Roycroft Copper Online Price Guide

Large vase with rolled-rim. About 8.5 inches high. Original Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition. Large vases like this and the one above don't show up nearly as often as the smaller ones. Here's why ---the 1926 catalogue listed them as $12.50 and $10.00, while the small vases were all in the $3.75-$6.00 range. Twice the price new = twice as rare today.

About 5 inches high. Cylinder form with tooled designs near the top. The tooled band contains 4 stylized flowers and green polychrome (painted) highlights. Original Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition. This is probably my favorite small Roycroft vase -- the form is very attractive, with nice proportions and a fair amount of detailed workmanship.

About 5 inches high. Cylinder form with tooled designs near the top. The tooled band contains 4 stylized flowers and the remnants of green polychrome highlights.

About 6 inches high. Floriform copper base with Steuben hand-blown bubbly glass insert. These came with brown, brass, or silver bases joined with either green or amber glass inserts. A brass and a silver are shown here.

Rare vase with glass insert. About 7 inches high. Copper base has flower petal-like design with green Steuben hand-blown bubbly glass insert. This is a later piece, around 1926-ish, but doesn't show up very often.

Rare Karl Kipp vase. Only 3 inches high! This diminutive piece is certainly the smallest KK vase I've ever seen. One of the few pieces where smaller is cooler. Has the "Hand Wrought" mark. Probably original brownish finish.

About 4.75 inches high. Tapering cylinder form with tooled geometric designs near the top. This cool vase, although a middle period design, is pretty rare. Original Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition.

About 6 inches high. Plain but beautiful. Original Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition.

About 6 inches high. Here's the same vase but in a good original Old Brass finish. Close comparison between the vase above and this one reveals a difference not only in finish but also in hammering technique, size, proportion, copper thickness, etc. It's interesting that the heavier, and I would guess earlier, vase bears the middle mark while the slightly lighter one has the early mark. So much for dating with marks. I'll leave it to you to guess which is which.

About 4.75 inches high and 4.5 inches wide. Bulbous vase. Heavier weight copper and has early mark. Original Old Brass finish in very good condition.

About 4.75 inches high and 4.5 inches wide. Another bulbous vase. A tiny bit smaller than the brass one above. Middle mark but nice and heavy also. Original Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition.

Vase with shoulders. About 5 inches high. This form shows up about as often as the bulbous vase above. This example has a so-so finish -- kind of a splotchy light brown, which is not unusual on the later ones.

Two "curly top" vases. About 6 inches and 5.5 inches high. I didn't know these came in two sizes until early 1999, when I found the bigger one at the Grove Park Inn show. The big one is quite rare (I've only seen two), is signed with the Jennings two dot mark, has its original Aurora Brown finish and is in excellent condition. The small one is Old Brass finish in average condition.

Curly top vase. About 5.5 inches high. Here's another small curly top vase with an excellent original Aurora Brown finish.

Another curly top vase, but with a twist. This vase is 5.5 inches tall, but the design of the top is a little different from the typical design. Just compare the flutes to the ones above. This vase has the 2-dot mark (probably made by Walter Jennings), and probably represents an early piece with a little artistic variation.

Vase with curly top rim. About 5.5 inches high. A fairly attractive middle period vase, and a nice addition to any collection I would say. Original Brown finish in excellent condition.

OK, here's a lesson in market values. Look at the difference between the vase above and this one. The one above would be welcome in any collection, while this one clearly has finish issues, to the point of being unattractive.

Now look at the auction prices. They both sold on ebay, the better one for $328 2/03 and the nasty one for $428 7/00. Just goes to show you, with "mature period" pieces like these, you can wait and a nicer and cheaper one will show up (twice in a year and a half!).

Two vases with curly top rims, both with excellent brass finishes. Vase on left is rare earlier and heavier with 2 "WJ dots" in the early mark and is about 6 3/8 in. high. Vase on right is more common 5.5 inches high and middle mark (and "blue brass" finish).

About 5.5 inches high. Here's an unusual early version of the vases above. The proportions and shape of the top are different, but they share the same basic design. I find pieces like this one interesting because they demonstrate how forms evolved over time. This vase has the early mark. Original Brass finish with some wear.

Vase shaped like an upside-down bell. About 4.25 inches high. Original Aurora Brown finish in most excellent condition.

Two small vases about 4.5 inches high. Interesting comparison between the early and late versions of the same form. Quite different in terms of weight and color. Later one (left) is original Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition. Early one (right) is very heavy and signed with the Jennings two dot mark.

Vase with slightly flared rim about 4.5 inches high. Early and heavy form.

Vase with gold acid etched finish about 5 inches high. If you're unfamiliar with Roycroft's finishes, you should know that most collectors do not value acid-etched pieces particularly highly. They were generally made later and do not have that hammered arts and craftsy look. But since it might be nice to have one or two acid etched pieces to fill out a collection, I've included this vase on this site.

Vase of bulbous form and slightly flared rim. Form is similar to the vase above. About 5 inches high. Finish on this one is not that great, with some wear/cleaning.

Fat bottomed vase, commonly referred to as the "nuclear power plant vase" or "gourd vase". This form, model #239, dates from the late teens through the mid 1920s (it was not listed in the 1926 catalog). It's a heavy and substantial form, especially when it bears the early mark. About 4 inches high by 6.5 inches wide.

A RoycroftCopper.com Exclusive!

Exceptionally rare, probably one-of-a-kind vase, a variation on the form above. Note the decorative leaf design and fine peened hammering. From the estate of a Roycrofter. Late mark dates it to the late twenties.

Large pic

Value: Impossible to determine.

Two vases of flared-rim form. About 4.5 inches high. Notice the pronounced difference in hammering between these two vases. Fine delicate hammering (left) versus strong bold (lazy?) hammering (right). Both have original Aurora Brown finish in very good condition.

Another flared-rim vase. This time in Old Brass.

Two cute little bud vases about 4.5 inches high. Notice the slight variation in height. Both in Aurora Brown finish in excellent condition.

Bud vase allegedly designed by Karl Kipp. I can't decide whether I love this form or hate it. Beware of replaced glass inserts like this one courtesy of Nat Sherman cigars (original one broken by yours truly had a curly top).

Bud vase, probably Karl Kipp design. About 8.5 inches high. The design is very Secessionist and they don't show up very often, so this is quite a desirable piece. The rivets are neat, and this piece also has a unique tiny Roycroft stamp, usually on top.

Another Kipp-designed bud vase. I'm including this picture because I really like the ruffled and acid-etched insert.

Bud vase with glass insert. Excellent Old Brass finish. The insert in this vase is original.

Bud vase with glass insert. Excellent original Aurora Brown finish. Beautiful design, right? NOT! Great curly top insert though.

Wall hanging bud vase with glass insert. Excellent original Aurora Brown finish. Nice design. Insert is probably not original.

Early vase holder. No, it's not a candleholder. A glass tube slides into the base. A neat little piece if you have the original insert. The rivets are cool. Condition on this one is not very good.

Very late deco style vase/compote. Spun not hammered. I don't like this thing much, but at least they were trying out new forms when they made it. You have to respect the effort I suppose.