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Treasured memories: Moyer pottery collection goes up for auction

By Holly Claycomb 6 min read

DUNCANSVILLE -- No two are alike but all of the more than 700 pieces fit perfectly together, much like the couple who amassed the vast collection of Roseville Pottery during jaunts across the East Coast.

On Tuesday, most of the pottery collected and cared for by Jack and Carol Moyer will be on the auction block at Cross Keys Auction. There are vases, pedestals, jardinieres, baskets, jars and more, in a mix of colors from blue to green and red and variations in between.

The sheer number of pieces, nearly all from the same manufacturer, is a rarity, said Kenneth Miller, better known as auctioneer Col. K.R. Miller.

Miller said that while the price of Roseville and other pottery has dropped in recent years, he still expects the auction to draw a crowd and continue for hours. Doors open at 2:30 p.m., with the auctioneering set to start at 4 p.m.

The auction will be an opportunity for people to start collecting the vintage pottery or fill in sets they already have started, Jack Moyer said.

Now 89 years old, the retired Methodist minister said it's time to let others enjoy what he and his late wife acquired over the past 35 or so years.

As an impetus to others considering the art of collecting, Moyer said scouring auctions gave him and his wife much joy and brought them closer together.

"It was good for Carol and I and our relationship," he said. "It was one more thing we had together ... something we could do together."

Being in the clergy "kept me from sharing a lot with her," he said. "I couldn't talk about a lot of things." Collecting the pottery, though, "bound us together."

Thinking about the years they spent pottery hunting, Moyer said "I was really glad for it." He admits, though, that at first he wasn't thrilled with the idea of filling their home with pottery.

"Her sisters got her started," he said of Carol's passion for the pottery crafted in the 1800s and 1900s in Ohio. "I hated it to begin with," he said with a laugh.

As it turned out, though, he and Carol collected the most pieces, compared to other family members.

The two would go to Virginia and West Virginia for auctions, and even traveled to Chicago in search of more pieces to add to their collection.

While they might have ended up with a house brimming with Roseville, they didn't always collect pottery, their son Brian said.

The Moyers moved to Altoona in 1992 when Jack was called to lead local churches.

Two of their children -- Doug and Kim -- were already grown and had moved out on their own. The youngest, Brian, was set to head off to college when his parents moved to Blair County.

"They didn't start collecting until the late 1980s or 1990s," Brian said. "I graduated in 1992. … I remember them going off to auctions."

He didn't realize at the time, though, how many pieces his parents were acquiring.

"I went to college, went abroad, came back and boom, there it was," he said with a laugh.

When asked why he and Carol collected that particular pottery, Jack said it "was just something we liked."

The pottery was originally made to be used, not to be collected, to sit around on bookshelves and refrigerators, he said. "It was meant to be used by families."

Among the many pieces they collected are baby dishes, planters, vases, pots and wall pockets. Most pieces have a flower motif because Carol loved flowers.

There were a lot of wall pockets, Brian said, explaining how many people have large pictures or paintings on a living room wall. His parents had that, he said, and then they had wall pockets.

"Every wall was full of them," he said. "If you would see their house, every room would have wall pockets ... everywhere you look, wall pockets," he said in a tone mixed with laughter and incredulity.

Due to the sheer number of pieces, the walls weren't the only place the pottery was displayed.

Some were in curio cabinets, Brian said, and "every table, end table and the buffet ... everything displayed Roseville."

"It was truly a love for them," Brian said. "They got to enjoy it over the years. ... I'm glad they had it."

As their collection grew, "it got to a point where they were looking for one piece to complete a set," he said. "They got more picky, more selective as they got older."

They often went to Miller's auction in Cross Keys to find pieces, Miller said, adding that Jack was always a real nice, easy going guy.

In his professional opinion as an auctioneer, Miller said the people who made the Roseville pottery were really good crafters. The pottery is collectible because the "plant is closed. This is it. There is no more."

When it came time for Jack to divest himself of the collection that he and Carol jokingly told their children was their inheritance, he called on Miller to clean out the house. Tuesday's auction is one of five for the Moyers' collections, which also included Jack's mechanical banks.

Miller said the couple's home, on the 700 block of Ridge Avenue, Altoona, wasn't cluttered. Everything was neat and in its place, he said.

"It was tough to leave the house," said Jack, who reached the rank of colonel and served several decades as a military chaplain, including in Vietnam and Korea. He retired from the pulpit in the late 1990s as minister of visitation for the Hollidaysburg First United Methodist Church. Carol, who was a nurse, passed away in 2022.

Last year, Jack moved to the Pittsburgh area to be near Brian, and downsizing from a house to a two-bedroom apartment meant he had to let go of much of the Roseville collection. But, as the saying goes, he kept a couple of cards up his sleeve. What won't be at the auction on Tuesday are about 50 pieces of the green freesia set that Jack decided to keep. It's on display in his living room, with some overflow in the kitchen, he admitted.

And though Brian and his siblings weren't into collecting like their parents, they appreciated their passion and have kept a few pieces for themselves, as did other members of the family.

Moving to the Pittsburgh area means Jack can see more of Brian's two kids. Son Doug also has two children and lives in Virginia, while daughter Kim Deaton lives in Florida and has one child.

But, "not one has gotten the auction bug. … or the Roseville bug," Jack and Brian said.

Starting at /week.