Owl & Twig

The Field Guide

How to identify, date, and value the things you find. Written from what passes through our hands, one estate sale at a time.

Doorway into the Owl and Twig Vintage booth at The Rabbit Hole in Waterford, Michigan, under a hand-painted owl sign FeaturedSeller's Desk Find us in Waterford: our new booth at The Rabbit Hole The Rabbit Hole in Waterford Township is doubling its floor space and adding 23 new vendors, and Owl & Twig is on the lineup. Booth pieces are sold in the store only. Reopens September... September 16, 2026
A Will-George porcelain flamingo on a teal reed base, stamped Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas Pottery & PorcelainThe Flamingo Hotel flamingo: Will-George made the bird, and the "opening night" story is only as old as a 2022 auction A Will-George porcelain flamingo stamped Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas is offered at five-figure prices as a 1946 opening-night... Oct 2, 2026 A Hall China waffle iron, batter bowl, syrup pitcher, and coffee cup and saucer in the company's single-fire glaze Pottery & PorcelainHall China: The Glaze It Never Patented, and the Teapot Patent That Isn't Its Own Hall China perfected a single-fire, lead-free glaze in 1911 and never patented it. The HALL trademark waited until... Oct 2, 2026 Pottery & PorcelainThe Little Red Riding Hood Cookie Jar: One Design Patent, Two Potteries, and a Fake Signed by a Third A 1943 design patent, two potteries that split the work, and a modern fake stamped with the wrong... Oct 1, 2026 A grouping of vintage Fiesta dinnerware in several original glaze colors Pottery & PorcelainFiesta: A Former Federal Scientist Gave It a Radioactive Red Glaze Homer Laughlin's Fiesta dinnerware was designed in a few weeks in 1935 by Frederick Hurten Rhead. Its glaze... Oct 1, 2026 A McCoy brown drip teapot marked Made in USA, the kind of factory mark at the center of the McCoy attribution problem Pottery & PorcelainThe McCoy panther: the most confident label in the booth, and the catalog that never mentions it The McCoy Pottery Collectors Society says the panther lamp does not appear in the company's catalogs, and that... Sep 20, 2026 Pottery & PorcelainThe Holt Howard honey pot: the giveaway is under the spoon, not on the face By Matthew Partsch · Owl and Twig Vintage · September 20, 2026 Holt Howard's honey jar sold for... Sep 20, 2026 The Haeger black panther: ten models, three sizes, and how to tell which one you have Pottery & PorcelainThe Haeger black panther: ten models, three sizes, and how to tell which one you have Haeger's own history says Royal Hickman's black panther came in three sizes. Two are in every catalog. The... Sep 15, 2026 The Haeger Pottery building at A Century of Progress, Chicago, 1934 Pottery & PorcelainHaeger at the 1934 World's Fair: the label is worth more than the pot Haeger Potteries built a working factory on the Chicago lakefront for the 1934 Century of Progress, fired souvenirs... Sep 13, 2026 Pottery & PorcelainBrad Keeler vs. Maddux of California: whose flamingo do you have? Two Los Angeles potteries made pink flamingos at the same time, and one modeler worked for both. The... Sep 10, 2026 Hand-engraved Mara stoneware mug with cat design from the Owl and Twig collection Pottery & PorcelainMara stoneware: who signed it, and what it's worth Millions of hand-engraved Mexican stoneware mugs passed through American gift shops with one name on the bottom. It... Sep 5, 2026 Rookwood stalking panther paperweight, shape 2563, dated 1946, in a glossy green glaze Pottery & PorcelainThe Rookwood panther, and how to date one Two panthers, consecutive shape numbers, and a mold that outlived everyone who touched it. Shape 2563 scanned in... Aug 15, 2026 Brad Keeler lobster bowl with matching spoon in the Ming Dragon Blood red glaze Pottery & PorcelainMing Dragon Blood: how to tell a Brad Keeler lobster from everyone else's The birds get the attention. But the red glaze on a lobster dish was the hardest thing Brad... Aug 14, 2026 Every Brad Keeler figurine we can account for: a working catalog Pottery & PorcelainEvery Brad Keeler figurine we can account for: a working catalog Keeler numbered almost everything he made, then died before anyone wrote the numbers down. One hundred eighty-three pieces... Aug 13, 2026 The glimmer in the eye: how to spot a real Brad Keeler flamingo Pottery & PorcelainThe glimmer in the eye: how to spot a real Brad Keeler flamingo Seven years of looking for Brad Keeler flamingos taught me what to check, what to forgive, and why... Aug 13, 2026 Lefton devil figurines: a collector's guide to mid-century kitsch's favorite troublemaker Pottery & PorcelainLefton devil figurines: a collector's guide to mid-century kitsch's favorite troublemaker Little red horns, rosy cheeks, and a whole lot of mischief. Here's how to identify a real 1950s... Aug 9, 2026 Vintage porcelain owl figurine by M. Requena, Valencia, Spain Pottery & PorcelainBoehm porcelain birds: why the model number lies to you Edward Marshall Boehm turned porcelain birds into museum objects, but the same subject can carry three different reference... Jul 25, 2026 A complete 24-piece Lenox Spice Village set displayed in its original house-shaped wooden rack, four shelves of six pastel porcelain spice houses with a drawer at the base Pottery & PorcelainLenox Spice Village: read this before you pay four figures Lenox brought the 1989 spice houses back at roughly their original price, then built a whole village around... Jul 24, 2026 Pottery & PorcelainHaeger pottery marks and model numbers: how to read the base What the letter in front of the number means, what the number can and cannot tell you, and... Jul 24, 2026