A post in which Anna and I have an excellent day

I don't know if it was a combination of Milk and barbecue too late at night or what, but I had horrible nightmares last night. I dreamed that I was car-jacked with a water pistol by a 12-year old girl. She ran back to her Mom's car after squirting water from a water-gun in my partially-open window. Her mother raced off and I gave chase. I eventually cornered them in the apartment complex that I worked at when I was in high school. I confronted the mother, who told me that this was her daughter's birthday, and that she was allowed to do whatever she wanted to on her birthday. When I called 911 to report what happened, she began to hit me, trying to get me to hit her back so that she could claim assault when the police arrived. That was about when I woke up. It was a very unpleasant dream - and the last scene in it was very ugly. I woke up feeling bad and not ready to face the day.

I went to the computer and was contemplating whether or not I should call Anna. I finally decided I would just go over there, and go on without her if she wasn't up or had changed her mind. Then the phone rang. Bless her, it was Anna, telling me she was up and getting ready to go. With a much lighter heart - I ate breakfast, dressed, and headed out the door.

I picked her up and we headed for Duncan, stopping along the way to get coffee, since Russ has kind of made that a tradition now. We got to Barnyard and walked around. Anna loves old stuff too, and bought some cool old records. I found some glass, but it was mostly pieces I had seen before and decided not to buy. That lovely cameo candy dish was still there, and still chipped. I resisted it.

There was actually junk in this box we saw at Barnyard, but I got a big kick out of it. Anna said she had seen many like this one at work.

When we got done there, we decided since we were already out and about we'd just ride down to Anderson to the Jockey Lot. I bought my first piece of Black Amethyst glass today. I have been
wanting some ever since I saw some at the Mint Museum in Charlotte with Lee. I was like "Why don't I own some of this?" I found my vase - the first piece I have ever seen at the flea market to my knowledge. The woman wanted $10 for it. I had no idea what the book value was, but decided it was worth that to me. It is a lovely thing. So I got it.

When I looked it up after I got home, I found out that it is the real thing, and is a piece made by LE Smith Glass Company. Very interesting history.

Lewis E Smith was a chef in Mt. Pleasant, PA. He had developed his own mustard recipe that he wanted to market, but to do that he needed jars. He decided to buy an abandoned glass factory in 1907 to make jars for his mustard.

He got bit by the glass bug, and soon became a household name. His company was famous for making Model T headlights, marketing the first glass mixing bowls, and for inventing
the glass top for percolators, allowing you to actually watch your coffee perk.

The LE Smith glass company began making colored glass about 1926, as did most American glass companies at the time. The quality of his glass was better than true depression glass, so there wasn't as much of it as there is of the really popular freebie stuff. Technically, his glass is Elegant Glassware. It is depression-era, but not Depression Glass, since these pieces are of better quality, and are "finished" (i.e. the bases and seams are ground and polished, etc).

In the late 20's, LE Smith came up with a formula for Amethyst Glass. Glass that was so deep a purple it appeared to be black, but under bright light would show the dark purple color. It was wildly popular, and was heavily collected at the time.

That's good and bad. Good because I could readily find pictures of my vase online, and actually identify the maker. Bad because there are apparently several terms for this glass that are used interchangeably. I found this identified as a "dancing nymphs" "dancing ladies" "snake dance" "veil dance" and even "dancing nudes" pattern, as well as a pattern number 433, which I could find no other information about. Many glass companies at the time identified their patterns only by number. Collectors later assigned many of the names we now use to refer to glass patterns. I found this vase identified as a "trophy vase" and as a "loving cup vase". I found prices that varied from $7.99 to $80. I'm thinking it's probably worth somewhere around $20-$30. I did find a definitive manufacture date of 1928-1932. I'll have to find a specialty book on LE Smith glass to find out the real book value.

Apparently LE Smith wandered away from his glass company to pursue other interests. But the LE Smith Glass Company is still open, and still manufacturing lovely colored glass. It is one of the very few American glass companies that I know of (there's Anchor Hocking, of course, and Fenton) still producing collectible glass.

We also saw a Florentine covered vegetable dish. I kind of had a debate with myself about that one. On the one hand, it was complete with the lid. But it was yellow, and issue #2 (I prefer issue #1 bowls, although the lid is interchangeable), and kind of chipped up. But I could pick it up for about $10, I figured. I thought about it while we walked around over the rest of the flea market, and went back to the table right before we left. The woman that had it was packing up to leave, but got it back out and sold it to me. When we got to the car, I was shocked to see the value on it was $80! Of course that was if it was in mint condition, and this piece has obviously been used, and has several chips. Still, it was a pretty cool buy, I thought.

Florentine #2 covered oval vegetable bowl in yellow by Hazel -Atlas, circa 1932-1935. The color on this piece is actually a true, bright yellow. This picture doesn't capture the color very well, but gives good detail on the pattern.

By this time, we were both tired and hungry, so we decided to head for lunch. I dropped by the house to put my produce away, take off some of my cool weather layers, and show Anna a bit of the glass in my displays.

We then headed out for nachos, since going to the flea market seems to make me want Mexican food for some reason. After lunch at Coronas we went over to the big Goodwill off East North Street, but I didn't score there. I used Anna as an excuse and dropped in the Dollar Tree to buy a set of those Coke glasses I've been in love with for a year and resisting.

We then went down to Southern Antiques off Mauldin Road and closed them down. I love that store, but their prices are pretty high. We didn't get to finish since they close at 5pm on Sundays, so they once again had to run me out of there.

By this time, I was tired, and knew I had played way too long today. I took Anna on home, and chatted with her mom for a bit before I headed home.

I got home to find one of my dancer neighbors laying out in the yard with her gorgeous young boyfriend in his underwear - he is beautiful, needless to say. They were laying out on my side of the yard, so I could see them from the windows in the green room. I looked at him until I felt creepy, and then went on to do some straightening up. I changed the sheets, opened the windows, and did some laundry.

I had intended to get some fish samiches from McDonald's for dinner, since they are on sale right now, and I was way too tired to think about cooking tonight. But I had pulled up Super Size Me on hulu.com to watch today, and finally sat down to watch it while the clothes washed. There are a LOT of facts in there, and although they guy obviously had an agenda, that doesn't change the things that the movie showed. I found it was more objective than Michael Moore, although that isn't saying much. By the time it was over, I was too horrified at the thought of going to McDonald's to go - even though conversely looking at the logo and all that food made me crave it, perversely.

I turned on the Fox Sunday night line-up and ate a big salad and some dal. I got the labels off the new tumblers, washed them, and got them in the cabinet with the glasses. I soaked the new glass in ammonia and got it all cleaned up. I packed up a couple of pieces to take to show Anna's parents tomorrow night, since I'm having dinner with them. Then I hit the sack. Tomorrow's the beginning of another week.