Antique Plate is a Recent Discovery by Anne McCollam on Creators.com

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Antique Plate is a Recent Discovery

Q: The pictured porcelain plate belonged to my grandparents. They were married in 1902 and it may have been a wedding gift. Their home is still in our family, and during a recent remodel of the kitchen, we discovered the plate in an upper cabinet. It is in perfect condition and measures 8 inches in diameter. Marked on the back are the words, "K & G — Luneville." I asked an antiques dealer if she had any information on our plate, and she thought it was made around 1910.

Any information will be appreciated.

A. Keller and Guerin made your plate in the late 1800s. They produced porcelain in Luneville, France, from 1788 to 1890.

Its value would probably be $75 to $100.

Q: I have a three-piece set of children's china dishes. The plate is decorated with a scene of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse is on the saucer and Pluto is on the cup. The set was a gift in 1935. I have enclosed the mark seen on each piece.

What can you tell me about this set?

A: Patriot China was made by Salem China, which was located in Ohio. They were licensed to produce Walt Disney dishes that featured a variety of Disney characters.

Your set is extremely collectible and would probably be worth anywhere from $400 to $800.

Q: I have something very unusual. It is the Daily Citizen newspaper printed on July 2, 1863, in Vicksburg, Miss. It is the last wallpaper edition of the newspaper.

I have been offered from $500 to $1,500 and would like to know its worth.

A: Paper became a valuable commodity for the Confederates during the Civil War.

Although there were a few paper factories in the South, they relied on the North for paper. When they ran out of paper, they used the backside of unused rolls of wallpaper. The Union Army entered Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, and found the July 2 edition set up and waiting to be printed. J.M. Swords, the publisher, had fled the city, leaving behind an unprinted newspaper. It was printed with an endnote saying, "This is the last wallpaper edition."

The Daily Citizen was not the only paper to be published on wallpaper. In both the North and South, in the 1800s and early 1900s, shortage of paper was due to blizzards, strikes, financial problems and even quarantines.

The Daily Citizen has been widely reproduced, and copies are available for sale today in the Vicksburg Old Courthouse Museum. If your edition does not have a comma followed by six periods after J.M. Swords and contain the misspelled word, "Secossion," in column four, it is probably not an original.

Original editions have sold from $2,500 to $3,000.

Address your questions to Anne McCollam, P.O. Box 247, Notre Dame, IN 46556. Items of a general interest will be answered in this column. Due to the volume of inquiries, she cannot answer individual letters. To find out more about Anne McCollam and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.