Heard it through the Grapevine

A Bird’s-eye View of Early Glass

As viewed by Ralph Finch, another bird

This would have looked good on the Finch Funhouse walls, except … there is no space on our walls!

Still, I considered it, when a few months ago the Jeffrey Evans auction house of Mt. Crawford, Va., sold “Lot 1057, ILLINOIS GLASS COMPANY PRINT, hand-colored lithograph on paper, comprising two vignettes featuring a bird’s-eye view of the exterior of the factory and the surrounding landscape above an interior view with workers in various stages of glassblowing/making process, all encompassed in a fancy frame border with rosettes to the corner and ‘Illinois Glass Company, Wm Eliot Smith Prest’ written along the bottom edge. Housed under glass in a wooden frame.”

The image measured 13 by 16 inches, and dates to the fourth quarter 19th/early 20th century, and said to be in “very good visual condition with light toning, three visible tears along the lower left side with one near center going 1 inch into the image, frame with some wear and scratches.”

It was valued at $80-$120, and sold for $234, which includes the buyer’s premium. For more information, go to http:// www.jeffreysevans.com.

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But what the image doesn’t show is this, found on the internet (edited): “Under the lead of Edward Levis and William Eliot Smith in 1873, the Illinois Glass Co. of Alton, Ill., became a fixture to the Alton economy and employed over 3,000 workers within thirty years.

This company, however, also developed into the largest employer of children within the state of Illinois. Kelley reported on the very conditions the young boys employed by the company endured: exhausting speed, heat, dust with lack of ventilation, night shifts, burns to limbs, and illiteracy. Kelley’s reports on the factory detailed the constant speed at which the young boys ran around the factory in sweltering heat, working till as late as 3 a.m. Many of the boys’ hands were wrapped in bandages from burns caused by melting glass.”

Think of that the next time you pick up a pretty piece of glass.

Heard it through the Grapevine

Outhouse Art is In

More crappy notes by Ralph Finch*

Selling June 10 was a bit of art that honored the world-famous and muchadmired outhouse, from which some of our best glass has been recovered.

It was sold by Historia Auktionshaus of Berlin, Germany. It was a bit of, um, work, described as Lot 2571, “probably Johann Jacob Lay, Darmstadt, Hessen, 1798-1802, funny group of figures with a figure sitting on the toilet while a boy opens the door, white bisque, h. 6 cm.”

It required an opening bid of €80 ($91 U.S.) and sold for €120 ($135 U.S.) plus a butt-load of money to ship it, I’m sure. And I tried to find out more about Historia Auktionshaus, which seems to be strong on china and art pottery, but most of the information was in German, so for me might as well have been in Greek.

Outhouses have been featured in a million postcards and cartoons, but deserve more classy art like this, right? (I’d show you what I just bought for our indoor outhouse (our bathroom), but Janet is barely talking to me.

*Publisher’s note: Ralph’s personal motto seems to be: “No bad pun is beneath me.” What can you expect from someone who collects antique toilet paper?

Have a Drinking Problem?

Here is an artistic way to cover it up By Ralph Finch

Selling June 5 at an auction house in Stewartsville, N.J., was Lot 1193, a “carved & painted figural wooden bottle holder,” 16 inches high. It was estimated at $50-$100, and sold for a bargain $20 (WOW!) plus a 25 percent buyer’s premium.

This item would be good to keep your spouse from learning about your bottle problem or if you had, maybe, an extra Indian Queen bottle you wanted to hide.

The Finch family didn’t get this one, we weren’t even under- bitters … I mean under bidders. I don’t have a drinking problem, but I do have a problem with memory. I forgot to bid! See, sitting in my bathrobe every day at home and checking progress at a hundred auction houses every day, I can shop for anything. (As long as Janet isn’t around.)

FYI: The community of Stewartsville was named after Thomas Stewart, a secretary to George Washington, who purchased 360 acres in the area in 1793. It now has a population of about 349 people. And double WOW: The original Stewart home still stands along with many other farmhouses and mills. (I want to visit!) And the Kennedy House and Mill, located on Route 173, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Front view (LEFT) and a look at the opened bottle holder.