Originally posted on https://www.thepolishpotteryshoppe.com/blogs/the-polish-pottery-shoppe-blog/polish-pottery-pricing/
If you are interested in Polish Pottery you’ve probably shopped around enough to notice the wide variety of pricing. Rather than assuming it’s purely an arbitrary decision, we’d like to offer a “peek behind the curtain” to help you understand why.
Every pottery factory has a system of ranking their designs into price groups. The number of price groups varies from company to company and can be as few as two and as many as six.
Just like fine china, Polish Pottery is priced according to the amount of time required to paint the piece. The primary elements that determine this are the specific shape and size, the number of colors in the design and its intricacy.
Some designs are painted entirely using stamps, which are quick to apply. Others start with a series of stamped designs with additional details added by the artist using a brush.
Manufaktura Polish Pottery is the company that produces about 80% of the pottery sold in our shop including our best selling Polish Pottery plates and bowls. They break up their pricing into four price groups. Their Traditional price group is the least expensive. Patterns in this group have the most simple designs and the fewest colors.
Their next group is called UNIKAT. UNIKAT is a term often heard in association with Polish Pottery. In English, the word UNIKAT translates to mean “Unique.” These designs are more intricate than the Traditional designs, and are more colorful.
Their Signature Designs are more complex and much more colorful than UNIKATs.
Their final design group is the Premier group, which as you might expect, are yet again more intricate and colorful than those in all of the other groups. In addition, all pieces in the Signature and Premier design groups are signed by the artist.
Of course, the price variation differs by each shape, but an example we can look at in our shoppe is our Manufaktura polish stoneware dinner plates. The standard dinner plates are priced as follows: Traditional – $30; UNIKAT – $36; Signature – $40; Premier – $42.
As you can see from this example, the price from one price level to the next is not a lot, but from the least expensive to the most expensive is fairly substantial for one dinner plate. This is one of the reasons many Polish Pottery collectors mix their patterns. By combining several patterns, they can collect a few of the most expensive pieces “for show” but the majority of their pottery is more moderately priced.
In contrast, Kalich Polish Pottery produces only two price groups: Traditional and Artistic Designs. A comparable dinner plate in the Kalich Traditional group is priced at $58. The same plate painted with an Artistic Design is priced at $64.
With this example, one can see the price difference between Kalich and Manufaktura. Traditional dinner plates (least expensive) produced by Kalich, are more costly than the Premier dinner plates (most expensive) made by Manufaktura.
If you have other questions related to pricing or anything else related to Polish Pottery, we invite you to contact us or come visit our store.