Almost all varieties of glass were represented at the Westchester Glass Show, April 18 and 19, the first beautiful weekend of spring. But glass collectors are a hardy breed and will not let a little thing like sunshine and warm breezes keep them from their diligent search for glass: art glass, Victorian, free-blown, pressed, blown-in-mold, pattern glass, ancient glass, cut glass, Depression glass and even window glass (yes, there was at least one piece of pressed-pattern window glass).
The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company remains the best known of all the antique American glass producers. Beyond the tables filled with representative examples, Joan Kaiser, expert author on the history of the company and the glass produced, found a unique piece that even she had to consult with her co-author before she bought it.
To the uneducated eye, the vase looks similar to others, but the blown-in-mold blue and white vase showed both the signature ribbed and the smoothness in the piece. Once explained, it was clearly different, and the excitement the find brought to the expert was palpable. “I found it in a shop and had to call Ray [Raymond Barlow, co-author of the now 15 volumes on Sandwich glass] to see if he had ever found this combination of styles in his slag heap hunts; when he said, ‘yes,’ I went right back and bought it.”
Glass attracts such diverse collectors †perhaps it is the combination of fragility and toughness that embodies glass, which makes it so attractive. At Lotton Art Glass, Charles Lotton’s exquisitely colored art glass designs could be found, along with pieces by his son and grandson, Jeremiah, who was also at the show. When Charles began experimenting with art glass in the 1970s, he was one of the first artists to create hand-blown pieces in previously unknown colors. He is best known for his “multi flora” designs and his work was represented in not just his own booth, but in others at the show as well.
At Glass Accents, LeeAnne Kornbau was showing a Lotton vase among her “Glass Through the Centuries,” as she titles her exhibition. The Lititz, Penn., dealer made sure that the Lotton piece, and Charles himself, was adequately appreciated. “He is the name in contemporary art glass,” she said. “He really started the whole genre himself, when no one else was doing anything. And now he is teaching his grandson the art †he is just amazing.”
Ian Simmonds, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., also had a piece of art glass that he was very pleased with: a Mount Washington example from roughly 1878‸0. Made by the Mount Washington Glass Company, New Bedford, Mass., the lava glass vase (the company patented lava glass), was marked at $9,750, and clearly presaged Art Nouveau, which was years away, and in fact, Abstract Expressionism, which was almost a century away.
Among the incredibly old and yet still perfect glass, were three Irish compotes from the first quarter of the Eighteenth Century at Art and Kathy Green’s booth. The Newton Centre, Mass., dealers were also showing colored Sandwich glass vases and a threaded clear with pink and white oil lamp, circa 1865, that was possibly from the Sandwich Glass Company.
Others who specialize in unique and very old glass are Donna Almon and Betsy Hewlett, two longtime dealers at the show. In fact, Almon said she was at the very first Westchester show. She comes a long way, from the Midwest, to show here; her booth was filled with rare and valuable pieces. One she pointed out was a possibly unique whale oil lamp, Sandwich Glass, 1830″5 with a square lacy base. She also noted she has “the largest collection of glass furniture pulls of anyone in the business.”
Hewlett comes from Yarmouth Port, Mass., and this year brought several special pieces for collectors to see. “This is a saw tooth tumble up from around 1860. It is rare to find both the water beaker and the tumbler still together.” She showed a swimming swan design four-piece table set which included a covered butter, covered sugar, pitcher and spoon holder, from 1870‸0.
Thomas Haunton was back at the show after a several-year hiatus with his signature South Jersey glass. Two remarkable pieces, one from the Andy Warhol collection, a Stoddard pitcher by Clevenger, and a white, circa 1900, Tatum Glass pitcher attributed to Whitall, were being shown by the Wilmington, Mass., dealer at his Jerseyana booth.
Right next door, Carlese Westock, West Paterson, N.J., has also been showing since the first show. A Nineteenth Century American generalist, she pointed out a Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, three-piece Roman key and star tazza, circa 1880s. Just beyond Westock, Rose’s Antiques highlighted Heisey pieces: three pressed glass baskets, Prince of Wales, Pineapple and one with a blue handle †all brought down from her South Portland, Maine, shop.
Jeffrey Evans has a unique booth: the auctioneer brings examples from his upcoming auctions for the collectors and dealers to see and inspect. The former president and principal auctioneer for Green Valley Auctions has an auction gallery in Mount Crawford, Va., where he will be conducting his next miniature, kerosene and early lighting auction on June 6.
Robert Sears and Harold Tither III have been showing fine glass from their appointment-only collection in Somers, Conn., for years. Sears showed early blown or molded glass and a collection of what he coined, “potent potables,” or early bottles for liquors with cork-lined tops †from the mid-Nineteenth to early Twentieth Centuries.
From elegant Tiffany lamps that take your breath away to humble oil lamps, Westchester Glass Show will have it all again next year at the Greenwich Civic Center, April 17 and 18. For information, Douglas Reed, show manager, 973-763-4524.
