The cat used to sleep in the big bowl on the breakfast room table. It was the perfect size and right next to a window.
“It was cool and had a view of the outside,” says Kathy Stevenson. “We used to feed the dog out of another bowl.” Then the Stevensons found out that the cheerful, sturdy Watt pottery with which they had decorated their kitchen was worth hundreds of dollars per piece.
“We thought we were the only people crazy enough to collect it,” laughs Brock Stevenson.
Apparently a great many people are just “crazy” about Watt pottery, manufactured and hand-painted in Rose Farm, Ohio, by the Watt family for 40 years; the patterns the Stevensons collect were made during the 1950s. Watt Pottery made primarily dinner and kitchen ware, which was designed to be inexpensive, durable and colorful. Often the cookware was given away as a premium — in fact, several of the Kathy and Brock’s pieces are marked with advertising.
The collection started when Kathy saw a salt-and-pepper set at a flea market that she thought was “cute.” Now Watt pottery fills a breakfast nook cabinet, the walls, the top of the refrigerator … corners and cubbyholes. Almost everything was acquired back in the good old days when the pottery’s value wasn’t widely known. Now the Stephensons rarely purchase a piece at “collectors’ prices.” They say it just isn’t as much “fun” anymore. After all, the collection started just because they liked it, not as a status symbol.
And by the way, the cat can still sleep in the bowl if he wants to.
