Novice Pot Lid Collector

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tolmanbridge

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I recently purchased a bottle collection from a fellow on Vancouver Island. Along with the bottles were two potlids. These look great and I would really like to know more about them and perhaps purchase more. I was able to find out the Miller's one was Canadian but that was all I could find. I found a little more about the Cherry toothpaste one. I do have a few questions now that I am hooked. Does anyone know any further info on either of the two potlids? What are they worth? Where would one purchase more potlids? What is the ballpark value of them so I don't overpay? When searching for them on eBay what do I look up? When I search for pot lids I get a pile of coffee pot lids, etc. And the final question is can you also purchase the bases or pots for the lids?
 

CanadianBottles

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Wow, I've never heard of that Miller's but if it's Canadian and you can't find any info on it then it's probably a pretty good one. Canadian pot lids are NOT easy to find! I would imagine value would be somewhere in the hundreds, hard to guess beyond that. The Gosnell is a very common one, but still collectible because it's got a beautiful design. Not sure how much these tend to go for, I think around $30-50? That's what I tended to see them sell for a few years back when I was buying things on Ebay, anyway. They're much more common in the UK than here. There's a full colour version too.

Your best bet for pot lids is definitely Ebay, since you'll have to import them from the UK most of the time. Pot lids are usually listed in the bottles and insulators category, so filtering by category is the way to make searching for "pot lid" work. Sometimes they come with the pots and sometimes they don't, but the pots were usually plain and not too worth thinking about in my opinion. Pot lid prices tend to range from around $20 at the low end to thousands at the high end. Definitely start off by seeing what you can get towards the low end. Looking at completed listings, there have been a few pot lids sold for under $40 including shipping over the past few months, but it doesn't seem to happen too often. This seems to be the cheapest currently available, at $40: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/31383518067...eiSq1s81xhOiHXXclJZf7PeQ==|tkp:Bk9SR5i_q9f2YA It's got a chip but looks like it otherwise displays nicely enough. Not a terrible price these days although it is one of the common ones. If you aren't a stickler for condition you can often find ones which display decently but don't cost outrageous prices because they're chipped on the underside or cracked or glued back together or something. For the few that I bought it was just because I liked the look of them and they weren't too pricey, so I didn't care about that sort of thing. Damaged pot lids look a lot nicer than damaged bottles. Unfortunately they still cost $30 to ship over from the UK, so cheap is a relative thing. Might be worth contacting some UK collectors to see if they'd be willing to sell you a box lot of a bunch of the commons, would certainly cost a lot less than paying $30 to ship each $5 pot lid by itself.

From my memory, the most common two are Wood's Areca Nut Toothpaste and Burgess's Anchovy Paste, so definitely don't pay much for those. You'll probably be able to snag one for under $30 at some point if you keep an eye out, or acquire them anyway in a lot. There are also kitschy decorative pot lids which don't have a name on them but do have full-colour pictures, they often don't cost very much but I was never particularly interested in them. I'm not sure how old they are, I think they can be quite recent.
 

tolmanbridge

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Wow, I've never heard of that Miller's but if it's Canadian and you can't find any info on it then it's probably a pretty good one. Canadian pot lids are NOT easy to find! I would imagine value would be somewhere in the hundreds, hard to guess beyond that. The Gosnell is a very common one, but still collectible because it's got a beautiful design. Not sure how much these tend to go for, I think around $30-50? That's what I tended to see them sell for a few years back when I was buying things on Ebay, anyway. They're much more common in the UK than here. There's a full colour version too.

Your best bet for pot lids is definitely Ebay, since you'll have to import them from the UK most of the time. Pot lids are usually listed in the bottles and insulators category, so filtering by category is the way to make searching for "pot lid" work. Sometimes they come with the pots and sometimes they don't, but the pots were usually plain and not too worth thinking about in my opinion. Pot lid prices tend to range from around $20 at the low end to thousands at the high end. Definitely start off by seeing what you can get towards the low end. Looking at completed listings, there have been a few pot lids sold for under $40 including shipping over the past few months, but it doesn't seem to happen too often. This seems to be the cheapest currently available, at $40: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/313835180677?hash=item491208d285:g:BQsAAOSwYI9h4wmO&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAkI8fUT5eNtMzT81ZgNhgkHCXyOLAWwqhNIG9rEs4C9wSenB6G3OnU0NV1pXUuTct8N+ryGAmSJOYF34MGlfapQZoA0CZT6ArN3z2a1U/fpB5fsSft1HhNB5j3CUXEotJAP8POyfkrDMQr70nzLvrv1Ja5u/KbWNUrYGFSIqucBeiSq1s81xhOiHXXclJZf7PeQ==|tkp:Bk9SR5i_q9f2YA It's got a chip but looks like it otherwise displays nicely enough. Not a terrible price these days although it is one of the common ones. If you aren't a stickler for condition you can often find ones which display decently but don't cost outrageous prices because they're chipped on the underside or cracked or glued back together or something. For the few that I bought it was just because I liked the look of them and they weren't too pricey, so I didn't care about that sort of thing. Damaged pot lids look a lot nicer than damaged bottles. Unfortunately they still cost $30 to ship over from the UK, so cheap is a relative thing. Might be worth contacting some UK collectors to see if they'd be willing to sell you a box lot of a bunch of the commons, would certainly cost a lot less than paying $30 to ship each $5 pot lid by itself.

From my memory, the most common two are Wood's Areca Nut Toothpaste and Burgess's Anchovy Paste, so definitely don't pay much for those. You'll probably be able to snag one for under $30 at some point if you keep an eye out, or acquire them anyway in a lot. There are also kitschy decorative pot lids which don't have a name on them but do have full-colour pictures, they often don't cost very much but I was never particularly interested in them. I'm not sure how old they are, I think they can be quite recent.
Thank you again, for the information. I had heard of pot lids before but never thought of collecting any. Will take your advice and see about contacting someone in the U.K. After buying two old bottle collections I am kind of broke at the moment but will be watching. Hope to go back to Europe in another year and 1/2 so I will be keeping my eyes open for some while we are there. I displayed them in the membrane cases and they look great. Have a wonderful day.
 

CanadianBottles

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Thank you again, for the information. I had heard of pot lids before but never thought of collecting any. Will take your advice and see about contacting someone in the U.K. After buying two old bottle collections I am kind of broke at the moment but will be watching. Hope to go back to Europe in another year and 1/2 so I will be keeping my eyes open for some while we are there. I displayed them in the membrane cases and they look great. Have a wonderful day.
If you're going to the UK then that would be the ideal time to pick up some pot lids, would certainly save you a lot on the shipping. France has pot lids too, so those would be worth looking for if you could figure out how to buy them. They're called "boîtes à savon" - soap boxes - so might be a bit difficult to ask for at an antique shop if the clerk isn't familiar with them. Probably best to bring a picture to show. Not sure about the pot lids from other European countries, I'm not sure what they'd be called in each language so it's hard to search for them online. I was able to find a picture of a German one, but on an English site, so Germany probably has plenty as well. I imagine lots of other countries do too.
 

Old man digger

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View attachment 240511View attachment 240512I recently purchased a bottle collection from a fellow on Vancouver Island. Along with the bottles were two potlids. These look great and I would really like to know more about them and perhaps purchase more. I was able to find out the Miller's one was Canadian but that was all I could find. I found a little more about the Cherry toothpaste one. I do have a few questions now that I am hooked. Does anyone know any further info on either of the two potlids? What are they worth? Where would one purchase more potlids? What is the ballpark value of them so I don't overpay? When searching for them on eBay what do I look up? When I search for pot lids I get a pile of coffee pot lids, etc. And the final question is can you also purchase the bases or pots for the lids?
Best thing to do is go online and search for "PRATTWARE" and you may find help there with info and collecting the lids with their appropriate bases. Good luck
 

tolmanbridge

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Wow, I've never heard of that Miller's but if it's Canadian and you can't find any info on it then it's probably a pretty good one. Canadian pot lids are NOT easy to find! I would imagine value would be somewhere in the hundreds, hard to guess beyond that. The Gosnell is a very common one, but still collectible because it's got a beautiful design. Not sure how much these tend to go for, I think around $30-50? That's what I tended to see them sell for a few years back when I was buying things on Ebay, anyway. They're much more common in the UK than here. There's a full colour version too.

Your best bet for pot lids is definitely Ebay, since you'll have to import them from the UK most of the time. Pot lids are usually listed in the bottles and insulators category, so filtering by category is the way to make searching for "pot lid" work. Sometimes they come with the pots and sometimes they don't, but the pots were usually plain and not too worth thinking about in my opinion. Pot lid prices tend to range from around $20 at the low end to thousands at the high end. Definitely start off by seeing what you can get towards the low end. Looking at completed listings, there have been a few pot lids sold for under $40 including shipping over the past few months, but it doesn't seem to happen too often. This seems to be the cheapest currently available, at $40: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/313835180677?hash=item491208d285:g:BQsAAOSwYI9h4wmO&amdata=enc:AQAHAAAAkI8fUT5eNtMzT81ZgNhgkHCXyOLAWwqhNIG9rEs4C9wSenB6G3OnU0NV1pXUuTct8N+ryGAmSJOYF34MGlfapQZoA0CZT6ArN3z2a1U/fpB5fsSft1HhNB5j3CUXEotJAP8POyfkrDMQr70nzLvrv1Ja5u/KbWNUrYGFSIqucBeiSq1s81xhOiHXXclJZf7PeQ==|tkp:Bk9SR5i_q9f2YA It's got a chip but looks like it otherwise displays nicely enough. Not a terrible price these days although it is one of the common ones. If you aren't a stickler for condition you can often find ones which display decently but don't cost outrageous prices because they're chipped on the underside or cracked or glued back together or something. For the few that I bought it was just because I liked the look of them and they weren't too pricey, so I didn't care about that sort of thing. Damaged pot lids look a lot nicer than damaged bottles. Unfortunately they still cost $30 to ship over from the UK, so cheap is a relative thing. Might be worth contacting some UK collectors to see if they'd be willing to sell you a box lot of a bunch of the commons, would certainly cost a lot less than paying $30 to ship each $5 pot lid by itself.

From my memory, the most common two are Wood's Areca Nut Toothpaste and Burgess's Anchovy Paste, so definitely don't pay much for those. You'll probably be able to snag one for under $30 at some point if you keep an eye out, or acquire them anyway in a lot. There are also kitschy decorative pot lids which don't have a name on them but do have full-colour pictures, they often don't cost very much but I was never particularly interested in them. I'm not sure how old they are, I think they can be quite recent.
Just found a website that had the Miller's pot lid. According to the website, the product was produced by Northrop and Lyman in Canada. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17163/22805
 

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