Electric lamps with glass shades were popular from the 1870s to the 1920s. Unlike a candle flame, a lightbulb could face down and was not too hot for a shade with a closed top, making the use of glass shades possible. And as up-to-date, unusual and attractive objects, glass-shaded lamps became expensive status symbols.

It is said that Louis Comfort Tiffany was the first to make a lamp with the light focused down. The lamp looked like a group of lilies with drooping heads made of iridescent glass. He is best known for his lamps with dome-shaped leaded-glass shades made of colorful pieces of glass.

Another famous lamp maker of the time was the Pairpoint Manufacturing Co. of New Bedford, Mass. The company, founded in 1880, originally made coffin fittings, but it soon became the largest manufacturer of silver-plated wares in the United States. In 1894, it merged with its next-door neighbor, the Mount Washington Glassworks. Pairpoint then made glass, silver plate and lamps. The two most desirable types of Pairpoint lamps today have reverse-painted glass shades or molded glass shades, now called “puffies.”

In the 1930s, the company reorganized and changed its name and products, but remains in operation. The reverse-painted shades were decorated on the inside by artists, who signed their shades. Lamps also carried a trademark that included the word “Pairpoint.” Lamp bases were made of metal or wood, and these also were signed. A Pairpoint lamp with reverse-painted scenes of pilgrims, sailing ships and flowers sold in 2008 for $4,140 at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, N.C. Its rectangular shade is 13 inches wide, and its base is cast metal. Continue reading

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

In past centuries, medicine was very different than it is today. There was little knowledge about the causes of illness until Louis Pasteur reported in 1864 that germs cause disease. Even the idea of washing your hands to avoid germs was a 20th-century idea.

Most medicines were herbs and potions that had been found to help, although no one knew why. Sometimes parts of snakes, insects, roots, crushed minerals and other strange materials were used. Alcohol and drugs like cocaine and marijuana were effective painkillers. An apothecary shop sold all sorts of dried mixtures, cures and medicines, usually made from alcohol and herbs. The shops kept some of the dry medicines in large jars decorated with the appropriate name and a fancy border. Other medicines were kept in glass jars, drawers or small-folded paper packets. Today’s medicines in sterile containers and pill form have helped raise the average life expectancy from about 37 in the 1800s to about 66 today. Medical tools, medicine and medicine containers all are collected. Old medical tools bring high prices.

Continue reading

Majolica was made in many countries, the United States, England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

The word majolica has two meanings to collectors. The first of the tin-glazed pottery known as majolica was made in Spain, then Italy in the 15th century. That type of pottery was popular until the 18th century. Today it can be seen in museums.

In 1851, Minton made a slightly different kind of tin-glazed pottery, or majolica, that they displayed at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. It became popular almost immediately. The earlier majolica had designs that looked as if they had been painted on; the new majolica was more three dimensional. Dishes were shaped like realistic leaves, food-serving dishes with raised strawberries or bunches of asparagus looked real, oyster plates had molded oyster shells to hold the crustaceans, sardine boxes featured lifelike sardines on the cover, and even large pedestals were covered with molded designs of flowers and birds, or resembled tree trunks surrounded by storks.

Continue reading

Presidential campaigns in the past were no different from how they are today. Caricatures, gossip, even lies and scandal were part of the campaign, although the information traveled slowly without TV or radio.

Grover Cleveland, in the 1884 presidential race, was accused of having an illegitimate son. He admitted it and won the presidency because voters admired his honesty. Other 19th-century presidential candidates were accused of buying underpriced stock in return for favors, taking loans with no interest from oil companies and making deals to influence the Electoral College.
Continue reading