McCoy Pottery has recently been receiving a lot of press in various art pottery publications. The August 2008 issue of the McCoy Lovers NMXpress features an article about a previously undiscovered and potentially one-of-a-kind Cope designed McCoy butterfly planter. The rare planter was discovered in July during the annual Pottery Lovers Festival in Zanesville, Ohio.
The unique butterfly planter is significantly different from the pastel butterfly line produced by Nelson McCoy in the 1940s. The planter is 8 1/2" long by 4" wide and is glazed in a brown matte, bisque wood-tone glaze. NMXpress reports the McCoy planter sold for almost $1,000.
In other McCoy pottery news, the May/June 2008 issue of the Journal of American Art Pottery Association featured a rare McCoy elephant planter on the cover. The article, titled " Yes, McCoy is Art" discusses the rare elephant planter purchased by the authors and the fact that McCoy produced many art pottery lines such as Loy-Nel-Art, Rosewood and Olympia. These art pottery patterns produced by McCoy are comparable to those standard glaze and hand-painted patterns produced by Roseville, Weller, Owens and other Ohio art potteries. The article also points out that while Roseville, Rookwood, Weller and most of the other well known American art potteries employed many artists and decorators, there were only two designers at McCoy from the mid 1930s through the 1960s (Sidney Cope and his son Leslie). Earlier designers were Albert Cusick and Walter Bauer.
To further substantiate the claim that McCoy pottery is no longer just low priced mass produced pottery, the article notes the sale price for the rare elephant plant was an astounding $5,000. Several other record sale prices for McCoy pottery including a $10,000 McCoy cookie jar sold in 1998 and the prototype McCoy Robin Hood Planter sold at auction for $11,500 in 2006 are also discussed. In addition I have noted several large McCoy sphinx floor vases and sand jars have sold at auction in recent months with most selling in $2,000 to $4,000 range.
Greg Myroth – Shop for McCoy Pottery
