Tempest In An Egg Cup

A few months back, I found these wonderful milk glass egg cups from around the middle of the twentieth century decorated with vivid red roosters and hens on a milk white background. I could easily see these in any kitchen in Eisenhower's America, from farmhouses where the eggs were laid fresh that morning to modern city apartments where morning was when you went to bed to split level ranch houses in the booming middle class suburbs. They spoke to me.

When it came time to list them for sale, I researched them online and came across one or two other listings which seemed to confirm what I suspected - they were made by Hazel Atlas, a prolific manufacturer of jars, kitchenware and dinnerware. After I listed them at my Ruby Lane shop, I received further confirmation of my ID when I came across a picture of an identical egg cup in the Florences' Hazel Atlas Glass Identification and Value Guide. So case closed, right?

The other day, I received an e-mail from a confused shopper, directing me to Carnival Heaven, where he had seen this pic:



If those Indiana Glass egg cups aren't identical to my "Hazel Atlas" egg cups, I'll eat them both! So what is going on here? Are the Florences and a few other online resellers wrong? If they are not, both manufacturers made egg cups but farmed out the decoration to a third party, which seems entirely possible. I bring up this little story not to cast the accuracy of ID guides into doubt but to illustrate the pitfalls of identification. During the era in which these cups were made, manufacturers were going out of business and being bought and sold at an alarming clip. Molds were lost or broken or sold so sometimes a dealer just has to make an educated guess and adapt if new information comes along.

In Case You Couldn't Tell...

I love mid-century modern.  In fact, I love almost everything from the Fifties and Sixties but modern style really rocks my world. I sometimes lose the plot of Mad Men because I'm too distracted eyeing the cool stuff in the background. And then Joan comes on screen and my attention snaps back to the... plot.

Um, where was I? Oh yeah.  When Don put on his sunglasses after coming out of the NYAC last episode, all I could think was "Where can I find a pair of vintage Ray Bans like those? (If I'm not mistaken, Bausch and Lomb is one of the firm's clients).

So what makes something "modern"?  You should look for clean, sleek lines and  geometric patterns. One of  the more pervasive geometric patterns was the starburst, which reflects the nuclear-infused zeitgeist of the "modern" era.  You can find it everywhere, from china to wall clocks to textiles. You can even find it in the logo of Dr. Pepper from the Sixties.

I find myself drawn to the simplicity of modern design. Perhaps because I tend to live amongst clutter, I believe that clean lines means a clean house or maybe these things just remind me of growing up in the Sixties. Whatever the reason, I gravitate more and more to modernism.

Shop - A - Palooza Saturday

Just got back from a full day of treasure hunting and stocking the Brass Armadillo booth.  I have been meaning to stop into some thrift stores in Sun City. I was under the mistaken belief that they were only open on Saturday mornings but discovered that they keep regular weekday hours also so I now have a few places to add to my usual route.  Unfortunately, the thrifts didn't yield much. Anything remotely well-known as collectible was marked up to regular retail prices.  I did manage to find a few items that I can sell at a reasonable price but nothing to write home (or a blog post) about so please feel free instead to browse my Ruby Lane shop and enjoy these pictures of items I added to my booth (Brass Armadillo Booth 204, Cactus and I-17, Phoenix AZ).

Alamo Pottery Vase

Georges Briard Serving Tray

Franciscan Coronado Serving Platter

Franciscan Coronado Serving Plate

Orchard Ware Cups and Saucers.

Feel free to e-mail me if you're interested in any of these items.

Unmarked Jadeite - Vintage or Repro?

I love Jadeite. So my heart skipped a beat when I saw a stack of six dinner plates sitting on the shelf at my local thrift store. When I flipped one over, I expected to see the familiar Fire-King logo but was surprised to discover that they were completely unmarked. They were also in phenomenal condition without so much as a utensil mark. Immediately, red flags went up that I was looking at reproductions, not vintage glass. If they had been marked, I would have snapped them up but now I stood in the aisle, pondering whether or not they were even worth the price the store was asking.  I finally decided, "What the heck. Worse comes to worse, I'm stuck with some pretty cool looking glass plates and I haven't broken the bank" and loaded them into my cart.

Now the fun began. First, I Googled 'unmarked jadeite dinnerware'. I found out very quickly that Fire King made lots and lots of unmarked dinnerware. That was encouraging so I pulled out my Fire King reference book, Anchor Hocking's Fire-King & More by Gene and Cathy Florence to see if my plates matched a Fire King pattern. There it was - Restaurant Ware. Then I measured a plate to make sure that the size corresponded to one of the plates in the book. It did. I called Becca over to take a look. "Check it out. Ten inch Serving Plate. It's the only jadeite plate in the book that size". Then I pointed at the book value - $150.  That's per plate. Now, I know book value is generally inflated but all of a sudden, finding out whether or not my plates were vintage took on a bit more importance.

Becca happily manned the desktop while I used my Google Fu on the laptop.  For the next hour or so, we shared our new-found knowledge and came to the conclusion that if our plates were repros, there were only two possibilities - they were cheap Chinese knock-offs or FireKing2000, a Brazilian product meant to revive the Fire King line. According to the collectors' website FireKing.net, the FireKing2000 restaurant ware never made it into stores and the Chinese repros measure 10 1/2".

Can I conclude that my plates are the real deal then?  Not yet.  I would never stake my reputation on one night's worth of Googling and my limited experience with Jadeite restaurant ware.  It's time to find as many experts as possible, examine their collections and let them have a look at my plates.  Only when I am certain beyond a reasonable doubt can I offer these for sale.  In the meantime, I plan to have fun researching!

'Secretary' Magazines From 1952

I recently came across some old "Secretary" magazines at an estate sale. They provide a wonderful glimpse into a time when women were becoming an important part of the post-war workforce.  The magazine was a publication of the National Secretaries Association and had a monthly circulation of 20,000.  The entire board was composed of women, the editors were women and most of the articles were written by women.  The magazine was hardly a bastion of feminism though.  Max Factor contributed an article titled "Be Reasonable About Make-Up Boldness" and articles about specific industries were written by the men who ran them and who weren't shy about what they expected from their secretaries. ("No information which might create unfounded gossip or unhappiness must be allowed to seep outside her office doors... At all times, she must remember that her attitude often reflects the mood of her immediate superior and she must be careful not to provoke any misunderstandings by a display of emotions"). They even provide job interview advice:

Q:  Is it necessary to wear a hat and gloves during an interview, even in very hot weather?

A:  This is practically mandatory. If you were a man being interviewed, you wouldn't walk into the employer's office without a coat and tie. Your gloves and hat are a very necessary part of your attire.

 While seeming somewhat quaint from a distance of nearly six decades, these magazines did acknowledge that the modern woman had many interests and devoted space to books, movies and sports as well.  The magazines provide a snapshot into a very interesting period of our history. These items may be purchased from my Ruby Lane shop here.