Antique Trader Blog with editor Noah Fleisher - Antique Glass

Beware fake antique whiskey in Scotland... and online!

Noah — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:14:09 GMT

This doesn't say anything about whether the whiskey's any good, but the bottles most certainly aren't.

This comes via a Chicago Web site called The Chicago Syndicate. It's a fun Web site, but the story is real, and serious.

There are a lot of folks out there that take their antique whiskey bottles - and their whiskey - seriously. If you are buying bottles online, and it's coming from Europe, especially Scotland, caveat emptor!

Kyle is stumped! Can you identify this item?

Noah — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:58:15 GMT

Sandy Sparks, Associate Editor and AT blog poster du jour here...

QThis glass car bottle is 20 inches long. Do you know its age? What was it used for?
– D.L.., Granbury, Texas

A This large car-shaped glass bottle is a mystery to me. The style of the auto would seem to date it to the late 1920s or early 1930s. I know that various household products, such as vinegar, were bottled in “figural” bottles during that era but if this had an identifying paper label it has long ago disappeared. Perhaps some reader can tell us more about this unusual piece. It certainly doesn’t seem to be listed in the various bottle references I checked.

Help solve the mystery! If you know what this unusual jar was used for, let us know.

Art Pottery Blog for the Art Pottery Lover in you!

Noah — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:59:05 GMT

This is another blog I have been enjoying quite a bit over the last few weeks, and given how popular and collectible good art pottery is, this is a great resource.

Greg Myroth, who runs the site - and an art pottery business, I might add - knows his stuff and has packed the page full of great detail and links to pertinent information about makers and styles. It's put together well and has a variety of info to help you on your quest, if your on a quest for this type of thing.

Check it out, let us know what you think... Happy hunting.

Carnival glass stolen from Stillwater, MN Mall

Noah — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:37:54 GMT

Large glass theft from an antique mall in Stillwater, MN.

I hope they catch the person who did this. If you're in the MN region, meaning the upper Midwest, beware someone peddling several thousand dollars worth of Carnival glass.

Stories like this, and there are plenty, do indeed make me wonder how often this happens and how often it's not reported. I can't help but think that some dealers and malls might think of it as the cost of doing business.

This is wrong and I hope that the security cameras got the people. Again, be on the lookout for stolen glass...

Alternate Online Auctions - What are you using?

Noah — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:45:40 GMT

Just wondering, as I negotiate the explosion of sales and sites that have sprung up in response to eBay's "changes," what sites, exactly, are you going to either to supplement your eBay sales or to use as a whole other alternative?

I'd like to check them out, possibly start offering some reviews and interviews.

Anyone? Anyone?

Let me know in the comments section here, preferrably, or at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com (as long as email's working by today...)

A great piece of architectural glass gone in NYC

Noah — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:10:23 GMT

Living for so many years in NYC, I had more than my share of opportunities to check out the Robert Sower's window at JFK Airport's American Airlines terminal. It is - was - truly- an architectural masterpiece and a piece of Modernism that never lost its glory.

As an entry point to NYC and America for many millions of flyers, it spoke philosophically of the American spirit, its artistic soul and its ability to make the seemingly impossible possible. As a piece of art, I love this thing.

Now it's gone. Or going, at least, as reported across the nation and against the best efforts of the good folks at Save America's Window.

They did their best to get a sponsor to get behind the project, but many musuems said it would be too hard to keep the piece intact. Personally, I don't believe it and think it's a damn shame the window is coming down, piece by piece, to be scattered across the nation and possibly the world.

Often, traveling through JFK, the airport was so hectic to get into or out of that the only respite I was given, the only moment of zen and calm, was when I could walk out and see the sun streaming in distinct blades through those colored panes, or reflecting the light of night time, reminding me I had indeed just come home.

Goodbye to the Sower's window and goodbye to a distinct American art treasure.

"It's about the antique bottle, I swear!"

Noah — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:56:22 GMT

I do have to say that I hate to see this, especially if authorities do actually have to dump the bottles of whiskey in this report out of Tennessee. The story is from the Shelbyville (TN) Times-Gazette, but has been national news for a while.

Seems this man was indicted and faces possible prison time for possesing a whole bunch of Jack Daniels. He says that he's a bottle collector. Seems reasonable enough to me, given that one of the bottles in the collection mentioned in the link above is worth $10,000 and dates to 1914.

I'm no fan of Jack Daniels, but if bet it tastes pretty good if it's been aged the right way...

A blow to Antique Glass collectors and dealers

Noah — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:37:31 GMT

Probably not what glass lovers wanted to hear.

Gary Barnum, a well respected glass dealer and collector sent this to Trader; not very good news for glass collectors whose buying/selling season depends in large part on the Marietta Civitan Club Glass Show during the Fenton shows:

January 21, 2008
Marietta Civitan Club
PO Box 68
Marietta, OH 45750

Dear Glass Show Exhibitor:

We regret to inform you that the Marietta Civitan Club has decided not to hold the Glass Show this year. The combination of the organizational effort and increasing cost makes it impossible for us to continue this effort.

The club owes a deep debt of gratitude to Alice Hall, who along with her late husband Don founded the show, with the idea of using the profits to supporting Civitan. They put many years of hard work into the show.

We appreciate your support over the years and will miss the spirit of camaraderie that we have enjoyed with you. If no one else steps in to hold a similar event, our community will also miss the economic value that you and your customers brought to Marietta and the surrounding area.

To find out whether there will be another show during the conventions that may be helpful to you, we suggest contacting the following organizations:

Marietta/Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau
121 Putnam St.
Marietta, OH 45750
(740) 373-5178
www.mariettaohio.org

Fenton Art Glass Collectors of America
702 W. Fifth Street
Williamstown, WV 26187
(304) 375-6196
http://users.wirefire.com/fagcainc/

National Fenton Glass Society
156 Front Street
Marietta, OH 45750
(740) 374-3345
www.fentonglasssociety.org

Thank you again for your support over the last twenty-five years and best wishes for your continued success in your business.

Very truly yours,

Marietta Civitan Club

And here’s what Gary wrote about the news:

Subject: Annual Marietta Glass Show/Sale Closing

Sad news…

The very large Glass Show and Sale held annually at the Fairgrounds in Marietta during the Fenton Conventions will not (after 25 years) be held in 2008 unless and until someone can take over from the Civitan Club!

What a blow that is to the hundreds of vendors who, like me, counted upon the Fairground's Show/Sale to peddle their glass. What a blow also to the buyers who count on going to the event to find a treasure or a needed item to add to their collections.

The Civitan notice declares rising costs to be a reason for closing, but did not comment on the fact that they could have passed those costs on to the vendors. I, for one, would have expected an increase in the space rent to be normal under the circumstances. No. They are just not going to make the effort to promote or hold the show for the foreseeable future.

While I sure hope that someone or some organization can step up to the plate and keep the show going, I will be looking for other possible venues to set up and sell glass.

Options include: A.) Setting up in the motel holding the convention; in the rooms of the motel; B) Persuading the City of Williamstown to organize once again, the use of the City Park for vendors, or; C) Trying to squeeze more vendors into the Williamstown School Auditorium.

It looks bleak as it stands. I hope some enterprising person or group can and will step up and keep the show going and doing it during the Fenton Glass Society’s conventions, as before, the end of July. Heck, the NFGS, FAGGC and the Stretch Glass Society are ALL planning their conventions at that time. I know that all members of those groups will surely miss buying glass from the vendors who would have set up on the Marietta Fairgrounds.

If anyone hears more, please post the info or write a note to me.

Wait! There’s a little more bad news, adding insult to injury… The Old Knight’s Inn, where a popular room-to-room show was set-up during the glass conventions is being razed, maybe to not come back…

Here’s what Gary writes on this:

One long time favorite of glass vendors for the Fenton convention scene is going into history, too.

Sellers would annually occupy a sprawling one level motel that was arranged in perhaps six rows of rooms with about 20 rooms in each row. The vendors packed each room in the place and sold glass out of their rooms. If the door was not locked, it signified seller was 'in' and for buyers to open the door and come in to see what glass was for sale. Sales there went on for five or six days during the conventions.

Here's the info about the Old Knight's Inn; Best Value Inn/Old Knights Inn is being torn down and replaced with a Microtel.

That means another glass selling venue in Marietta is gone and perhaps not coming back as a place to sell glass during future conventions!

I’m curious to know what any of our readers who are in on the glass scene think about this, and what it says about the health of the market.