Glassware and Windowsills

For years, I have collected Westmoreland Glass.  When I first began collecting in earnest, the Brookridge Pharmacy was still in business at Bellevue and South Broadway in – what else? – the Brookridge Shopping Center.  At that time, drugstores often had special items such as toys, knick-knacks, candy, school supplies, as well as fancy glassware for sale.  My first two pieces of Westmoreland Glass were purchased at the Brookridge Pharmacy.

The largest sawtooth compote and the sitting robin in her nest were my first.  Both made of the WG milk glass.  It was years before I knew that WG made glass in colors other than white milk glass.  When I began collecting in earnest, Larry and I would frequent antique stores, second hand stores, estate sales, and my favorite seller, Glass Roots.  Ken and Martie owned the store specializing in antique glass, depression glass, some furniture, etc.

While visiting a sister in Washington, DC, Larry and I took side trips, since we’d never been to east of the Mississippi River before.  One of those places was the Fostoria glass manufacturing company.  We watched as the milk glass was shaped, cooled, ground, and anything else that needed to be done to prepare a piece for selling.  Masters at their craft, the workmen (and, they WERE all men) took just a few minutes to create the fragile, yet sturdy, glassware meant to make a beautiful statement in someone’s home.  I think it was there that I learned that good quality milk glass had a heft that the lesser quality products could never achieve.

Over the many years that I’ve collected depression glass, I’ve been able to find wonderful specimens for my cupboards and curio cabinets.  I’ve had lots of help from Ken and Martie, as well as gifts from all of my daughters and friends who know that collecting this glass has been my passion.

Of course, I do have other collections.  Paintings by my favorite artists:  Pomona Hallenbeck, Marie Ungemah, Henry Fukuhara, Larry Becker.  My own paintings.  Paper weights, new and antique.  Books – LOTS OF BOOKS!  Teapots¸ new and antique.  And jewelry – nothing new – all old.  My favorite pieces are a star ruby ring and a necklace that Larry gave me ever so many years ago.  One that he found at a pharmacy in a shopping center where there was one of my bookmobile stops.  The local library’s old bookmobile serviced the shopping center and residents of the area.  I wore the necklace every fall, until last year when the strings broke spilling some of the beads onto the floor.  So, I gathered them up and took them to David who is a member of the rock club where I belong.  David put them back together, and I will be able to wear them, next fall.

But, jewelry is not what I want to talk about.  I want to talk about my glassware.  I really do have glassware all over my house.  Upstairs.  Downstairs.  In cabinets.  On top of cabinets.  On windowsills.  And, on most other horizontal surfaces.  Some pieces, like the torte plates, are quite large.  Other pieces are very small.

After being married for about thirty years, I learned that the first
WG piece I ever owned was not the compote, or, the robin on the nest.  It turns out that Larry’s family had a very old piece of WG glass that we were not aware of.  The log cabin we found in some of their belongings did not have the roof in place; but, it was a piece of Westmoreland Glass, nevertheless.  We only learned about the old piece after we purchased a newer version of the same log house.

WG had many, many different patterns of glass.  My personal favorite is English hobnail.  You may know hobnail, glassware with the round bumps all of it.  English hobnail has bumps all over the glass, but the bumps are more like tiny pyramids with a dent in the very top of each pyramid.

And, my second favorite is Della Robbia, clear glassware with colors strategically placed.  I always wished that I had started collecting Della Robbia before it became one of the most expensive patterns that WG sold.  You can guess that I really don’t have much Della Robbia.

It is interesting (and, somewhat disheartening) that when young people, especially young women, come into my house for the first time and see the glassware – which, of course, I think is beautiful and beautifully placed in their positions – their first response has nothing to do with the beauty of the glassware.  They invariably ask, “How long does it take for you to clean all of this?”  That question always allows me to tell the story of many of the pieces.  That each time I “have to clean” the glassware, it helps me remember where I purchased it, who gave it to me, what we were celebrating when I received it.  It is great to remember.

I’m so pleased that my children and grands have an appreciation of the glass and other collections.  Some friends tell me that their offspring want nothing to do with the items they feel are precious and part of their lives.  Sometimes, I feel as though I’m living in a glass museum.  And, it does take a long time to clean the glass.  But, I love it and the memories it presents.

Be safe and well.

The Cranky Crone

Thoughtful comments are appreciated.7