I suspect I'm being hosed, when actually I am not.

Cameo 7 1/2" footed three-part relish in green by Hocking Glass Company, circa 1930-1934

Oyster and Pearl candle holders in pink by Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, circa 1938-1940

I went to the flea market today. (I'm only 7 gifts away from being done, OK? And one of those I'm bidding on on Ebay.) I was up at 5am this morning, and after a buddy bailed on me I just had some breakfast and tried to sleep a bit longer. I was up until midnight last night; and I know I'll be up late tonight. Anyway, when I woke up it was about 10. Although I was sure my rival collectors had cleaned out all the glass by now, I needed some sea salt, and had seen some at the gourmet food lady's stall. That was my rationale for going anyway. She doesn't work on Sunday. But since I was there, you just know I'm going to do the stroll and see what's on offer.

I saw a couple of things I figured were probably rejects. A big crystal scalloped-edge Diana bowl, in excellent shape, but clear. Yet another Glasbake glass bundt pan (I would really love to know what everyone made in those. I see one about every other time I go now.) But then I stumbled on to a table with a good bit of glass on it. My attention was immediately drawn to a Cameo green divided relish. It had some chips out of it though. She also had the green cream and sugar to match, and at a good price. There were four geen Georgian Lovebird berry bowls (a pattern I am very fond of), and a bunch of pink, much of which I couldn't identify. There were four pink Homespun berry bowls, but I didn't like that pattern any better in person than I have in the book. Plus they were $6 each (I later found the book on them was $15, but I couldn't love them even at half price). I didn't have enough money to buy it all. I decided that the Cameo relish was calling to me. I know one of the reasons is that I'm still coveting Justin's Poinsettia divided relish, sin though that is. I thought $15 for a piece with several (small) chips in it was probably too high, but got it anyway. Book value on it turned out to be $28, so half price is pretty fair for a damaged piece, I thought. The chips are out of the top of the rim (which is slightly convex) so they don't damage the silhouette of the piece, and you have to look pretty closely to see them. Plus it is just a glorious baroque piece with lots of scrolls and fal-de-rals and the like. The kind of thing I would have had a fit to find when I was first collecting (and which still makes my heart give a little ke-boomky). I also bought two Oyster and Pearl pink candlesticks. They mainly caught my attention because of the way they were displayed. Since the bases of them are so big, they had them balanced on the candle part, like oddly small-footed dessert dishes. I found that very amusing. She wanted $5 each for them, which I thought was probably all the money and more, since that isn't an expensive pattern, but book on the set turned out to be $25, so I got a pretty good deal there.

When I got to the gourmet food lady, she was out of salt, the reason I had gone in the first place. But I bought some vanilla caramel tea. If I leave the flea market with any money, I just feel I haven't done my part to stimulate the economy. So for a late-arriving day, it was a good flea market day.

I'm sorry Robert, I know that was an exceptionally glassy post, but Justin and I like those ;)