Glass Rarities Bring Big
Prices
A 1770-1815
American
green-aqua
cream jug
with 24 ribs
sold for
$38,500
(includes
buyer's
premium) at
the
conclusion of
Glass
International'
s absentee
auction that closed on June 5 (originally
scheduled to close on May 28). According to the
Medford Lakes, New Jersey, auction firm, that
price is the highest ever paid at public auction for
a blown glass creamer.
The buyer was folk art collector Anthony Picadio
of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, underbid by a New
Jersey collector of American decoys and early
New Jersey glassware.
Other highlights from the sale included a rare
pillar-molded pitcher that sold for $12,650; a rare
olive green handled lamp with crimped foot,
$11,550; and a Stiegel Diamond and Daisy flask,
$7425.
In other news, Glass
International recently
acquired a 1740-50
Wistar vase that had
been handed down
through the Wistar
family. Along with the
vase, the firm acquired
a rare ledger compiled
by Caroline Pennock
(widow of Casper
Wistar Pennock, Casper
Wistar's greatgrandson) in 1877,
documenting glass and
ceramics that had been
in the family as early as
1750.
The Wistar vase,
however, is one of only four pieces out of several
hundred mentioned in the ledger that were made
at the factory of Caspar Wistar. It is referred to
in the ledger as a "Bulb glass," for the growing of
tulips
and
hyacint
hs.
There
is a
very
old
note on
the
base of
the
vase
that
reads
"Made
by Caspar Wistars Glass works in about the year
1730." The vase has a crimped "table ring" with
crosshatch decoration, often seen on Wistar sugar
bowl finials and decorated bottles. The vase was
purchased in early May by Anthony P. Picadio
for $35,000 in a private sale. He also acquired the
ledger.
John Decaro, owner of Glass International, noted
that interest in 18th-century American blown
glass has been stimulated by information
obtained at the former site of Wistarburgh, the
glasshouse in Alloway, New Jersey, owned by the
Wistar family from 1739 to 1782. Fragments and
other information obtained in these excavations
have made attributions more reliable. Additional
excavations have recently been made at the
Manheim, Pennsylvania, site of Henry William
Stiegel.
For more information, contact Glass
International at (609) 714-2595 or visit the Web
site (www.glassinternational.com).
© 2004 by Maine Antique Digest