The Look of Beauty

QUESTION: I recently have become interested in possibly collecting ladies’ compacts. I see them at flea markets all the time and the prices are reasonable enough to fit my budget. Also, I live in an apartment, so their small size is a plus. But I don’t want to randomly begin collecting them without knowing a little about their background. What can you tell me about ladies’ compacts? Are they a good item to collect? Will I be able to find enough of them to make collecting them worthwhile?

ANSWER: They say good things come in small packages and ladies’ compacts are a good example. These little treasures not only represent a lost art but are also a connection to the past that’s still affordable.  With so many different types on the market, you’ll have no problem finding plenty in to fit your collecting budget.

For the sheltered few who may not know, compacts are devices women carry that help them pursue their quest for beauty. Many of the compacts are works of art themselves. They first appeared during in the early 1900s. In 1908, Sears, Roebuck & Co advertised a hinged, silver-plated case that sold for 19 cents, described as “small enough to carry in the pocketbook.” This small and round housing for face powder, puff, and mirror became known as a compact. By the 1920s, during the age of the flapper, the compact had become a fashion accessory. And right from the beginning there was lots of competition.

Manufacturers used metal because it was readily available, cheap to produce, and could be brushed, enameled, engraved, and painted. Sterling silver was extremely popular, as was brass, aluminum, gunmetal, nickel, and gilt bronze. Those made at the close of World War I featured shapes, patterns, and motifs that reflect the geometric style of what would become known as Art Deco.

The companies making compacts had intensive marketing campaigns, assuring women that they simply had to have a collection of compacts, not just for every occasion, but also to make a particular statement during each occasion. A Coty double compact advertisement urged women to "be lovely always”— morning, noon and night... and it is so exquisitely smart with its polished platinum tone that you will feel a subtle bit of pride in having it in your handbag.”

The ones most sought after by collectors, however, include those made by obscure companies such as Fisher, La Mode, F & B, R & G, FM Company, DFB Company and the makers of Italian silver vermeils.

Volupte, founded in 1920 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, made one of the most desirable designs —the Golden Gesture Hand, designed by Ruth Warner Mason for a special promotion of "Genuine Collector's Items." These compacts are also referred to as the "Praying Hands" or "Gay Nineties" compacts. The most desirable and costly ones feature either a black or white lace mitt and enhanced with a faux engagement ring, diamond bracelet, or with manicured fingernails or multiples of these enhancements. The hand compacts are about five inches long and can cost as much as $800 each.

These compacts are extremely fragile and dent easily. They’re relatively rare to find in anything but the plain gold version, which sells cheaply compared to the decorated ones. The latter are rare and even then, to get one in mint condition is like finding a needle in a haystack. Condition on these is very important with compacts, as with other collectibles. Dents and wear will lessen their value considerably. Beginners should always seek the unusual over the commonplace.

At one time, compacts were all similar in design. Collectors call these "flapjacks" because of their shape. They measure approximately 4½ to 5 inches and their size allowed a woman to see herself from her chin to the top of her hairdo. However, the cases of these large flapjacks often warp. If the mirror is intact and the case closes, collectors usually overlook any side gaps. The design and overall condition is the deciding factor when it comes to value.

Divine compacts, on the other hand, are small but often have fantastic designs. Many are souvenirs, depicting buildings, cities, landmarks, or world's fairs. Generally, prices for souvenir compacts are lower, but there are still some very stunning examples out there.

Guillouche compacts are highly collectible. The guillouche technique was an attempt to copy Faberge. By using colored foil stamped with appropriate patterns and topped with a clear plastic dome, the results were surprisingly effective. Not to be confused with cloisonné, guillouche enameling always has a translucent pattern. Faux guillouche is stamped on foil with a plastic top. Compact experts define genuine guillouche as machine-engraved decoration on metal, over which a translucent enamel is often applied.

Many companies marked their compacts on the powder cover or inside the powder well and on the puffs. Sterling compacts may have a word or number stamped into the tiny rims of the mirror or base. These marks are highly desirable by collectors. These can be identified by old catalog advertisements or simply by getting a feel for the quality of workmanship that particular company produced. However, even an unknown compact with no identifying features can still be a work of art and be of high value.

Before purchasing a vintage compact, the beginning collector judge the quality of construction, detail of artwork, and the type of base metal. Top quality items will always retain their value —an unmarked piece may have been produced by a small company that made excellent pieces and therefore there will be fewer of them, thus the price will be higher.

Collecting compacts should be fun. Part of the fun is in discovering unique pieces. It’s like finding a piece of history.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

The King of Glass

QUESTION: I have a beautiful green glass cordial set that belonged to my great grandmother. It’s been passed down to me. I just love this set and would like to know more about it. I was told that it was made by the Moser Glass Company in Czechslovakia. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: It’s difficult to tell if your cordial set is in fact made by Moser. It’s definitely in its style but other company copied it. Moser was one of the only Bohemian glass companies to sign some of their works. Usually the signature is in gold enamel somewhere on the piece, but many pieces remained unsigned.

Of all the Bohemian glassmakers of the 19th century, Ludwig Moser, known as the “King of Glass,” is probably the most famous. The company was well known for its heavy and intricate gold enameling. But Moser wasn’t the only glass decorator to adorn blanks with this type of decoration. Glassmakers copied each other in an effort to get their share of the market. Like many Bohemian firms, Moser sold blanks to other companies for decoration and decorated blanks bought from other companies, such as  Loetz, Meyr's Neffe and Harrachov, so it can be difficult to tell if Moser indeed made a particular piece.
                   
Ludwig Moser was born in 1833 and began his apprenticeship in the glass business at age 14. From there, he became a skilled engraver. In 1870, he opened a refinery in Karlsbad, Bohemia, today Karlovy Gary in the Czech Republic, and employed other glass cutters and engravers who decorated glass blanks purchased from other companies. The firm's work earned Moser international recognition for his engraved drinking glasses.

By 1880, Moser was making the intricately enameled glass that’s most often associated with him. He designed them for the Oriental market, intending them to resemble the work of Arabian goldsmiths. In 1893, he took over a glassworks factory in Meierhofen bei Karlsbad, employing 400 workers, under the name of Karlsbaderglasindustrie Gesellschaft Ludwig Moser & Söhne and where his sons Gustav and Rudolf also worked. Here he produced shaded transparent engraved glass. Within a short time Moser’s company gained the reputation as the most prestigious producer of crystal in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Because of the excellent quality of his work, Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed Moser as the exclusive supplier of glass to the royal family. He won numerous awards at the World Exhibitions in Paris in 1879, 1889 and 1900, and the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893.

The firm also introduced pieces with applied glass flowers and fruits. These remained popular through the 1920s and marked Moser's departure from the intricately enameled luxury glass he had made earlier. By 1922, Moser Glass became the largest producer of luxurious drinking and decorative glass in Czechoslovakia. Moser's son, Leo, who had taken over the firm upon the death of his father in 1916, sold the firm in 1938. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia, the government took over the Moser glass works but continued to use its name.

Moser glassware commands top prices, so collectors need to know their glassware or purchase pieces from reputable dealers to avoid paying top dollar for similar work by a less famous firm. Cups and saucers run about $300 a set, with larger pieces or those with unusual forms hovering around $2,000.

Prices for Moser engraved glass run about the same. Amethyst or green en-graved miniature rose bowls run around $275 to $350. Larger, more detailed pieces command more money. An amethyst intaglio engraved perfume and stopper runs about $650, a covered box about $800, and a tray about $500. Vases run $600 to $1,000 and up, depending on size and design. Green and crystal enameled pieces, which date anywhere from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries sell for under $200.

Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels

QUESTION: I was recently cleaning out drawers in my mother’s house after her death and came across a bunch of coins with the slogan “Millions for Defense, But Not One Cent for Tribute” impressed on one side. On the other side is the Liberty Head and the words ONE CENT. At first glance these look like pennies but are larger. What can you tell me about them?

ANSWER: What you have aren’t coins but tokens. Like the famous wooden nickels, merchants used tokens as a way to promote their businesses and some commemorated events. By 1900, tokens had become a common type of coinage by which merchants not only advertised, but created good will and repeat business. The token was in effect a pledge redeemable in goods but not necessarily for currency.

Tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins and either have a denomination shown or implied by size, color or shape. The use of tokens dates back to Roman times. Back then, the Romans used coin-like objects called spintria to gain entrance to brothels and gaming establishments.

Medieval English monasteries issued tokens to pay for services from outsiders. Residents of nearby villages called these tokens "Abbot's money."

Though token manufacturers usually made them of cheaper metals, such as  copper, pewter, aluminum, brass, and tin, they also used fiber, bakelite, leather, porcelain, and wood.

Sometimes called merchant tokens or “good fors,” American trade tokens originated during the late 18th century, when early circuses produced them for admission to their performances. In the 1820s, manufacturers began commercially producing tokens and this led to a greater demand.

In July, 1836 Congress enacted President Andrew Jackson's "specie circular" law, requiring specie—that is, gold or silver—to be used to pay for government land. This caused people to believe that paper currency, at the time issued by state banks, was unsound. As more and more people began using specie, regular coins disappeared from circulation.

To make it easier for individuals to trade for goods, business men and various organizations began issuing tokens that could be used instead of coins. These tokens became a substitute for one-cent pieces, since they had the same metallic content and size. The token designs could be divided into four categories: those that mentioned the bank and the banking crisis; those that were satirical and sarcastic, the political cartoons of the day; those that were made in imitation of real money; and those issued by enterprising merchants carrying advertising.

The Hard Times tokens of the 1830s and 1840s continued to make merchant tokens popular. During the Civil War, tokens again came into wide use because of the coin shortages caused by it. After the war, merchants once again issued tokens and people continued to use these “good fors” to trade for goods.

Among the many tokens made in imitation of the coins driven from circulation were a number using the phrase, "Millions for Defense, but Not One Cent for Tribute." These tokens bore the familiar Liberty Head and on the reverse the wording was strategically placed to have an enlarged ONE CENT appear as it would on government issued coins. The phrase, "Millions for Defense, but Not One Cent for Tribute," was a rallying cry for America on two occasions in history.

Besides Civil War tokens, there were also wooden tokens, transportation tokens for bridges, toll roads, ferries, and the like, gaming tokens, political tokens, as well as those used by magicians for admission to their acts, churches for permission to receive communion, tokens for telephones, and to pay sales tax. Elongated coins—often pennies pressed flat and made smooth on one side to take etchings of the Lord’s Prayer, Scouts’ oath, and club insignias also were popular.

All kinds of merchants issued tokens for use in their own businesses, including general stores, grocers, department stores, dairies, meat markets, drug stores, saloons, bars, taverns, barbers, coal mines, lumber mills and many other businesses. The era of 1870 through 1920 marked the highest use of "trade tokens" in the country, spurred by the growth of small stores in rural areas.

Railways and public transportation agencies used fare tokens for years, to sell rides in advance at a discount, or to allow patrons to use turnstiles that only to took them. The use of transit tokens in America began in 1831, when John Gibbs issued them for use on his U.S.M. stage in New Jersey. The 1830s saw tokens used on horsecars and horse-drawn omnibuses. By 1897, the U.S. had its first subway in Boston, and in 1904 the New York subway system opened. Ferry, bus, and streetcar companies also produced tokens often out of cheap white metal, aluminum, or more costly bronze. Most of them featured cutouts in the shapes of letters to differentiate them from other coins.

Some churches used to give tokens to members passing a religious test prior to the day of communion, then required the token for entry. Most of these were pewter, often cast by the minister using the church’s own molds.

But probably the most well-known token is the wooden nickel. Merchants and banks gave them to their customers to redeem for a specific item, usually a drink. On December 5, 1931, during the Great Depression, the Citizen’s Bank of Tenino, Washington, failed and issued emergency currency printed on thin shingles of wood. Local merchants couldn’t get change without traveling 30 miles over mountainous roads which took four hours one way.  So the bank, at the insistence of the Chamber of Commerce, decided to issue it’s own money, some of which was in five-cent denominations.

The Chicago World's Fair in 1933 issued wooden nickels as souvenirs, and the tradition of wooden nickels as tokens and souvenirs was born. The phrase, "Don't take any wooden nickels," reminds people to be cautious in their business dealings since some unscrupulous characters tried to use them in their dealings with people.

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.

Wearable Beauty

QUESTION: My mother has a beautiful silver bracelet that my dad gave to her on their tenth wedding anniversary. The letters GJ are inscribed on the inside. I’ve always admired this bracelet and hope that one day it will be mine. Can you tell me who made this bracelet and perhaps something about it.

ANSWER: Your mother’s bracelet comes from Georg Jensen Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark, although I’m sure your dad purchased it at one of the company’s retail stores here in the U.S. Jensen is one of the premier jewelry companies in the world and continues to be known for its unique jewelry designs.

                           
Born in 1866, Jensen was the son of a knife grinder in the town of Raadvad north of Copenhagen. He started training to be a goldsmith when he was 14 as an apprentice with Guldsmed Andersen. But in 1884, he decided to study sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Jensen had dreamed of being a sculptor ever since childhood. In 1887, a plaster bust of his father gained him admission into the Royal Danish Academy of Art. He exhibited his first sculpture at the 1891 Charlottenborg Spring Exhibit in Copenhagen and graduated the following year.

Although his clay sculpture was well received, making a living as a fine artist proved difficult, so he turned his hand to the applied arts. First as a modeler at the Bing & Grøndahl Porcelain Factory and, beginning in 1898, and then with a small pottery workshop he founded in partnership with Christian Petersen to make ornamental ceramics. Their ceramic jug, The Maid on the Jar, was selected for the arts and crafts exhibit in the Danish Pavilion at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. The public and critics loved their work, but sales weren’t strong enough to support Jensen, who his point a widower, and his two small sons.

Through his ceramic work, Jensen received a travel grant award which allowed him to tour Europe at a time when the Art Nouveau movement was in full force. The work of these artists in beautiful, yet useful, objects inspired him. Upon is return Denmark, he became increasingly involved in designing and making jewelry. In 1901, he took a job as the foreman for goldsmith Mogens Bailin. Finally, in1904, he opened his own small shop in Copenhagen, employing an apprentice and a helper.

Jensen's early designs were primarily in the tradition of Arts & Crafts, with an emphasis on hand-beaten surfaces' and semi-precious stones. This was a time when the cost of materials was high, and wages for skilled labor was low. The stones Jensen selected---amber, moonstones, lapis lazuli, green agate, garnet, ebony, hematite and small bits of coral—were relatively inexpensive.

Georg Jensen never followed fashion, he created it. He opened his first retail store in Berlin in 1909. In 1912 he expanded his workshop and opened a large retail shop in Copenhagen. It's also important to note that from the beginning, he laid the groundwork for Georg Jensen as a brand, versus that of one artist, hiring talented artisans, craftsmen and designers. When other studios gave no credit to their designers, Jensen always did.

Jensen's training in metalsmithing along with his education in the fine arts allowed him to combine the two disciplines and revive the tradition of the artist craftsman. Soon, the beauty and quality of his Art Nouveau creations caught the eye of the public, assuring his success. Before the end of the 1920s, Jensen had opened retail outlets in New York, London, Paris, and Stockholm.

In 1905, he held his first exhibition outside Denmark at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen, Germany, and the museum purchased a number of his designs. In 1910, he received a gold medal at an exhibition in Brussels.

What really catapulted him to international fame, however, was his first U.S. exhibition at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco. In addition to being awarded more gold medals, an entire showcase of jewelry was purchased bythe newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.

At the time of his death in 1935, the New York Herald Tribune proclaimed him as "The greatest silversmith of the last 300 years.” His vision lived on through the employees he had trained and his small workshop developed into a worldwide company. Designers like Henning Koppel, Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube, Manna Ditzel, and Arno Malinowski brought the company to the forefront of international design.

There has been no designer with the sustained appeal of Georg Jensen. His work continues to attract top collectors and museums throughout the world feature his pieces. For five generations his legacy has grown, unrivaled by any other 20th century creator. He is, quite simply, unique.

Shining Like a Jewel

QUESTION: My mother had a collection of ruby glass that she left to me. She would always display it around the Christmas holidays. To this day, I still take out select pieces to dress up my holiday table. What can you tell me out this beautiful glass?

ANSWER: Ruby glass is the dark red color of the precious gemstone ruby. This popular Victorian color never went out of style and it’s still cherished today as it was then.

Ruby glass has been around since Roman times. But the secret of making red glass, lost for many centuries, wasn’t rediscovered until the 17th Century in Brandenburg, Bohemia. Johann Kunckel, a chemist from a glass-making family, re-discovered how to make gold ruby glass around 1670.

To make gold ruby glass, include gold chloride, a colloidal gold solution produced by dissolving gold metal in Aqua Regia (nitric acid and hydrochloric acid) in the glass mixture. Tin (stannic chloride) is sometimes added in tiny amounts, making the process both difficult and expensive. The tin has to be present in the two chloride forms because the stannous chloride acts as a reducing agent to bring about the formation of the metallic gold. Depending on the composition of the base glass, the ruby color can develop during cooling, or the glass may have to be reheated to ‘strike’ the color.” Today, glassmakers use selenium to make ruby glass.

Over the years, the number of companies making ruby glass has diminished. Since the EPA has come down hard on these manufacturers, it became too costly to make ruby glass.

Other than its inherent color and possible shape, ruby glass pieces aren’t easily identified. Most Royal Ruby glass wasn’t marked or signed. The glass usually came from the factory with a sticker identifying the ruby color. During the 1940s, ruby glass manufacturers began using stickers which eventually got washed off or pulled off.

Major glass companies such as Sandwich, Cambridge, Mount Vernon, Gadroon, Blenko, Paden City, Hostmaster, Glades, Fenton, and Fostoria all made ruby glass in all the popular Depression glass patterns—Old Cafe, Coronation, Sandwich, Oyster and Pearl, Queen Mary, Manhattan. 

One company, Anchor Hocking, became synonymous with the manufacture of ruby glass. They initially began making and promoting it in 1938. Anchor Hocking's glass, which the company called Royal Ruby, unlike most handmade ruby, used a formula in which the principal colorant was copper. The result, an evenly colored, dark red glass. The amount of Royal Ruby in existence today is tremendous, far more than the amount of red glass from other manufacturers.

Anchor Hocking’s first made Royal Ruby in 1939 in round plates in dinner sets. Since this color became so popular, the company produced pieces of other patterns in this ruby color, including Oysters and Pearls, Old Cafe, Coronation, Bubble, Classic, Manhattan, Queen Mary, and Sandwich. However, difficulty in obtaining copper during World War II, halted production until 1949, after which Anchor Hocking began making an assortment of novelty items— apothecary jars, cigarette boxes, powder boxes, and such—sometimes combining it with crystal.

Footed and unfooted sugar and creamer sets, jam jars with crystal bottoms and ruby lids, plus assorted glasses--ribbed, old café, gold rimmed tumblers, and footed wine goblets—were among the myriad of pieces made in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Ice tea sets with large ice-lipped pitchers and six to eight tumblers were especially popular.

Overall, ruby glass has appreciated in value because, like most glass items, breakage causes scarcity. But many items still sell in the affordable range of $15-65.

‘Tis the Season for Cranberry

QUESTION: Every year at Thanksgiving, I bring out a set of eight sparkling pink glasses that used to be belong to my great-grandmother. They seem so festive and add a holiday note to our dining table. Can you tell me anything about these glasses?

ANSWER: Your glasses are made of cranberry glass, a very special type of glass favored by Victorian hostesses, especially around the holidays. Not only is this glass appropriate for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but it’s also a popular collectible. In fact, some pieces are worth too much to be used for fear of breakage.

Although glassblowers had been making colored glass since ancient Egypt, it was Johann Kunckel, a 17th-century German chemist from Potsdam, who came up with the red color by adding gold chloride to the clear crystal. During the 19th century, English and American glassblowers experimented with adding less gold choride, resulting in a pink glass which the Americans called “cranberry.”

And thanks to the virtuosity of these glassblowers there seems to be an endless variety of shapes and patterns of this glass on the market. In addition to tumblers and water pitchers, there are salt cellars, sugar shakers, cruets, jars, jugs, decanters, celery vases and finger bowls. Among the widely used patterns are "Swirl," "Coin Dot," and "Daisy & Fern." Some of the most rare and expensive items found from this time period are beautiful lamps and other lighting fixtures.
           
As with any collectible, cranberry glass can also be an investment. Pieces that sold for less than ten dollars a generation ago are now worth hundreds of dollars. Because of the natural fragility of glass, antique cranberry glass has become relatively scarce, though it does turn up in thrift and antique shops,  flea markets, and auctions.           

Although cranberry glass had peaked in popularity by the end of the 19th century, manufacturers produced it in quantity through the 1930s. The last two companies to make this unique glass—The Pilgrim Glass Corporation and Fenton Art Glass —went out of business early this century. Pilgrim Glass Company produced beautiful blown cranberry glass ranging from various vases and baskets to candle holders and sold them in department stores and gift shops around the country until 2001. At the time if the company's closing, cranberry was its most popular type of glass. Fenton Art Glass marketed new cranberry glass, featuring opalescent decoration with coin dots, daisy patterns and numerous other styles, through retailers around the country until it closed in 2011.

Cranberry glass has always been made in craft production rather than in large quantities, due to the high cost of the gold and the delicate mixing process required. Glassmakers dissolve the gold chloride in a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, known as “aqua regia.” Gold in the batch reacts with intense heat to create the beautiful cranberry color. A glassworker called a “caser” attaches a “bud” of this glass mixture to a blowpipe. Then the glassblower stands on a platform with the mold below his feet and blows the molten glass into the mold to create the desired shape. Afterwards, another glassworker places the piece in a “lehr” or annealing oven where it slowly cools to room temperature. Most cranberry pieces are hand blown or molded and often contain small bubbles and striations.

The Drink of the Gods

QUESTION: I recently purchased what looks like a porcelain coffee pot. However, it has a decorative spout that has what seems like a bridge across its top. The floral design is delicately painted and on the bottom is stamped the name R.S. Prussia. Can you tell me anything about this piece?

ANSWER: What looks like a coffee pot is actually a chocolate pot, used by Victorians to serve hot chocolate on cold winter days.

By the mid-17th century, chocolate was well established and sought after by the well-to-do in Italy, France, Germany, and finally England. From the time Spanish explorers brought chocolate back to Europe, people served chocolate hot, making it more palatable by the addition of sugar, vanilla and jazmine. Since chocolate was expensive, only the wealthy could afford this exotic drink.

Mechanization during the Industrial Revolution made processing of cacao beans more efficient and brought down labor costs. A Dutch chemist, Coenraad Van Houten patented a process that defatted and alkalinized the chocolate in 1828, making possible the mass production of cheap chocolate in powdered and solid forms. 

As chocolate's popularity spread throughout the Continent, people needed vessels to serve it. Chocolate pots began to appear in a variety of forms and materials, including earthenware, tin, pewter, tin-plated copper, porcelain, gold, and silver.

Potters created the first commercial chocolate pots of earthenware, but by the early 19th century, porcelain ones began to appear, coinciding with the decrease in the cost of chocolate and its availability to everyone, regardless of their economic status. At the same time the porcelain chocolate pot changed. Since the cocoa made from the cacao bean dissolved in hot water, whipping the chocolate was no longer necessary, so the hole for the molinet—the wooden stirrer—originally placed in the lid of the pot was no longer needed. By the mid- to late 19th century, most porcelain companies produced chocolate pots with solid lids.

Factories began producing a variety of affordable chocolate pots for the average household. Production peaked in the mid-to late 1800s, but continued until the mid- 1900s when people’s preference switched from hot chocolate to coffee.

Due to the widespread popularity of hot chocolate, chocolate pots are readily available to collectors, both online and at shows and auctions. For example, eBay has over 500 chocolate pots listed in active auctions. Prices vary widely and depend on material, with silver pots being more expensive than porcelain pots. Value also depends on the age and maker, as well as where the pot is being sold.

While the average porcelain chocolate pot sells for about $100, the higher quality ones from Meissen and R.S. Prussia range in price from $500 to $5,000. Chocolate sets—a pot with six tall cups and sometimes saucers—tend to sell for more than individual pots. Also, larger pots and those with floral or scenic designs are more expensive than smaller ones without decoration. Unmarked pots and those from lesser-known factories often sell for less than $100.

Before starting a chocolate pot collection, examine a variety of chocolate pots being offered by reputable dealers. Read books on specific manufacturers such as Limoges; R.S.Prussia. and Nippon, and visit repronews.com, e-limoges.com and rsprussia.com online. Lastly, if you’re not sure of a chocolate pot's authenticity, don't buy it.

Is It Real or Repro?

QUESTION: My grandmother had a pretty little light yellow and pink glass cruet which I now have. Can you tell me anything about it?

ANSWER: Your grandmother’s cruet is made of what’s called Burmese glass. Frederick Shirley of the Mount Washington Glass Company patented the mixture for this type of glass in 1885 and produced it until about the mid-1890s. Over in England, Thomas Webb also had a license to make Burmese glass and did so until about 1900.

Authentic Burmese is a heat-sensitive glass, made so by adding a small amount of gold—roughly 1/20th of an ounce—to the glass mixture. In its molten state, Burmese is a soft yellow color, made possible by the addition of uranium oxide. However, reheating the piece creates pink highlights, especially on the rims. Varying the amount of gold in relation to other ingredients affects the range of intensity of the pink highlights.

During the 1970s through the early 1990s, reproductions of Burmese glass pieces appeared in Italy.. Now, some 20 to 35 years later, many people unknowingly confuse the Italian reproductions with the 19th century originals. This is especially a problem with these items when sold in online auctions, where misrepresentation is often a problem.

One of the most widely reproduced items of Italian Burmese was a cruet, which is now commonly mistaken or deliberately misrepresented as being original Burmese. The only authentic cruet form made by Mount Washington in the late 19th century has a relatively short-ribbed body with a matching Burmese ribbed mushroom-shaped stopper. The easiest way to tell an original is by the solid, smooth-surfaced applied handle, firmly attached to the cruet’s body. Reproduction cruets have thinner handles that aren’t attached to the body very well and are narrowly ridged or reeded. Original handles are sturdy, perfectly round in cross section, and smooth with no reeding.

Another way to distinguish originals Burmese cruets from Italian reproductions is their spouts. Original Mount Washington cruet spouts feature a standard straight-ahead shape. But the majority of reproduction spouts are trefoil or three-lobed. New stoppers also vary considerably, but none feature the ribbed mushroom shape of the original. Also, the bases on original cruets have a well-defined standing rim while most reproductions have a perfectly smooth base.

To trick unknowing buyers into purchasing reproductions as originals, some dealers and online auctioneers tout them as being Webb Burmese from England, but even though Webb had a license to make Burmese, no one has ever seen a piece on display.

Remember, first and foremost, Mount Washington glassmakers blew their 19th century Burmese pieces and smoothly ground the pontils—the point where the blowing rod joins the piece. Italian reproductions often are of pressed glass, thus have no pontils. 

When held to a strong light, reproduction Burmese cruets shows colored swirls and streaks not found on originals. The Mount Washington glassmakers created original Burmese from one homogeneous mass. The color change in original Burmese comes from reheating this solid mass. But the Italian glassmakers who created reproduction pieces of Burmese did so by mixing molten yellow and pink glass together. This causes a line of what appears to be clear frosted glass along the edge of the rim of a reproduction Burmese cruet.

Originally, glassmakers gave the surface of their Burmese glass a soft look by dipping their pieces in acid. Italian reproduction makers gave theirs a soft finish by sand blasting.

Reproduction glass is the hardest to distinguish from the original. The pieces often exhibit no marks or signatures and most glass shows little signs of age. The difference is in both the original mixture and the process to make and finish the pieces.

What you have is an excellent example of an authentic Mount Washington Burmese glass cruet. Today, you’ll see these listed for anywhere from $200 to over $5,000 online, depending on the condition and pattern.

Going Retro

QUESTION: I recently purchased a one arm chair that has a metal stamp that says The B.L. Marble Chair Co. ,Bedford Ohio. It is a cool mid-century design and is walnut and leather. Do you know anything about this chair like what its purpose was?

ANSWER:  Barzilla L. Marble founded the B.L. Marble Chair Co. in 1894, after working at several other chair companies. His grandfather operated a chair factory in Marbletown, New York, and others in his family likewise made chairs, so it was natural for Marble to do so. He formed a brief partnership with A.L. Shattuck in 1885, but struck out on his own nine years later.

His company produced fine wooden chairs made for comfort and elegance that were made to last. Up until 1910, it produced chairs for the home, but during World War I, Marble added a division to make wooden aircraft propellers for the military.

By 1921. Marble’s company had outgrown its small wooden buildings and construction began on new brick buildings which had more than four acres of floor space. After Marble died in 1932,  A. D. Pettibone became president of the company and part owner. In 1953 Pettibone sold his interest in the Marble Chair Company to a group of local investors. Eventually, another man, also named Pettibone but not related to the first, bought the company, and it became extremely successful.

The company produced one-arm “modern” chairs most likely in the mid-60s under the second Pettibone owner. Furniture makers intended one-arm chairs, both originally in the 1870s and then in the 1960s as chairs to be placed in a corner. Today, most people would refer to these 1960's chairs as “retro” in style.

But exactly what does retro mean? According to the Oxford University Press Dictionary, retro means "imitative of a style from the recent past." Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, most likely from the 1940s through the 1960s. Currently, eBay offers over 468,000 different retro items at auction.

People born between the 1940 and 1950 became teenagers during the 1950s and 1960s. And because those two periods provide memories for many of them, anything retro is in, whether it’s furniture, accessories, clothing, and collectibles, especially those related to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Life in the 1950s was conservative, but changes were about to take place. Such innovations as Velcro, Tang, frozen foods, transistor radios, Frisbees and the hula-hoop began to appear. Bill Haley and the Comets rocked around the clock while jukeboxes filled every burger joint and ice cream parlor with the new sounds.

Furniture and accessories, especially the ubiquitous pole lamp, featured streamlined styling in avocado and gold. By 1957 there were 47 million T.V. sets in America’s homes, four times the number of just seven years before. Families began to watch T.V. shows like “I Love Lucy” incessantly. They even ate in front of the T.V., thus necessitating the invention of the T.V. tray and comfortable casual furniture without frills.

Later on in the 1960s, the space race captured everyone’s attention as astronauts walked on the Moon and teens danced the twist to the music of Chubby Checker and sang along to Beatles’ tunes. More innovations such as lava lamps and electric knives caught on eventually providing the retro movement with lots of collectibles.

Investing in Old Stock Certificates

QUESTION: I’ve been unpacking some old boxes of things left to me by my father. In one of them I discovered some old stock certificates. Are they worthless or do they have investment value?

ANSWER: Old stock certificates, especially those from defunct companies, are only worth the paper that they’re printed on. But some, especially those with signatures from famous people, famous companies, or those involved in major scandals, can be worth quite a bit.

What exactly is a stock certificate? A stock certificate is the physical piece of paper representing ownership in a company and includes the number of shares owned, the date, an identification number, usually a corporate seal, and signatures. They’re larger than a standard letter-size piece of paper and many also have elaborate engraved designs to discourage counterfeiting.

Stocks represent partial ownership in a company. Today, most companies keep records of ownership electronically but some allow their shareholders to request a paper version. Each certificate starts out as a standard design to which the company adds the date of issue, identification number, and other information, including the printed signature of the chief executive. Executives on older certificates signed them in ink.

According to financial historians, partnership agreements dividing ownership into shares began to be used in northern Italy during the Middle Ages. However, these early shares were only intended to be in effect for a short time and only included a small group of people. Eventually the idea of shareholding spread to Belgium, and it’s believed the concept caught on in the trading town of Bruges. It was here that the idea of the stock exchange originated.

Eventually, shareholding took its next big step in Amsterdam in the early 17th century when the Dutch East India Company, formed to encourage trade in spices from Indonesia, issued shares that were tradable. The company compensated its shareholders well for their investments. In 1621, the market saw the issuance of shares for the Dutch West India Company, and much financial innovation ensued. Stock exchanges in the New World didn’t appear until 1790 in Philadelphia and then two years later in New York.

Collectors love canceled stock certificates because of their beautiful and elaborate graphics, as well as their connection to the historically significant companies they represent.

Old certificate values vary depending on their rarity, beauty, collector interest, historical importance, and  autographs, and industries for which they’re issued. Like all collectibles, supply and demand determine value.  Interesting pieces create a lot of demand while supplies vary.

What affects the market for stock certificates? Above all, general economic conditions tend to influence the prices of old stock certificates because many collectors of them are also involved in the real stock market. The law of supply and demand, as with other collectibles, governs this market as well. And Internet auctions have increased not only the availability of old stock certificates but their ease of purchase.

What determines the pricing of old stock certificates? Two important price boosters are signatures of important people and newly formed companies. For example, a Standard Oil Company certificate that John D. Rockefeller signed is worth nearly $8,000 today. Prices have leveled off in the last few years and finding rare certificates at reasonable prices has become a real challenge.

As with postage stamps, pricing can be affected by the rarity of a certificate—the rarer it is, the higher the price. An autograph of someone famous of the stock company with which he was involved also raises the price. Whether a stock certificate has ever been issued also influences it value, as does its age and decoration. The location and history of the company don’t affect the price of a certificate as much as, say, its condition and whether its canceled or not.

However, no one point is always in control of a certificate’s value. For example, a Cody-Dyer Arizona Mining & Milling stock certificate, from a failed gold mine, signed by Buffalo Bill Cody currently is currently valued at approximately$4,000, while a rare unsigned Buffalo Bill's Wild West Co. stock certificate sold for $20,000 at auction in 2008.

As with any collectible, you should always collect stock certificates that are in excellent condition, have been issued, and are uncanceled. You should also collect certificates from industries that you’re familiar with or in which you’re interested. Early companies issued their stocks in small quantities, thus limiting the number of their certificates in today’s market. But there are lots out there for sale at low to reasonable prices.