Furniture from the 1950s is popular again, but some of the pieces look peculiar to the untrained eye.

The designers who worked in the United States often used the then-new material plywood to form chairs and chests in unfamiliar shapes. The ’50s look was worldwide, and designers in Scandinavia, England, Germany and Holland made similar furniture.

UMS Pastoe is a famous furniture company in Holland that has been in business since 1913. The company started making traditional furniture for the average home, but soon used modern methods to make avant-garde designs. Pastoe continues to make furniture, now called “’50s style” or “Modern.” The European furniture of the ’50s is just a little different from American pieces. It takes study to notice these variations, because the plywood, plastic and colors used are similar.

A Pastoe sewing stand offered for sale recently is made of painted plywood compartments with swiveling lids. The compartments are mounted on a painted steel frame. There is storage space in the compartments, but the 21-by-10-by-26-inch portable stand takes up twice as much room as a traditional sewing cabinet.

While going through a box of old dishes I inherited 20 years ago, I found a large portrait plate of a young girl wearing a simple dress and cap. The painting is in shades of amber and white on an amber background, which makes it look like a sepia photograph. The back has a green stamped “H & Co.” over a bold line with the letter L under it. There’s a second hand-painted mark, “AG,” in amber. What does this reveal about the plate?

The plate was manufactured by Haviland & Co. of Limoges, France, between about 1888 and 1896. Haviland portrait plates are usually painted in many colors and have decorative borders. Your plate was probably exported to the United States and painted by an artist here whose initials were A.G.

When my mother was 10 years old, she embroidered a piece of linen with a simple Dutch scene. It shows two children kissing in the foreground and a windmill in the background. She also stitched the year, 1914, and her initials, P.D. The thread is only one color. The linen piece is framed and measures about a foot square. Does this type of item sell?

Old 20th-century embroidery work done by children is beginning to sell at flea markets and shows. Prices for pieces like yours are not high. Keep it as a family heirloom and have the framing job checked by a professional. Be sure there is no stress on the fabric and that the mounting is acid-free. Don’t expose it to direct sunlight.

I was given an empty Colgate tooth powder container that’s made of cardboard, not tin. It’s 3 1/2 inches tall, cream-colored and round, with a top that tapers to a red lid. The words on the container, in red, say: “Tooth Powder, Colgate, New Victory Package, Saves Metal, Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co., Jersey City, N.J.” Can you tell me age and value? I’ve been thinking of selling the container online.

This odd piece of furniture from Holland is a 1955 sewing stand. It is made of plywood and steel.

The modern Colgate-Palmolive Co. traces its history back to 1806, when William Colgate started selling starch, soap and candles in New York City. Colgate’s company merged with Palmolive-Peet Co. in 1928 to become Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. The name Peet was dropped in 1953. But the phrase “Victory package” and the use of cardboard rather than tin narrows the age of your container to the years of American involvement in World War II. Those were the same years Colgate used the radio jingle: “Use tooth powder every day — Brush your teeth the Colgate way.” The container would probably sell for about $10.

Tip

To display your doorknob collection, put the knobs in a basket or a shadowbox picture frame on a coffee table. If you can find an old rubber-stamp holder, it is the perfect way to show off about 20 doorknobs. Of course, you can use them on doors, too.