testing, one, two . . . can you hear me in the back? Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the media. Thank you for coming. There are still a few seats up front if anyone's interested. Our plan is to read a brief statement, after which we'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.Now that Cal Ripken has finally broken Lou Gehrig's record and played in his 2,131st consecutive game, many of you are asking: "Does this mean we have to stop the ceaseless barrage of Cal Ripken profiles, and the endless interviews with obscure figures from his boyhood years in Aberdeen?"

Paul de Lamerie was to 18th-century English silver wha Auguste Renoir was to 19th-century French Impressionist paintings -- a creator of voluptuous masterpieces that captivate collectors and fetch premium prices. So, when Christie's auction house in New York won the opportunity to sell 25 lots of de Lamerie silver recently, it rolled out the red carpet. The silver was sent to London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto for potential bidders to examine it firsthand. Christie's organized a well-attended seminar for collectors in New York, and staged elaborate preview receptions hoping to spark enough interest to ensure that the sale was a shining light of the auction season.

In the market for a coffee table? Then do yourself a favor and start with the premise that there is no such thing as perfection. No one coffee table can do it all -- function, fit well and look absolutely right.A coffee table is, almost by definition, a compromise piece of furniture. In existence for only about 60 or 70 years, it evolved from the higher tea table. In many ways the tea table worked better than its antecedent. It was lighter in weight, more portable (often with wheels) and kept the tea service up where corsetted women and starched-collar men sitting on high-seated settees and chairs could get at it. When foundation garments relaxed and lower, squishier sofas and chairs came into fashion, the tea table was replaced by its shorter, wider, longer and often stouter cousin, the coffee table.

Q: What's the value of my 19-inch-high glass vase marked "Le Verre Francais" and signed "Charder"? It was a wedding present to my mother in 1929.A: "Le Verre Francais" was a commercial line of cameo glass made by the C. Schneider factory in Epinay-sur-Seine, France, from 1920 to 1933. Your vase, signed by its artist, Charder, has an acid-engraved floral design over layered glass in different colors. It's worth around $1,400, according to vintage glass dealer Jack McAuliff, of Fancy That, 324 W. Broad St., Chesaning, Mich.

Q: I have a planter from the early 1950s that's shaped like a lady's head, wearing a string of pearls and matching earrings. How can I find out more about the history and value of such planters?A: "The World of Head Vase Planters," by Mike Posgay and Ian Warner, is available with a separate price guide for $37.95 postpaid from Antique Publications, Box 553, Marietta, Ohio 45750; phone (800) 533-3433. Further information is available from the authors at Box 93022, 499 Main St. South, Brampton, Ontario, Canada L6Y 4V8.The Head Hunters Newsletter for doll head vase collectors is published quarterly for $16 a year or $2.50 an issue and is available from Maddy Gordon, 8 Mohican Trail, Scarsdale, N.Y. 10583; phone (914)

Q: Enclosed is a photo of a vase that I inherited from my mother. It is 9 inches long, 3 inches wide and 4 inches high. On the bottom it is marked "Royal Teplitz -- Aurora." I would like to know when and where it was made, and its value.A: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were many potteries in Teplitz and Turn, Bohemia, Germany, now Czechoslovakia. Ernst Wahliss, Alfred Stellmacher and Riessner & Kessel (Amphora) were major manufacturers. They produced mostly vases and figurines.

Megan Evans has loved clay for a long time. She admits it runs her life. There's always a piece to "throw," a bowl to carve or a vase to fire in the kiln. The clay never stops, never waits and always does what it wants. And, no matter how many orders she might be working on for one gallery or another, she often opens the kiln in her basement studio at home to a complete surprise. Much like Forrest Gump's adage about life and a box of chocolates, with clay, you never know what you're gonna get. Despite the hard work, Evans is in heaven lately.

Someone stole 60 brass vases from two Brooklyn Park cemeteries, took them to a Baltimore County recycling center and exchanged them for cash. The vases, worth $60 each, were returned to Holy Cross and Cedar Hill cemeteries Wednesday afternoon, police said.The thefts were discovered about 2 p.m. Wednesday after a manager at the Maryland Recycling Co. in Owings Mills called Carol M. McCain, manager of Holy Cross Cemetery in the 6100 block of Ritchie Highway. The caller wanted to verify the seller's story that the managers of both cemeteries had given the man permission to turn the vases in for scrap, police said.