French porcelains were among the best-decorated in the world in the early 19th century. Porcelain painters worked at many factories making richly decorated ornamental and useful porcelains. These early pieces had expertly painted bunches of flowers and landscapes, often embellished with gold trim. But styles change, and by the 1870s, heavier, less romantic decoration was needed to go with the ornate carved furniture of the Victorians.

Jacob Petit, a French artist who painted thin porcelains with roses and flowers in the 1830s, made this unusual vase in the Palissy

Bernard Palissy, a French potter working about 1510 to 1590, was a naturalist. He made pottery platters like little ponds covered with realistic raised copies of snakes, lizards, snails and insects crawling on leaves, grass and stones. The forms were realistic because he used casts of dead reptiles to help with the modeling. His work was widely imitated for centuries. These imitation dishes were popular in the 1850s, but out of style in the 1950s. In the 1980s, majolica, a heavy pottery with thick, dark glazes and designs inspired by nature, came back into style. Prices rose.

Today, large colorful vases, platters, jardiniÃres and even teapots and figures sell for thousands of dollars. Early this year, a 13-inch vase in the “Palissy taste” sold for more than $2,000. It was decorated with lobsters, frogs and lizards crawling among fruit and seashells, a very unromantic design.

Q: I recently purchased an ice-cream scoop marked “Arnold C. Eichin Inc., Pat. Pend.” What year did he get the patent, and how much is the scoop worth? I paid less than a dollar for a bag of kitchen items that included this scoop.

A: Chicagoans Arnold Eichin and Frank K. Sweetman applied for a patent on their ice-cream scoop in February 1954. The patent was granted in July 1956. Today your scoop sells for $7 to $10. So you did well when you bought your bagful of kitchen collectibles.

Q: An unusual bottle has been passed down in my family for generations. It is a clear-glass crying baby’s head and shoulders. The bottle is 6 1/4 inches tall and 2 1/2 inches in diameter at the base, and it has a round glass stopper. The bottom is embossed “T.P.S. & Co., N.Y.” Can you estimate age and value?

A: You have a well-known figural bottle. The design, called “Crying Baby,” was patented in 1874. The bottle also can be found in aqua. Most experts believe that it originally contained castor oil or a syrup for soothing babies. We have seen these bottles priced at $50 to $85, with and without a stopper.

Q: I have a pair of 6-inch electric scissors with the brand name “Snippy.” They have a red-plastic outer shell and still work. The way they cut makes them easy to use and safe, too. My aunt gave them to me years ago when I was a child, and I haven’t seen any since then. The patent number on the back is 2740197. I wonder if the gadget has any value.

A: The Web site of the U.S. Patent Office helped us discover that your Snippy scissors were patented on April 3, 1956. The patent was granted to the inventor, Philip Padva. We have seen small electric Snippy scissors selling for about $10 to $25.

Q: My mother inherited a blue-and-white flower-decorated china dish from her grandmother. Now it’s mine. Family lore says it was a wedding gift in the mid to late 1800s. The bottom has a printed mark showing an upside-down letter “V” over a crown. Inside the two outlined parts of the “V” are the words “Adderley” and “England.” There are also some numbers written in red on the bottom of the dish. Can you help with age and maker?

A: Your dish is not quite as old as your family believes. The mark dates it to the years 1912 to 1926. It was made by Adderleys Ltd., a china and earthenware manufacturer that operated in Longton, Staffordshire, England, from 1906 until it became part of Ridgway in the 1950s (Ridgway later became a subsidiary of Royal Doulton Tableware). Adderleys’ history goes back to 1876, when William Adderley founded William Alsager Adderley & Co. at the same location in Longton. The red numbers on your dish might be design numbers or factory production numbers.