Thanksgiving Greeetings

Beautiful Antique Thanksgiving Postcards make great addition to your hostess gift. Share these special thoughtful messages with all your loved ones this year.
                                 

 

Reuzeit Emporium wishes you a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving.

Wave Crest: Beautiful Opalware Glass

   Many people are confused when they see a decorated Wave Crest object. I have heard people say, "What is this?  Porcelain? Glass?  A collector will immediately identify a piece as Wave Crest but an inexperienced observer is often confused. 

  Wave Crest is glass.  It is opal ware glass that people sometimes call milk glass but it is not the normal everyday milk glass.  Most Wave Crest pieces are made in a mold and if you examine a piece you will be able to detect the mold lines. This thin transparent  opal ware glass was manufactured by many different glass houses including Mount Washington Pairpoint.  The undecorated glass called blanks was sold to decorating houses for embellishments.  C F Monroe was one of the largest and most well know of the decorating factories employing many skilled well known artists.

 Two Sided Shell Shaker #351 

 Swirl and Bulge Shaker #72 

Tulip Shaker #73

  As a first step in the decorating process, C F Monroe, often put these undecorated pieces into an acid bath with the result being a lusterless soft finish  called satin glass because the glass felt like satin to the touch. Only a  few pieces of Wave Crest have been found with an untouched shiny glossy finish. After the acid bath, many pieces were painted with a pastel matte finish, light blue, pink, yellow background and then the true splendor of Wave Crest began. The decorating!

Cracker Jar #352 white ground, hand painted

Cracker Jar #402 blue tinted ground, hand painted

Cracker Jar #404 pink tinted ground, hand painted

  Charles Monroe employed some of the best skilled artists, including Carl V. Helmschmied, Walter Nilson, J.J. Knoblauch, Joseph Hickish, Carl Puffee, Flora Fiest, Gustave Reinman, Florence Knoblauch, Emil Melchior, and Alma Wenk, Blanche Duval, Gussie Stremlan, Elizabeth Zeibart, and Elizabeth Casey.  These artists decorated the glass with a gradient degree of difficulty and design that C. F. Monroe sold by categories called assortments. 
Assortment 1: consisted of decorations on a white ground that was then glazed, this was the least expensive.  


Bulbous Necklace Shaker

The shaker on the left is an exception, it was purchased as blank by the C.F. Monroe and decorated with an applied transfer of orange, blue, and brown flowers. Today, only a few pieces of glossy items have been recorded and because these items are rare, they often demand a fairly high price.  It is named Bulbous Necklace in Lechner's book, " The World of Salt Shakers, volume 2." 





Assortment 2: consisted of decorations on a tinted ground glaze.
Assortment 2 1/2:  consisted of decorations on a tinted ground with a fired bisque finish.
Assortment 3: consisted of decorations on a tinted ground glaze with more elaborate designs.
Assortment 4: consisted of decorations on a tinted ground with a bisque finish.
Assortment 5 consisted of decorations on a tinted ground with a bisque finish, the designs were traced in gold.
Assortment 6, consisted of decorations, traced in gold and were described as "very elegant and striking."

  Special order and totally hand painted pieces demanded the highest price and were the most time consuming to paint.  Transfers were used to lessen the cost and the time required to paint the items.  Sometimes both techniques were used on the same item, a transfer was applied first and then the artist would add a few hand painted dots, flowers, or scrolls. 

Hand painted lamp base with a house by a lake	Hand painted lamp base with sailboats on a lake	Hand painted lamp base with flowers
Draped Column Shakers #98 only tinted on bulbous base,  glossy column	Wave Scroll Shakers #383 yellow tinted ground	  Shasta Daisy Shaker flowers 

  A trade advertisement states, "Wave Crest is the most wonderful  line ever put on the market. The trimmings are all 24 carat gold plate, and the finish and workmanship of the best, the decorations being hand painted and of numerous designs to meet the tastes of all." There was a very large assortment of Wave Crest items produced including vases, bowls, biscuit/cracker jars, pin dishes, salt and pepper shakers and jewelry boxes. Some of the rarer items include sugar sifters, napkin rings, paper weights, whisk broom holders, wig holders and lamps.  These pieces were made for everyday use and of course, over time many were broken or just thrown away.

Sugar Sifter #53 AA white ground, hand painted

Jewel Box #425 pink ground, hand painted

Jewel Tray #424 yellow ground, hand painted

  Wave Crest pieces that were highly decorated and hand painted were most popular from 1890 to 1910 with C. F. Monroe at the forefront, being the largest producer of decorated opal ware.  However, demand for this type of glass began to wane and C. F. Monroe went out of business in 1916.  Today Wave Crest items demand a rather high price due to the limited supply and the beautiful decorations.

  In 1996, a group of collectors formed the, "Wave Crest Collectors Club," to study the wares decorated by the C. F. Monroe Company.  Check out their website: wavecrestcollectorsclub.org

 Below is an example of the same shaker pattern decorated with different finishes and flowers.

 Sash Shaker white background, hand painted pink flowers 

 Sash Shaker yellow background, hand painted blue flowers 

You Should Go......To Kokomo

Tour begins outside the glass factory

  If you love glass, you should go to Kokomo, Indiana and visit the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Factory.

  This factory has been in continuous operation since 1888 at its present location at 1310 South Market Street.  They give daily tours but be sure to check their schedule to start planning your tour. You will be pleasantly surprised.

  On October 6, 1886 natural gas was discovered in a corn field in Kokomo, Indiana and the Indiana Gas Company was formed to supply natural gas to the surrounding area.  Charles Edward Henry was a glass chemist and in 1883, he formed  Henry Art Glass in New Rochelle, New York.  The factory made glass buttons, opalescent glass rods, and some novelties items.  Charles heard about the natural gas discovery and he traveled to Kokomo, met with local officials, and formed the Opalescent Glass Works.

Glass Buttons

Glass Button

Glass Button

  Within a month, he moved to Kokomo, brought a house and started building the factory.  On November 13, 1888, the seven pot furnace started producing molten glass.

Glass Furnace

Furnace and glass mixture

Hauling extra glass

Dumping extra glass

  The main production was sheet glass that was made by mixing up to seven different colors of glass and then squeezing the molten glass into thin sheets with a wringer type device.  By November 1888, Louis Tiffany received the first shipment of sheet glass from the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Works.

Pouring molten glass

Mixing different colors of glass

Pressing mixed colored sheet glass

   Production was in full swing by January, 1889 with 50 people working around the clock.  The Kokomo Opalescent Glass Works exhibited their glass at the Paris Exposition World Fair and won a Gold Medal. They received thousands of dollars of  orders for sheet glass.  The factory was a success but Charles Henry's problems became significant.  He had many unpaid bills and a lien was filed against the factory.  Mr. Henry sold the factory to his son-in-law, developed a drinking problem, was jailed, and spent the remaining 2 years of his life  in the Indianapolis Insane Asylum.  He died there at the age of 46.

Warehouse of  colored sheet glass

Warehouse of colored sheet glass

Tiffany stained glass window at Corning Glass Museum

  The Opalescent Glass Works company was sold to three local businessmen  whose descendants are still involved with the business today.  Louis Tiffany purchased over 10,000 pounds of glass from the factory for use in the manufacture of beautiful stained glass windows along with others, such as, John LaFarge and J Lamb.

  Today the company still operates using the tried and true methods it used when the factory was first built.  They have many of the old glass recipes and the original texture presses that were used when Tiffany was purchasing glass from them. Many antique shops and museums commission specific glass colors to restore lamps and stained glassed windows.

Powder colored additives

Powder color additives

Single color recycled glass

  The Kokomo Opalescent Works also sell stained glass sheets, hand mixed art glass sheets,  cast glass, sheet glass, rondels,  custom glass and blown glass items.  Their gift shop offers a wide assortment of all of these items.  Visit soon.  You will have a wonderful experience.

Glass medallion in gift shop

Sale pieces in finishing room

Sale pieces in finishing room

The Gardner Returns

The Lillies said:
"Welcome home"

The Annuals said:
"We were fine without you"

 



The Herbs said:
"We are ready to use"

The Roses said:
"We need food"



The Tree Seedling said:
"Come and find us"

And the Weeds said:
"We are in control now!"

 

Oh Those Summer Nights!

2015 Mega Glass Convention / Conference

Dead Horse Point State Park



Early May and the campgrounds are all full. Retires rule the state of Utah. It was still a great time to travel, even if was a little tough finding a campsite. Who could pass up these views?

Overnighting at Hittle Bottom Campground, Utah

As we were heading down Hwy 128 toward Moab in Utah, we were not sure if we would find a place to stay for the night. As we rounded the corner we came upon a quaint camping spot called Hittle Bottom. It is run by the The Bureau of Land Management and sits along the Colorado River.  Look at the beautiful view we had!  A random find of the magical kind.