Steve Dana - ©2001 - Wisconsin Pottery Association

The following article appeared in WPA Press, Vol. 7, January 2001

Featured WPA Member — Steve Dana

Steve Dana is a relatively new member of the WPA, having joined the club fairly recently. Although a new club member, Steve has quickly established himself as a thoughtful and educated pottery afficionado. Steve recently took a little time to talk about what he collects, why he collects and what got him interested in the business of collecting.

When asked about what got him started collecting, Steve admits to being a history buff, both as a hobbyist and in the formal sense - he has a degree in history. In his words, Steve has long been "interested in old things". Although he enjoyed attending auctions regularly 25 years ago, collecting old books and such, Steve says that he wasn't very interested in pottery at that time. There was a long intervening period where Steve did almost no collecting, instead spending time raising a son and daughter. He does confess to an appreciation for ceramics in his early years though, having taken a ceramics elective in junior high school. And there were a few cherished pieces of art pottery in his family; Steve inherited a piece from his parents that he later learned was Roseville Pottery .

When asked if he sells as well as buying pottery, Steve admits to doing a little of both, especially using eBay. In fact it sounds as though Steve knows his way around this popular auction website pretty well (in fact, Steve used the word "obsession" when talking about his pottery collecting on eBay). In our conversation it was apparent that Steve has learned to use eBay as an educational tool, gaining knowledge of values and what thing sell for, at least in the electronic, worldwide auction scene. He uses the web to find particular pieces and has learned to watch for the good prices that sometimes occur online. When asked his opinion of prices on eBay Steve says that he thinks they are lower than in malls - perhaps the sellers on eBay deal in larger volumes (he mentioned about a dealer that had 800 auctions at eBay at one time) and more specifically with pottery. Steve notes that a nice piece in a mall might be the only good pottery that dealer has, thus they tend to ask a fairly high price. As an example Steve mentioned a lovely, although rather damaged piece of Pauline he recently found, filled with marbles, in an antique mall. The seller was reluctant to part with the piece (until Steve offered a price that she couldn't refuse).

Since Steve frequently uses eBay, I asked him if he'd had any bad experiences with pieces bought via the online auction company. He says that he has returned three pieces - including the most expensive thing he's bought. These returns have all gone successfully. However, Steve noted with some scrutiny that twice when he has won auctions the seller has notified him that the pieces broke during packing - he thinks it is fairly obvious that the seller had a better offer and opted to sell to someone outside of the auction, although Steve had the winning bid. But no complaint from Mr. Dana about how the popular auction site is run, or about the majority of his experiences there.

When not collecting pottery, Steve works as the purchasing manager for the Watertown, WI hospital. So we are safe in suspecting that he has some insider information on purchasing efficiently. He probably does online searches for his job!

We talked a bit about what types of pottery Steve fancies - he admits to pursuing some "obscure" types of pottery, such as Clifton and Mountainside (made in New Jersey). A natural question then is how did he learn about these lesser known potteries? Due to his interest in old books, Steve bought a box of old collectors books at an auction - one of them was a 1970s Kovels edition - from it he read and learned about the various potteries. In addition his searches on eBay have also helped to gather information on potteries.

In addition to Clifton, Steve is interested in Hull House, some Eugene Deutsch pieces, and Van Briggle. He likes Arts and Crafts pottery (he is a matte finish fan) and some southern pieces. We discussed Van Briggle briefly; Steve noted that although Van Briggle is still being produced, some of even the recent hand-thrown pieces are very collectible. Overall Steve favors hand-built pieces from the smaller potteries and mentioned Sheier, Volkmar and Jervis as other potteries he is interested in.

Steve made an interesting observation on collecting pottery that is 40-60 years old. He noted that the stuff is quite fragile, so if it is still around it's because someone has taken good care of it, valued and treasured it. Steve has a talent other than collecting pottery - he is a volleyball player of considerable talent. His coed team has won their league for the past nine years. Steve has played in the State Senior Olympics (that must be for players 25 and older - Steve assured me that he was one of the younger members) where his team spiked their way to a first place finish. He has also played in the National tournament. When asked what it takes to get to the U.S. Nationals for volleyball, Steve noted that "you buy your way in" but he is most certainly being modest. That or he has lots more money than we might have guessed.

Kari Kenefick, WPA Press Editor