Looking Back: Riley Humler Appraisal Event

On March 10th, 2018 Rookwood Pottery hosted Riley Humler, famed Art Pottery appraiser featured on Antiques Roadshow on PBS.  Riley Humler is also the notable Auction Director of Humler & Nolan auction group, based right here in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Riley Humler is a distinguished seller and collector with over 35 years of experience in the antique art pottery and ceramics world. He is an expert on all things pottery, especially Rookwood Pottery, but also including other American Art Pottery, European Art Pottery, Art Tile, Installations, and more!

We were honored to host Humler for an appraisal event at our Production Facility, where we welcomed visitors to bring their cherished Rookwood pieces for a one-on-one appraisal with Riley Humler, himself.

Almost 200 guests joined us with their vintage items. Each guest brought between 1-10 pieces of art with them, some Rookwood and some crafted by other historic potteries.

In the end, over 80% of the appraised items were authenticated and valued as antique Rookwood Pottery! Many heartwarming stories were exchanged between each guest and Riley Humler with anecdotes about the pieces and information shared about each artist that worked at Rookwood many years ago.

We were amazed by some of the pieces that were seen at the event! One piece in particular was painted by Rookwood Artist, Grace Young. Grace attended the Cincinnati Art Academy , now know as the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and began working at Rookwood Pottery in the year 1886 at the age of 17.

Below you’ll see one of her pieces that was brought to be appraised at the event:

Grace Young is credited with being one of the first artists to begin doing portraits at Rookwood. Grace is known for including portraits of Native Americans on ceramic vases. Many of the portrait vases were painted from photographs, which are thought to have been provided to Rookwood Pottery by The Smithsonian Institution.

A similar piece being appraised for what is said to be a conservative estimate of $6,000 – $9,000!
Which you can see in this featured video.

We had so much fun watching Riley Humler at work and look forward to hosting him again in the future!

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