Sweets for the Sweet

QUESTION: My aunt collected small glass candy containers. Because I always admired them, she gave them to me when she moved to a retirement community. I really don’t know anything about them. What can you tell me about these containers? Are they still being made?

ANSWER: That was nice of your aunt to think of you. Because of your interest, she probably felt that you might not only care for her collection, but add to it.

Several manufacturers, mostly located around Jeannette, Pennsylvania, produced glass toy candy containers in America for 90 years. Although many of them originally sold for about a dime, they now range in price from $5 to $5,000. There are nearly 600 different containers known to exist. About 14 companies distributed them in America.

The use of glass candy containers began in Philadelphia at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 where confectioner Wilbur Croft and Company produced candies in Machinery Hall. Croft sold his candy in clear glass containers shaped like the Liberty Bell. With a pewter screw-on closure and a paper label on the bottom, collectors consider this bell to be the first American glass toy candy container, currently valued around $200.

One of the primary makers of glass candy containers was Westmoreland Specialty Company,  operated by brothers George and Charles West in Grapeville, Pennsylvania. They built their factory in 1889 and produced nearly 100 different candy containers through 1932, each made by hand in single molds, with some being hand-painted. The factory also made tin closures and other parts needed to produce complete containers.

Though candy containers started as souvenirs with simple designs, they evolved into great glass toys filled with candy. One of Westmoreland's early souvenirs, dated 1896, featured a painted milk glass Uncle Sam hat that doubled as a bank. It had paper portraits of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt glued onto a slotted metal closure, and now brings about $125.

In 1913, as designs became more intricate, Westmoreland produced several glass candy container lamps that held a candle and a lithographed paper and cardboard shade. There were Christmas, Easter and Valentine lamps as well as three novelty lamps featuring a tree trunk base with an embossed rabbit, hatchet or cherries.

By producing candy containers such as Charlie Chaplin, the Spirit of St. Louis airplane, Jackie Coogan, the Carpet Sweeper and the Phonograph, Westmoreland took advantage of popular people or new inventions to increase sales of the glass toys.

Manufacturers produced most candy containers of clear glass so the colorful candy could be seen, but Westmoreland used some colored glass in 1927 to attract buyers. It made the Spirit of St. Louis in clear, amber, pink, green and blue, and its Pointed Nose Racer, which now sells for about $2,500, in several colors, also.

One of the most valuable Westmoreland containers is a functional tin kaleidoscope featuring a turning glass tube filled with candy, estimated to be worth $5,000 or more. Another unusual container is a 31-inch-long whip made of cloth-covered wire with a candy-filled glass handle.



Westmoreland also made some glass containers and tin parts for Turney H. Stough of Jeannette, another major player in the candy container industry.

Stough produced more than 100 different glass containers, which is more than any other company. Candy containers comprised more than 95 percent of  Stough's business. He hired outside firms to produce everything he needed while his company did the assembly, packaging and distribution.

Like Stough, George Borgfeldt & Co., a New York City toy wholesaler, hired Westmoreland and other companies to produce)le its candy containers. Some of Borgfeldt's most sought-after containers are pieces of Flossie Fisher's furniture, dating from around 1916. Based on a cartoon in Ladies' Home Journal, the yellow tin bed, table, chairs and other items featured black silhouettes of animals and children. The bed alone sells for over $2,500. From 1913 to 1916,  L.E. Smith of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, produced only about 20 to 30 different candy containers, including a bureau, a mantel clock, a flat iron and a figural container of Charlie Chaplin, all hard to find today.

A former Westmoreland employee founded the Victory Glass Company, also of Jeannette, which produced nearly 100 different containers from 1919 to 1955. Not having an in-house tin shop like Westmoreland, Victory relied on intricate glass designs, like the Swan Boat and the Amos and Andy Taxi, to make its candy containers attractive and appealing.Two of Victory's hard to find containers are the Refrigerator with short legs, which sells for about $4,000, and Dolly's Bathtub, which sells for about $3,000.

In 1940 J.H. Millstein, a worker at Victory Glass, developed fully automatic machines to speed up production and lower costs. Millstein opened his factory in 1943 with machines that could handle 12 molds at a time. Though he only made 13 different containers from 1943 to 1956, he produced and sold millions of them.

Unfortunately, World War II brought rising production costs to the industry. Candy containers became basic again as companies cut costs with simpler designs, less hand-painting and fewer intricate metal parts switching from tin closures to paper or card-board. By 1956 only two companies were still making candy containers. Though Millstein and Stough produced some plastic containers around 1967, high production costs and declining sales closed the remaining factories making glass candy containers.

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Give Me Your Tired and Your Poor, Yearning to be Free

QUESTION: My mother collected Statue of Liberty memorabilia for a long time. She began when she was only a teenager with a little statue she bought on a class trip to New York. Seeing Lady Liberty up close inspired her to buy the statue. After that, she couldn’t get enough of her.  Her collection began with canceled stamps showing the Statue of Liberty which she tore off of envelopes. She added a postcard of the statue that a friend sent to her. Over the years, she amassed a collection of over 100 items, all depicting the Statue of Liberty.  My mother is gone now, but her collection lives on. I’d really like to know more about these collectibles and the Statue of Liberty, itself. Can you help me?

ANSWER: Statue of Liberty memorabilia is probably one of the more popular collecting categories. While some items are worth just a few dollars, others can reach four figures.

Although the French Government conceived the Statue of Liberty as a symbolic gesture, no one had any idea at the time just how important a symbol she would become. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, her creator, envisioned her as a monument to the mutual love of the French and Americans for liberty, and as propaganda against the then conservative leaders of the French government. It was thought that building a huge monument for the United States would forever link that powerful democratic country, with France, and cement that country's new Third Republic. But not everyone shared Bartholdi's vision.

Fundraising, especially in the United States, proved difficult. The Statue of Liberty Committee had planned to unveil that the statue would be unveiled in 1876 for the Centennial of American Independence. But sluggish fundraising delayed the gift for at least 10 years. This resulted in a variety of wonderful memorabilia. Most souvenirs sold for pennies to dollars each to raise money to complete the big statue and bring her to America. The French, on the other hand,  raised money to complete the building of the statue piece by piece while the Americans raised  funds to complete the gigantic base. By 1884, The French had completed Miss Liberty an d were ready to ship her. But the American Committee was short the $100,000 needed to complete her pedestal. To raise additional monies, the Committee commissioned more than 100,000 models which it sold by subscription, and at Macy's and other department stores. Each $1 purchase added to the Liberty coffers. It sold some 12-inch models for $5. Today, the small metal models sell for $250 to $300 and the large ones from $500 to $1,000.

Meanwhile, the French disassembled the statue into over 300 pieces and shipped it in more than 200 wooden crates. The arm bearing the torch filled 21 boxes alone. On June 17, 1886, she arrived. Workers placed the statue on the immense supporting monument designed by Richard Morris Hunt. On Oct. 28, 1886, the Committee officially installed and dedicated the Statue of Liberty. There was a huge inaugural parade and President Grover Cleveland delivered a dedication address. Collectors covet the programs, tickets, and invitations from this gala occasion.
   
During the earliest Liberty years, many souvenirs appeared. During the 10 years before Liberty arrived, many publishers printed lithographs, including early pieces of sheet music. There are stereopticon photos from the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia of Liberty’s right arm, which appeared at the fair, showing visitors standing on her torch. These souvenirs now sell for $125. Visitors to the fair could purchase large, finely detailed bronze medals, crafted in Paris.
 

In 1878, Liberty had no body, but when Europeans gathered in Paris for the 1878 Expeditions, the head had been completed and was displayed on the banks of the Seine. Visitors filled her crown and for several francs, could take home a lovely 4-inch Liberty bust, a few of which found their way to America and today sell for upwards of $500. Other French souvenirs included tasseled, silks and ribbons made for the fair by B.B. Tilt & Son in Paterson, New Jersey.

For a substantial contribution to aid French fundraising, up to 100 zinc statuettes went on sale, including a small edition, finely detailed statuette in terra cotta, hand-finished by Bartholdi, himself. During the 1986 Liberty Centennial, several of these reached more than $100,000 at auction. In the United States, a New Jersey furniture maker named Follmer, cast a few detailed zinc statuettes carrying 1883 and 1885 patent dates. These are quite rare, much more so than the American Committee Models. Follmer's statuettes feature the original Hunt pedestal design that the Committee ultimately abandoned for the one actually under Liberty's feet. Today, these statues sell for over $5,000.

The 20th century witnessed many more souvenirs—some as works of art, some as advertising, some as satirical commentaries, some as cheap souvenirs for the hordes of tourists who visited her. Practically everything had the image of Miss Liberty reproduced on it, including clocks, lamps, statuettes, compacts, cigarette cases and boxes, cookie tins, pitchers, spoons, china and even trade cards satirizing Liberty in order to sell a product. Though some of objects were beautifully done, others appear cheap with muddied facial features and poor workmanship. But even the cheap ones are collectible.

During the Liberty Centennial in 1986, there was a rush of interest in Liberty collecting. At that time, there were thousands of souvenirs and "limited editions" sold, including watches, medals, limited-edition plates, rugs, cookie jars, mugs, and jewelry.

Most collectors agree that, although items are becoming more scarce, there are still plenty of them out there. Statue of Liberty items usually appear at flea markets. Since many aren’t that large, collectors often find them in glass cases with other small items.

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Mementos of Places Visited

QUESTION: My grandad traveled a lot for business, and from everywhere he went, he brought back a miniature replica of a famous building. By the time he died, he had amassed over 100 of these tacky souvenirs. And now I have them. To me, they’re just that, tacky souvenirs, but to him I’m sure they brought back memories of the places he had visited. What can you tell me about such replicas? How did they get started? Are they worth anything?

ANSWER: Replicas of souvenir buildings have been around since Victorian times. They fill the shelves of tourist-trap souvenir shops all over the world, lined up like soldiers waiting for a command to go to war. I’m sure you’ve asked yourself who would buy such tacky items? The answer, believe it or not, is lots of people. And their popularity seems to be on the upswing.

Like the lost city of Atlantis rising slowly from beneath the sea, long-forgotten souvenir buildings are now emerging from cellars, closets and attics. Souvenir buildings have attracted a diverse following among designers, architects, history buffs, lawyers, and ordinary collectors. These little structures, singly or in groups, provide a rich treasure-trove of memories. And this, after all, is one of the basic functions of a souvenir.

A souvenir serves as a reminder of an experience, place, or culture. In French, the word means “to remember.” Whatever the object—whether a building, a plate with a picture on it, an ashtray, or a fan—it evokes a memory that’s often supplemented by a personal story or recollection.

Building replicas are just one of thousands of souvenir items which travelers have brought back home over the years. They rage in size from one to ten inches high and  include famous structures such as the Colosseum in Rome and obscure ones like the Buffalo Savings and Loan in upstate New York. Although metal is the preferred medium for most collectors, souvenir buildings have been produced in almost every conceivable material, including cast iron, pot metal, sterling silver, silver gilt, pottery, pewter, brass, plastic, and cast resin. The last is sometimes painted and sometimes “metalized” in brass, silver, or copper.

The tradition of collecting miniature buildings goes back to Victorian times when travelers on the European Grand Tour would purchase models as mementos of their journeys. These were usually recognizable landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Leaning Tower in Pisa. Such a replica made a nice ornament or present and served as a reminder that the traveler had "been abroad.”

Ever since, travelers to Europe have been returning with small churches, castles, Roman gates, triumphal arches, commemorative columns, basilicas, bullfight arenas, and so on. Because of Europe's bloody history, war monuments to the fallen or to the victorious make up an entire subcategory of historic interest.

In fact, it’s possible to collect souvenir buildings and monuments that trace Napoleon’s march across Europe, beginning with a replica of Napoleon’s Column in the Place Vendome in Paris, which commemorates his victory over the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

But most people are more familiar with the little replicas of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty that marked many a family’s first trip to New York City. Other grander structures include cathedrals and basilicas all across Europe. Pilgrims to these religious centers have purchased tiny replicas ever since they first became available.

Another category would include buildings from World's Fairs and Expositions: the Christopher Columbus monument from the International Exposition of 1888 in Barcelona, the Atomium from the Brussel’s World’s Fair in 1958, and the Eiffel Tower from the Paris World's Fair of 1889—perhaps the third most popular replica after the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

Collectors have created many categories to help them sort through the thousands of souvenir buildings and monuments on the market. Most acquire a jumble of all sorts of buildings, monuments, and "does-this-really-count-as-architecture" replicas, such as a metal miniature of Mt. Rushmore.

The beginning of souvenir building popularity began in the U.S. at the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876. Three versions of Independence Hall, each one a different size, were available at the fair. Today, these command prices of several thousand dollars each. Independence Hall has also been reproduced in red and white plastic, in an aluminum-like alloy, and, most recently, in pewter.

The next big date was 1888 and the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Replicas of the statue were made and sold to help-raise money for the funding of the base. The elegant bronze castings known as The "Bertholdi model," named after Miss Liberty's sculptor„ became available at that time and have since become both scarce and pricey. For the rest of us, millions of Statues of Liberty have been churned out since then, making Miss Liberty one of the most popular miniature monuments ever produced.

Because there are so many souvenir buildings on the market, both old and new, collectors don’t usually have to pay too much for them. This makes these tacky souvenirs an ideal collectible for anyone who’s on a budget. But even if a person overpays for a replica of the Parthenon, it will still cost less than round-trip airfare to Athens.