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By JAY MOORE

Tribune correspondent

Published: November 2, 2008

My father was a tobacconist and purchased this machine to use in his business. He bought it in England in the 1960s. It measures 4 feet by 1 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet and was driven by a diesel engine. It has a brass tag marked "Robert Legg, London. England." I would like to know its history and value.

W.P.

The Robert Legg company was established in London around 1850 after Legg invented a continuously fed tobacco-cutting machine. He was also well known in the industry for developing the rotary tobacco cutter.

The company changed hands many times. It once was owned by two American firms, including AMF (famous for its bowling products). It's still in business after merging with Garbuio Dickinson of Italy and the United Kingdom.

Tobacco processing equipment, including antique machines like this one, is still in high demand by tobacconists around the world. One expert I talked to restores them and finds a very willing market, especially in South America.

Your small, antique Legg tobacco-cutter would retail for $6,000. Restored and ready for production, it could retail for as much as $25,000. Needless to say, this industrial piece would be an expensive family-room decoration.

My seven-piece toilet set was made by Buffalo pottery and given away by Larkin Soap Co. I think it's the Cairo edition. It is decorated with a cluster of roses in pink and yellow with green leaves and brown stems. The handles and edges are traced in gold. What is its value?

M.T.

This chamber set was manufactured by Buffalo Pottery in Buffalo, N.Y., sometime between 1905 and 1916. You are correct on the pattern name: Cairo. It was Pattern No. 1002 and many forms were produced.

Buffalo Pottery was established in 1903 by the Larkin Soap Co. as a maker of premiums for its huge mail-order business. Buffalo made about 30 patterns.

Buffalo is best known for its art pottery called Deldare Ware, introduced about 1908. It features olive green backgrounds decorated with old English scenes with a high-gloss glaze. It was discontinued in 1925.

The Buffalo Pottery trademark is now owned by Oneida Ltd. of Oneida, N.Y., a company that mostly produces stainless, silver-plate and sterling flatware and pottery dinnerware.

The set would retail for about $300.

Have a question about antiques? E-mail a complete description with a clear, high-resolution digital image in .jpg format to baylife@tampa trib.com. Include a name, address and daytime phone number. Regular mail can be sent with clear photographs (not comp

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