What an AMAZING day!!

Here is a Central #412 Morgan "Fairy Etch" plate.

One of the most exciting things that can happen to a collector happened to me today. I found a treasure. Justin and I went up to Barnyard flea market in Duncan today, just to goof around, and to kind of celebrate his last Saturday off work before his schedule changes. Plus, I was a little worried about having hurt his feelings by teasing him about his weird love of useless obscure kitch. It was a pretty ordinary day at Barnyard. I was hoping that a pink Queen Mary sugar bowl I saw a week or so ago would still be there, because there was a good price on it, but it was gone. I suspect that another of the dealers bought it, because I saw one in her booth today – for twice the price. She is not a very good seller. She has all her depression glass marked as Vaseline glass, and priced about twice what it’s worth. But we had a good time looking at all the stuff, and I picked up a few things, including a good deal on some Emerald Dry Roasted Walnuts, to which I am addicted.

Once we left there we weren’t quite ready to go home, so Justin suggested we do some antiquing at some places he knows up there. Now I hardly ever go to antique stores anymore, because I don’t really need anything, and because I am spoiled for flea market prices. If I can’t buy glass at a good price, I generally don’t buy it – and usually the antique stores have things marked every penny they’re worth, if not more. Case in point – the first store we went in had a really good inventory, but the prices were outrageous. One dealer had a ‘Holiday’ pitcher (Buttons and Bows is the slang name) marked at $150.00 – and it’s not even depression-era! It’s collectable glassware of the 40’s and 50’s. I checked the price on it later, and book retail was $24. Usually if you see depression glass priced really high, it is because a dealer doesn’t know much about glass, they just know they have a piece of depression glass, and that it’s supposed to be valuable, but this dealer had a big enough stock to obviously know what they were doing. I can only conclude they had enough stupid Yankee tourists walk-in trade through there to sell stuff, since the store had highway frontage. Still, they did have a good inventory, and it is nice to go and look. There were several pieces there I had never seen in real life, including the depression pattern ‘Cupid’, which was really beautiful, if totally out of my price range. As long as I have been collecting now, a lot of times it’s like bird watching. I can go look at pieces I haven’t seen before and be satisfied, not have a burning desire to have to own them.

After that we stopped for lunch, since I was dying for Mexican, and hungry. We then wandered in to Inman to another store that Justin knew. They had some pretty things too. As we were walking through, Justin found a stack of plates, and asked me what they were. Well they were my kind of thing – a stack of 5 glass luncheon plates in pink, with the familiar swag and cameo borders on them, but I had never seen the pattern before – even in a book. Now it’s not that unusual for me to not be able to call every pattern from memory. A lot of the geometric patterns are very similar, and tend to run together in my mind. But this was an etched picture pattern. Inside the cameo was a reclining fairy, turned ¾ away. You had a good view of the wings. I thought they might be an old premium for White Rock Soda or Fairy Soap. They were $25 for the set, which is more than I usually pay for stuff like that, plus I usually only buy serving pieces when I buy loose pieces. I have a whole matching set of Florentine #1 and #2 that I use to entertain. But I was intrigued. They were really pretty, and I knew the color was right, and that they were old. If they weren’t Depression glass, they were at least depression era. I figured at the least, I would have a pretty dessert set. So I bought them.

Justin and I then watched a pretty strange movie called MirrorMask, which was kind of like a French existentialist version of Labyrinth, with much concertina music and a dreary black and white color scheme, since the story was supposed to unfold in a series of pen and ink drawings ala Through the Looking Glass. It was an interesting movie though, and very artsy.

When I got home I looked the plates up. The reason I didn’t recognize the pattern was because they are a rare pattern, and not listed in the regular Depression glass books. I had found a set of Central Glass Etch #412 "Morgan Fairy" plates. There was a set on Ebay for sale for $45 each. WOW. Now Ebay pricing is notoriously unreliable, and my plates aren’t in perfect shape. They have a flea bite on them here and there, and they have fork and knife marks on them. That doesn’t bother me, because I like things that have been used and enjoyed. But I would estimate the set I paid $25 for is worth, at least $100-125. I was SO STOKED. This is the biggest find I have ever made. I was so glad I trusted my eye and bought them. And they are really pretty. I’m thinking about ordering a glass polishing kit Justin found on line to try to take some of the scratches off of them. But I will be using them. They are just too pretty not to use.