30 Baskets and Pottery That Sell Year-Round

Most resale categories run on a calendar. Baskets and pottery do not, which is why experienced sellers keep both moving in January as easily as in October.

Woven fiber and fired clay share one trait at the resale counter: buyers judge them by maker, form and condition, not by the month on the wall.

The items below surface regularly at estate sales, church rummage tables and driveway sales, often priced by people who see nothing more than an old basket or a brown vase. Every figure given here is an approximate resale range for an honest, undamaged example.

Chips, cracks, repairs, staining, broken rims and cut stitching can erase half that range or more.

Tohono O’odham Coiled Yucca Baskets

Woven in southern Arizona over a bear grass foundation, these coiled bowls use bleached yucca for the pale ground and black devil’s claw fiber for the design. The maze pattern, often called the man in the maze, is the most recognized motif and moves fastest.

An eight to ten inch bowl with tight, even stitching typically resells for 75 to 250 dollars, while older large trays with fine coils reach 400 dollars and beyond. Sun fading and snapped stitches drop values sharply.

Apache Burden Baskets with Tin Cone Danglers

Western Apache burden baskets are twined into a deep conical form, finished with buckskin fringe and rolled tin cones that rattle when the basket swings. Genuine examples show hand-cut leather and irregular, hand-rolled cones rather than uniform stamped metal.

A ten to fourteen inch basket in sound condition commonly brings 200 to 600 dollars at resale, with pre-1940 pieces climbing higher. Imported imitations exist, so the fringe and stitch quality deserve a close look before buying.

Navajo Ceremonial Wedding Baskets

The banded red and black design with its deliberate break in the pattern, known as the pathway or spirit line, is instantly recognizable. Most modern examples were coiled from sumac by Paiute weavers in southern Utah who supply the Navajo ceremonial trade.

Twelve to sixteen inch baskets in clean condition usually resell for 150 to 400 dollars, and older, tighter, hand-dyed pieces exceed that. Water staining and coil separation are the two flaws that sink the price.

Nantucket Lightship Baskets

Built with rattan staves over a wooden mold, these baskets sit on a turned wood base and use brass ears at the swing handle. Bases are frequently signed and dated by the maker, with mid-century work by José Formoso Reyes among the most sought after.

Lidded purse forms with carved plaques commonly resell for 600 to 3,000 dollars, while small open round baskets run 300 to 800. Loose staves, a cracked base or a replaced handle reduce those numbers considerably.

Shaker Black Ash Cathead Baskets

Named for the four-cornered profile that resembles a cat’s ears when the basket is turned over, these were woven from pounded black ash splint at communities such as Mount Lebanon in New York. Nineteenth-century examples with original patina and no rim damage typically resell for 300 to 1,200 dollars.

Contemporary reproductions by studio weavers, which are common at estate sales, bring 80 to 200 dollars. Dryness and brittle splint are the usual condition problems.

Appalachian White Oak Egg Baskets

The ribbed egg basket, with its twin lobes and characteristic wrapped lashing at the handle joint, was made across Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina from hand-split white oak. The lashing pattern at each side of the handle, often called a God’s eye, is a quick authenticity check against machine-made imports.

Honest turn-of-the-century examples resell for 60 to 250 dollars, and pieces signed by a documented regional weaver run higher. Broken ribs are difficult to repair invisibly.

Longaberger Signed and Dated Market Baskets

Woven from hard maple splint in Dresden, Ohio, these carry a weaver’s initials and a date burned or written into the base. The market collapsed after the 1990s boom, so ordinary 1990s baskets now resell for 10 to 30 dollars and rarely more.

The exceptions matter: early Collectors Club editions, large laundry hampers and JW Collection pieces still bring 75 to 300 dollars. Protectors, liners and the original lid raise a listing’s take noticeably.

Amish Split Willow Market Baskets

Made from peeled willow rods woven over a sturdy frame, these oval market baskets carry a thick steamed oak handle that arches the full length of the body. Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana communities produced them for farm use and, later, for the tourist trade.

Clean examples in the sixteen to twenty inch range resell for 40 to 150 dollars, with older unpainted pieces at the upper end. Cracked willow rods and a loose handle attachment are the common faults.

Bolga Baskets from Northern Ghana

Woven from twisted elephant grass in and around Bolgatanga, these round market baskets have a U-shaped leather-wrapped handle and a spiral of dyed color running through the weave. They are still produced today, which keeps supply steady, but vintage and oversized examples remain scarce.

Standard sizes resell for 35 to 90 dollars, and large laundry-scale versions push past 120. A misshapen basket can be dampened, reshaped and dried, which turns a dollar find into a listing.

Japanese Bamboo Ikebana Baskets

Called hanakago, these flower-arranging baskets are woven from split madake bamboo and often include a removable copper or bamboo water insert. The strongest indicator of value is the original signed wooden storage box, the tomobako, which ties the basket to a named maker.

Unsigned decorative examples resell for 150 to 800 dollars, while documented work by recognized artisans reaches several thousand. Insect damage, missing inserts and split bamboo strips are what buyers inspect first.

French Grape Harvest Panniers

The tapered willow pannier used in Burgundy and Champagne vineyards has a flat back, two rope or leather shoulder straps and a body deep enough for a picker’s load. Genuine field examples show stains, repairs and worn straps, all of which decorators treat as features rather than damage.

Resale generally lands between 80 and 250 dollars depending on size and how intact the straps are. Reproductions made for the decorating market lack the honest wear and bring less.

Roseville Pottery in the Pine Cone Line

Zanesville, Ohio produced Roseville from the 1890s through 1954, and the Pine Cone line introduced in 1935 remains the most reliably resellable pattern. Pieces carry a raised Roseville mark with a shape number and size, and the brown, blue and green grounds each draw different buyers.

Small vases and planters resell for 75 to 250 dollars, with large jardinieres and the blue ground reaching 400 or more. Reproduction marks with a fuzzy, soft impression are widespread.

Weller Louwelsa and Coppertone Pottery

Weller, also of Zanesville, ran from 1872 to 1948 and produced dozens of lines, of which the dark brown Louwelsa glaze and the mottled green Coppertone frog and lily pad pieces move most consistently. Marks range from an impressed die-stamp to an incised script signature depending on the era.

Standard vases and bowls resell for 60 to 200 dollars, and figural Coppertone forms bring 250 to 600. Crazing is normal on Louwelsa; hairline cracks are not.

Van Briggle Matte Glaze Vases

Van Briggle Pottery operated in Colorado Springs from 1901 and remained in production for over a century, which means dating drives the price. Every piece is marked with a conjoined double A inside a rectangle, and early pieces add an incised year.

Common mid-century Persian Rose and turquoise vases, including the well-known Lorelei form, resell for 40 to 125 dollars. Dated examples from before 1920 routinely command 300 to 1,500 dollars in clean condition.

Rookwood Art Pottery with the Flame Mark

Rookwood of Cincinnati marked its work with a reversed R and P flanked by flames, adding a flame point for each year through 1900, then Roman numerals afterward. Shape numbers and artist ciphers appear alongside it, and an identified decorator can multiply the price several times over.

Plain production glazes resell for 150 to 400 dollars, while artist-signed Vellum and Iris pieces reach 1,500 and up. Grinding chips on the base are factory-normal and do not count as damage.

Hull Pottery in Matte Pastel Lines

Hull’s Ohio plant is best known for soft matte pastel lines such as Wildflower, Bow Knot and Woodland, plus the figural Little Red Riding Hood kitchenware made from 1943 onward. Marks are incised with a line letter and shape number, for example a W-prefixed number on Wildflower.

Ordinary vases and ewers resell for 50 to 175 dollars, while Little Red Riding Hood cookie jars run 200 to 500. The matte glazes craze readily, which buyers expect but still price against.

McCoy Cookie Jars and Planters

Nelson McCoy of Roseville, Ohio turned out enormous quantities of inexpensive pottery, so the money sits in the figural pieces rather than the plain green vases. Cookie jars shaped as animals, cottages and vehicles are the reliable movers, along with the yellow and green cascading planters.

Common jars resell for 25 to 90 dollars, with scarcer designs reaching 150 to 300. Reproductions of McCoy jars are so widespread that lid fit, weight and glaze pooling all deserve checking.

Red Wing Dinnerware and Art Pottery

The Minnesota firm is remembered for its stoneware, but the postwar dinnerware and art lines resell far more steadily. Bob White, the hand-painted quail pattern produced from 1956, is the recognizable one, along with the Tampico and Village Green lines.

Individual Bob White plates and cups run 8 to 25 dollars, while the tall casserole and the water pitcher bring 45 to 120. Utility knife marks in the glaze on plates are the usual value killer.

Bauer Ringware from California

Bauer Pottery of Los Angeles introduced its concentric-ring dinnerware in 1932, several years ahead of the more famous colored lines that followed. Pieces are heavy, slightly irregular and glazed in strong orange, jade green, cobalt and yellow, marked with an impressed Bauer stamp or nothing at all.

Mixing bowls in the nested sizes resell for 40 to 150 dollars each depending on color and size. Chipped rims and glaze grinds are common, so undamaged pieces stand out.

Frankoma Pottery in Ada and Sapulpa Clay

Frankoma operated in Oklahoma from 1933, and the clay body tells the story: pale tan Ada clay before 1954, brick-red Sapulpa clay after the plant moved. The Wagon Wheel and Mayan-Aztec lines are the most familiar, glazed in Prairie Green and Desert Gold.

Ordinary mugs and small pieces resell for 15 to 40 dollars, with early Ada clay vases and complete dinnerware sets reaching 100 to 300. The red clay body stains easily and cleans poorly.

Seagrove Studio Stoneware from North Carolina

The Seagrove area of North Carolina has supported working potteries for generations, with Jugtown Pottery and the Ben Owen family among the recognized names. Pieces are wheel-thrown, often salt-glazed or finished in a Chinese-inspired red, and carry an impressed shop stamp on the base.

Small vases and jugs resell for 40 to 120 dollars, while signed and dated work by named potters brings 200 to 800. Unmarked studio stoneware, however handsome, sells for a fraction of marked work.

Cobalt-Decorated Salt-Glazed Crocks and Jugs

Nineteenth-century American salt-glazed stoneware carries a pebbled orange-peel surface and blue cobalt decoration applied by brush or stencil, plus a capacity number and often a maker’s stamp such as J. Norton and Company of Bennington, Vermont. Freehand birds, flowers and animals outsell plain numbers by a wide margin.

A two-gallon crock with a simple floral spray resells for 150 to 600 dollars, and elaborate bird decoration passes 1,000. Through-cracks and rim chips cut those figures hard.

Arabia of Finland Ruska Stoneware

Arabia produced the Ruska line, designed by Ulla Procopé, from 1960 to 1999 in a mottled brown glaze that mid-century buyers still chase. Backstamps changed over the decades, and pieces are oven-safe stoneware rather than earthenware, so they survive kitchen use well.

Individual plates and bowls resell for 12 to 30 dollars, while the coffee pot, teapot and covered tureens bring 60 to 150. Serving pieces and lids drive the profit; loose plates alone rarely justify shipping.

West German Fat Lava Vases

Postwar German factories including Scheurich, Carstens and Bay Keramik produced thick, volcanic-textured glazes over molded forms, and collectors adopted the fat lava label decades later. Bases carry an impressed model and height code such as 517-30, plus West Germany or W. Germany, which dates the piece before 1990.

Common vases resell for 30 to 90 dollars, with large floor vases and dramatic red or orange lava glazes reaching 150 to 400. Glaze losses at the rim matter most.

Talavera Pottery from Puebla

Certified Talavera comes from a defined region around Puebla, Mexico, uses a specific clay body and is hand-painted over a tin-based white glaze, most traditionally in cobalt blue. Established workshops such as Uriarte sign the base, and the certification seal supports the higher end of the market.

Decorated bowls and vases resell for 30 to 120 dollars, with large signed jars and figural pieces at 200 or above. Unsigned tourist ware from other regions brings far less.

Mata Ortiz Pottery from Chihuahua

Revived by Juan Quezada in the Mexican village of Mata Ortiz, this pottery is coil-built without a wheel, burnished with a smooth stone and painted in astonishingly fine geometric line work. Pieces are unglazed, remarkably light for their size and signed on the base by the individual potter.

Work by lesser-known makers resells for 75 to 250 dollars, while pieces by Quezada family members and established names bring 400 to 1,500. Hairlines are fatal here.

Acoma Pueblo Thin-Walled Pottery

Acoma potters in New Mexico work a white slip over a very thin body, painting dense black fine-line and geometric designs that can run dozens of lines to the inch. Bases are typically signed with the potter’s name and Acoma, N.M., which separates genuine work from cast imitations sold along the highway.

Small seed pots and bowls resell for 100 to 350 dollars, and finely painted larger jars pass 600. Cast pieces feel heavy and sound dull when tapped.

English Blue Transferware Platters

Transfer-printed earthenware from Staffordshire has never fully left the market, and blue on white remains the color that sells. Spode Blue Italian, in continuous production since 1816, and the Johnson Brothers Old Britain Castles pattern are the two most commonly encountered names on backstamps.

Large meat platters resell for 40 to 150 dollars, and complete serving sets or scarce early patterns run higher. Knife scratching across the printed center is the flaw that most often kills a sale.

Yellowware Mixing Bowls with Blue Bands

Yellowware was thrown from buff-firing clay under a clear glaze, most of it made in Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania during the nineteenth century, with East Liverpool a major center. The banded bowls, decorated with slip stripes in blue, white or brown, are the form kitchens keep buying.

An eight to fourteen inch banded bowl in sound condition resells for 60 to 250 dollars depending on size and band pattern. Interior utensil wear and rim flakes are common and priced accordingly.

Fiesta Dinnerware by Homer Laughlin

Vintage Fiesta, produced from 1936 to 1969 in West Virginia, is identified by concentric rings, an inkstamped or molded mark and a fixed palette of solid colors. Color drives everything: medium green, made only from 1959 to 1969, dwarfs the common ivory and yellow, and the early red glaze contains uranium oxide.

Ordinary plates and bowls resell for 15 to 40 dollars, while medium green pieces and covered serving forms reach 100 to 500. Chips on the ring edges are unforgiving.

The Steady Trade in Fiber and Fired Clay

Both halves of this market reward the same discipline. A weaver’s initials on a maple base, a flame mark under a vase, an impressed capacity number on a crock: each one converts a vague old thing into a listing with a name, a date and a price history behind it.

Sellers who learn twenty marks cold will outperform sellers who rely on a general sense that something looks old.

Condition does the rest of the work. A cracked crock and a sound crock can differ by a factor of five, and a basket with three broken ribs is decor rather than inventory.

The pieces that sell in February as readily as in July are the ones that were well made, clearly marked and carefully kept, which is a short description of almost everything worth carrying home.

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