What makes a person a glass-aholic? Some warning signs:
2. The person begins throwing around words like Hazel Atlas, Blenko, Fenton and Fostoria.
3. They use strange acronyms like EAPG, AH and HA, and PIA.
4. They spend hours browsing books with pictures of glass. In extreme cases, they mutter "oooh" and "ahhhh." In very severe cases, the books are filled with markings and post-it notes.
5. They join Facebook groups, like Vintage Glass, Blenko Collectors, American Pattern Glass Society and Pyrex Lovers. A trip to a glass plant or museum is like a holy pilgrimage.
6. They study the bottoms of glass pieces, muttering about logo shapes and pontils
7. They spend evenings on eBay, looking at glass and adding it to their "Watch" list. Sometimes they even buy the pieces they are looking at.
8. They buy glass at thrift stores because if they don't buy it the thrift might toss the chipped/cracked/stained 100-year-old piece in the dumpster. They keep jars of broken glass shards from favorite pieces that met untimely deaths. The disease has morphed in these people to GRD (Glass Rescue Disease).
If you're guilty of being a glass-aholic, you might recognize yourself in the above indicators. There really doesn't seem to be any hope of a cure. You may try to sell your glass, but you will probably relapse and buy more.
The upside to this disease is that you will eventually become knowledgeable about glass and people will come to you for advice and information. This is your chance to spread the contagion to the unsuspecting, who will soon be as impossibly infected as you are yourself.
If this happens, congratulate yourself. You will have made the world a better, more sparkly place.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
I will admit to a small addiction for Fire King, but I try to keep it in check!
ReplyDeleteNever really got into collecting glass.
ReplyDeleteBut the Fiesta ware is starting to get out of hand...
I like Fire'King too, Michelle. To be so old, and still serviceable is pretty amazing. I like Hazel Atlas too.
ReplyDeleteBrig, did you know that Fiesta is actually made here in West Virginia? I've been by there, but the old man never wants to stop! He's pretty patient most of the time so I can forgive him this one since I don't use it myself. Here's a link to the post about it.
ReplyDeletehttp://grannysu.blogspot.com/2010/06/northern-panhandle.html