Educated collectors find bargains. The more you know, the more likely you are to find a sleeper at a house sale or auction. And it is also important to handle a piece to judge weight, texture and quality. Recently a group of five blown-glass champagne glasses were offered at auction. Each glass had a transparent “globe” on the stem with a tiny colored glass bird inside. The bowl and base of the glasses had lines of color swirled in the glass. They were in the style of Bimini glass, a relatively unknown but expensive collectible glass. Fritz Lampl (1892-1955) made hand-blown glassware, often with tiny lampwork figures, at his workshop in Vienna in 1923. Lampwork is a special way of sculpting thin rods of glass heated over an open flame. It’s a method often used by today’s artists to make beads. In Vienna the Bimini factory made glasses, cocktail sticks, figures (especially ballerinas), lamps and vases. The glass was marked with paper labels. In 1938 Lampl moved to London and started the Orplid workshop that specialized in glass buttons. The company was out of business before Lampl died in 1955. Others copied his style and made similar glasses, decanters, perfume bottles, swizzle sticks and tiny animals. An expert who handles glass can tell the difference. It would be difficult to be sure in an online auction. Glass objects by Bimini are very lightweight. The shape and posture of the figures are accurate but lack details. Swirled green lines and birds are both found in glasses by Bimini and imitators. The auctioned champagnes identified only as Art Deco, not Bimini, sold for $40 each. The glass price guides show similar Bimini glasses with birds at $300 each. Were they an unrecognized bargain or were they just attractive glasses? Careful examination by a glass expert will tell.

Continue reading

Houses were decorated with special Christmas objects long before special dinner plates were made for the holiday. There are at least five states that claim they had the first American Christmas tree: Pennsylvania (1747), Massachusetts (1832), Illinois (1833) and Ohio (1838). The first glass ornaments were imported in the 1860s; the first tree lights were used in 1882. Large platters decorated with turkeys were made by the 1880s and probably were used for Christmas as well as Thanksgiving dinner. Special Danish plates with a Christmas scene made to hold Christmas cookies were made each year after 1895 by the Bing and Grondahl factory and after 1908 by the Royal Copenhagen factory. But the first set of Christmas dinnerware did not appear until 1938, when Spode made a special set that featured a picture of packages under a Christmas tree. (The first suggestion for the design showed a tree with packages ON it, but the design was changed for the American market.) The Spode pattern is still popular. Since the 1950s, hundreds of special dishes have been made for the holiday season. There are many collectors who want not only Christmas trees and ornaments, lights and stands, but also anything that is part of the Christmas season. Special salt and pepper shakers, cake stands, punch bowls, vases, cookie jars, cookie cutters and even a small eggbeater shaped like an egg-person wearing a Santa hat can help with Christmas dinner. Look for new Christmas items that are not traditional ornaments, trees or toys. It is the unusual that will gain most in value in years to come.

Continue reading