A post in which I, like Douglas MacArthur, return to the Barnyard

I slept badly again last night, but got enough. I had planned this morning out so I wouldn't have to rush around, but I wanted to go by the Barnyard flea market in Duncan. I had some coffee and relaxed a minute, then made some breakkie. I did throw some clothes in a bag, but since I had done most of the stuff around the house last night, it was an easy prep this morning.

When I got to the flea market I started looking for the compote, but I was working from back to front to see what was there since I was there to enjoy myself too. I found one man that had a Dogwood plate and a Mayfair cereal bowl. He sold me the pair for $6. I found out when I looked them up that the plate alone was worth $6. The cereal bowl is apparently an unusual piece of Mayfair - book value on it is $28!! That's a deal! He told me he had a cookie jar as well, and I waited around a while for him to dig through his stuff, but it ended up he didn't have it with him.

Mayfair "Open Rose" 5" cereal bowl in pink by Hocking Glass Company, circa 1931-1937

Dogwood 8" luncheon plate in pink by MacBeth-Evans Glass Company, circa 1929-1932

I've been working this week to identify the compote I found last week, with little success. English Hobnail is apparently a difficult pattern to collect. There were three releases of the pattern during the Depression era, and a limited re-release of some pieces in the 70's. There were three colors of green, two colors of pink, and four different bases in this pattern (square, octagonal, round, and limited hexagonal) in the Depression-era issues. Additionally, it is very similar to a pattern called Miss America. Miss America was heavily reproduced in China, and it would be easy for a novice collector to mistake a real piece of EH for a reproduced piece of MA, since the EH pieces are smoother in pattern than MA. Also, there were so many pieces of EH issued that I doubt there is a complete listing in my glass book.

Initially, I was pretty sure this was the 6" honey compote. But when I found it today and measured it, it measured exactly 7 1/2". There is no 7 1/2" piece listed in the book for English Hobnail. I also had to break two rules for buying glass at a good price. I had to ask the guy if he still had it, which tipped him off that I had come back looking for the piece; and I had to measure it in front of him, showing him that I knew what I was doing. I decided that it had to be the 8" bowl, which was valued at $22. He had it priced at $20. Not a great price, especially when I wasn't sure what it was. There is an 8" compote listed for the pattern, but it's an "ivy ball" and I knew from finding pics of it online that it is actually ball shaped. Ivy apparently looked good draped down the side of it when used as a planter, hence the name. After wandering off to check the book again, and decide whether or not I was going to buy it, he sold it to me for $17. (PS - the guy selling it was HOT!) Honestly, if I didn't trust my eye, I wouldn't have bought it. But the symmetry was right, and the glass was clean and "bright" (not pebbled or clouded), which really told me it was most likely not a reproduction Chinese piece. At worst, it is a later edition actually from Westmoreland. But the book told me that Westmoreland differentiated the colors on the 70's pieces, and this piece looked like true Depression Green to me.

Help! It's the attack of the 50-foot compote! English Hobnail 8" footed bowl in green by Westmoreland Glass Company, circa 1917-1940 (approximately, for Depression-era colors), with Clayton in the background

Well I went ahead and bought it. After years of collecting, I know it's better to buy and get rid of a wrong piece than to pass up a good piece and regret it later. After reviewing the book again, I realized that a) it couldn't be the 8" bowl, because that bowl wasn't listed as "footed", meaning there was no stand under it; and b) this bowl could appear as a compote, because the pattern had raised feet on all the "footed" pieces, even the cream and sugar. After realizing that, I am reasonably sure this is the 8" footed bowl listed at $60! This piece wouldn't be worth quite as much, as there is a small chip on the underside of the foot (which I find just doesn't bother me a bit - it doesn't affect the looks of the piece at all. I'm amazed that all those little points around the top are still perfect.) I'll have to consult a specialist book on Westmoreland Glass to be sure, however. It could be one of the limited production re-issues from the 70's. Gene Florence is always careful to say in his books that his measurements may not be exact on all pieces, but I have never known him to be off by a half an inch. Still, if this is what I think it is, that was a major deal on a really nice piece. I'm pretty much 3/4 in love with it already.

I have also decided to get a black light. A lot of Depression Green pieces fluoresce under black light, but not all of them. If this piece did glow, that would prove definitively that it is an old piece, but because of the three colors of green, it failing to glow would not be definitive. I'm thinking about buying a new display case at this point. At the friendly antique guy's place, one of the vendors has a case lit by black light that is filled with Depression-era green pieces. It makes a pretty stunning display. I'm picturing something like that, only with a classy display case, in my green room. It would be either Fabulous, or tragically, truly tacky...