Fairfax Museum Broken Into - Pottery & Butter Churn Stolen

[Henry]

The museum was broken into within the last few days and we are aware of at least some pottery stolen, so if you happen to seen any of this, let Mike Cain know or The Vermont State Police:

[Henry]

Channel 5 had it on the news tonight:

http://www.wptz.com/news/24720817/detail.html

[Margie]

This just makes me feel sick.  These pieces are irreplaceable...they represent a very significant part of our town's history.  The way this happened indicts that the thieves knew exactly what they wanted.  These are not the sort of things you can sell just anywhere. 

I am heartsick about this entire thing. 

[Dick Brown]

Marge & Mike         I'm sure you're extremely upset by this act, but I would suspect it's not the only theft of this type in the area or state. Perhaps a contact with the Franklin County Museum in St. Albans might put you into a database of similar museums who have the same type of loss.....also Emerson Lynn is really helpful with ideas of who to contact for information on thefts like this.
Certainly you shouldn't blame yourselves....this group probably is not local but preys upon local organizations . Hope it can be recovered.

[MikeF9]

More pictures.

[mirjo]

 Sorry to hear about this!! What is the time period that these pieces are from?

It appears that thieves & that ilk have a stake in what makes the world go around.

But it certainly bites when you're a victim of their shenanigans.

[Chris Santee]

I'll try to keep an eye on e-bay and craig's list.
e-bay had 11 pages of butter churns.
Here's an example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Marshall-Pottery-Butter-Churn-4-Gallon-Lid-and-Paddle-/380248888042?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0

[Chris Santee]

While searching, I found these:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2010/08/23/historical_society_hit_by_burglars_in_vt/

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/2449818c3b8a45d685a1f497a96ae4ba/VT--Historical_Society_Thefts/

[Margie]

Mirjo - these pieces date from the late to middle 1800's.  And this is a bit more than shenanigans...the historical society was very lucky to have such an extensive collection of pottery from Fairfax.  These pieces had been collected since the society began and some pieces were donated by local people.  Most were in excellent condition. There are very few pieces left out there and those are in the hands of die hard collectors.  The Society may never have pottery items from our own town's history again. 

Dick - your comment of checking with the St. Albans Museum is a good idea.  And Chris...it never occurred to me about eBay or Craigslist.  My assumption is these will be heading straight to some collector...

[Henry]

I have just given Bianca Slota (Channel 3 News) Mike Cain's cell phone number so she can contact him as whe would like to come out this afternoon and speak with him

[Henry]

Bianca just contacted me and told me she will be meeting with Mike up at the Historical Society later this afternoon.

[MikeF9]

Meeting her shortly at 3:15.

[MikeF9]

Bianca Slota and Bob Davis arrived for WCAX. A guy from Channel 5 arrived also.
They took video of me and the museum.
Hope this doesn't give anyone else ideas.

Hope I look alright. I forgot to check to see if my hair was parted right before they got there. I had to go through my shirts to find one that didn't have the school seal or a sprint car on it.

Took a picture of Bob Davis filming Bianca Slota doing a walk-thru with my iPhone.

[msm]

Folks,

These are highly desireable pieces.   My Uncle Marvin ( Butch Alderman aka  Principle Alderman ) and I, have collected these for many years.   These are very very difficult  to come by.  And very expensive ..... But the internet has made these rare pieces 'findable'.  I used to stop in at every antique dealer to inspect their pottery collections, very rare to find a Fairfax, VT stamp.  Now,  you simply build a search in Craigslist and eBay..


With some luck,  the THIEVES will be caught ..  Stealing from a some town museum is low -- really low -- But it doesn't surprise me.   I hope the publicity can help the case.

Good Luck,  Mike M

[MikeF9]

Saw the Blurb on WCAX. Thought it was going to be an actual story but no. I don't remember saying that the items may be returned "No questions asked." I think I said something to the effect if if they had a guilty conscience, and we found them outside the museum, fine. Literal license, I guess. And then they show the museum in the closing credits. Maybe a bigger story later.