SGS

2018 SGS Convention Day 3 Report

Note:  Click any photo below to enlarge to its full size.

Our convention meeting room opened at 9am sharp on Friday.  We were all anxious to see the auction glass, which included quite a bit of stretch glass.  Later in the morning, Cal Hackeman presented a seminar on how to tell look-a-likes and similar colors from each other.  During the seminar we examined plates, candleholders, vases, and other shapes of stretch glass which were made in similar forms by multiple companies and/or were made in similar forms in both the early and late periods of stretch glass production.  We also looked at examples of stretch glass in colors which are quite similar and may be mistaken for other colors.

Cal talked about how to ID a piece of stretch glass.  He suggested starting with the color of the stretch glass.  If the item in question is a color which is unique to a particular company, then the maker of the item is easily identified.  Examples are Russet, Jade Blue, White Opaque (only made by Northwood) or Tangerine (only made by Fenton) or the US Opaque colors, which are unique to US Glass.

If the color is not definitive, that is to say the color was made by more than one stretch glass producer, then next consider the shape:  is the shape unique to one company?  There are many shapes which are unique to a particular company and therefore a positive ID can be achieved.  Examples are most colognes, powder puffs and related items, which were only made by Fenton.  Ashtrays and smoking-related items are uniquely shaped according to the company producing the item even though at least 3 companies produced a form of an ashtray (Fenton, Northwood and US Glass).  Unique shapes are quite prevalent among stretch glass and are very useful for ID’ing stretch glass.  Finally we are left with the items which are somewhat or appear to be exactly the same shape and are known to be made by more than one producer.  These include candy jars, plates and some bowls.  Cal helped us learn how to examine these items for particular mold seams and other identifying characteristics leading to a correct ID of the company which produced the item.

Later in the seminar Cal helped us look at items which appear to be similar but were produced in the early and late periods.  The Fenton Ruby Twin Dolphin square comport is such an item which has caused much confusion in the market because many of the late period comports are not marked with the Fenton logo.  When one has the benefit of comparing the early and late period comports side-by-side, there is no difficulty determining which is from the early period and which is from the late period.  The colors are different (the late period is usually a darker ruby), the thickness of the foot is different (the early period pieces have a thicker foot and the underside of the foot is different from the form in the late period).  Twin dolphin fan vases exhibit the same ID’ing characteristics in the foot since they were made from the same mold. 

All in all, more than 60 pieces of stretch glass were examined, compared and identified.

Lunch was hosted by John and Vickie Rowe and was enjoyed by all.  Our Annual Meeting followed immediately after lunch.  The minutes of this meeting will be published in the September issue of The Stretch Glass Society Quarterly.  Among the actions taken by the members were the following:

• Annual dues will remain unchanged for 2019.
• Stephanie Bennett was re-elected as Secretary and Jim Steinbach was re-elected as Treasurer to serve a 2-year term.  Jonathan Fuhrman and Gary Senkar were elected to be Directors. 
• We thanked Mike Getichus and Sarah Plummer for their service as Directors and presented each of them with a gift of stretch glass appropriately engraved to commemorate their service. 
• The Officers and Directors present updated the membership on significant activities which have been undertaken to further the promotion and preservation of stretch glass, in accordance with our stated purpose and also mentioned upcoming activities to continue the same.
• A President’s Award was presented to Mary Elda Arrington in recognition of her efforts in organizing our Stretch Out Discussion Calls and initiating the Deluxe Edition Reviews of our discussions.

In the afternoon, Bob Henkel presented a seminar on how to arrange flowers in stretch glass.  Bob had made nine floral arrangements for our banquet tables on Thursday evening and he prepared another arrangement, pointing out the do’s and don’t’s of successful floral arranging.  The arrangement completed during the seminar was magnificent and serves as an example to all of us of how beautiful flowers are when they are arranged in stretch glass.

With Bob’s seminar complete, we turned our attention to the glass to be sold in the Burns Auction, which began at 5pm.  Tom and Debra sold nearly 500 lots of glass, including stretch glass, Fenton glass, Dugan frit vases, Imperial freehand, and more during the next several hours while members packed up their displays and ‘tear down’ proceeded in the background.  By around midnight, the room was bare of stretch glass and the 2018 Stretch Glass Society Convention and Show was but a memory.

If you were unable to join us this year, we hope you will make plans to be with us next year for the 45th Annual Stretch Glass Convention and Show.