The Collector: Spokane couple has spent decades collecting, displaying Made in Japan bird wall pockets, Tokanabe

Patt Earley and her husband Ken Yuhasz collect many things, from local art to Yuhasz’s stash of Hawaiian shirts, but they have a favorite collection.

“We’re particularly fond of our garishly painted Made in Japan bird wall pockets,” Earley said. “We also collect Made in Japan Tokanabe. It is a type of black clay that was used for embossed vases, pots, bowls and, of course, wall pockets. They are quite beautiful.”

Wall pockets (also called wall vases) are flat-backed decorative objects that hang on a wall, providing a vase effect. Made of porcelain, glass and pottery, wall pockets became popular during the Victorian era and had a renaissance in the United States during the period between the two World Wars.

Sometime in the mid-1980s, Earley came across a wall pocket made of black clay in a shop in Ellensburg.

She learned the item was Tokanabe, a mold-pressed pottery made in Japan for the U.S. market in the 1920s and ’30s. It’s typically black with a stippled texture and hand-painted raised relief designs.

And just like that, she was hooked on the hunt for wall pockets – specifically Tokanabe or those stamped “Made in Japan” or “Made in Occupied Japan.”

Their small size, compact nature and inexpensive cost made wall pockets ideal exports from countries such as Italy, England and Czechoslovakia, and after WWII, Japan and China.

The size is what initially excited Earley.

“This is a small house,” she said of their northwest Spokane home. “You can hang them on the walls and not take up much space.”

On a wall in the living room, she displays a selection of 15 Tokanabe wall pockets. Many are decorated with red or gold flowers. One features a typical Japanese pagoda. A pair of Tokanabe vases rests on a nearby table.

Though she tries to focus on wall pockets, she said she couldn’t pass up the vases.

Tokanabe wall pockets line the wall of the staircase to the second floor; one has sprigs of dried lavender tucked within.

“It’s gotten out of control. If I see one, I buy it,” she said. “We have about 100.”

“We’re one step away from hoarders,” Yuhasz said.

The majority of their collection is in their downstairs bathroom. It’s a room where Parrot Heads (Jimmy Buffett fans) would feel right at home.

“We call it the aviary,” Earley said.

While the wall pockets in their other rooms are the subdued black or earth tones of Tokanabe, the ones in the bathroom are brightly painted porcelain, all made in Japan except for two from Czechoslovakia and three made in the U.S. And they all feature birds – mainly parrots.

“I just love finding them – I like the eccentricity of them,” Earley said. “I think they’re really cool.”

The couple adds to their collection by shopping at thrift and vintage stores.

Earley said friends have purchased them for her – including one a neighbor left one on her front step.

“Now, they’re really hard to find,” she said. “I haven’t found a bird in years, but I did find a Tokanabe at the Boulevard (Mercantile) last year.”

Her husband thinks he knows why the Tokanabe and Made in Japan wall pockets have become so scarce.

“There are very few left because she’s got most of them,” he said.