Columns

Frances Ware, Beautiful Glass, Interesting Story

Presidents’ Day is celebrated on Monday, Feb. 21, this year and honors all those who served as United States presidents over the years. So, in honor of Presidents’ Day, I want to feature the beautiful Frances Ware glass in my column today. Since it’s one of my favorite examples of Victorian glass, I’ve written about it before and recall the fascination I developed with this fancy glass and the story behind it. Made in the 1880s by Wheeling’s own famous glass manufacturer Hobbs, Brockunier, Frances Ware is highly collectible and beautiful to display. A clear or frosted ...

A Savory Sweet Day

Sitting next to my favorite chair in the family room is a good-sized canvas tote filled with cookbooks. When I feel the urge for something interesting for dinner or maybe a new idea for a dessert, I grab several cookbooks and begin to read. I have a sizable collection of cookbooks. Many were purchased, given to me as gifts or inherited from family members. Some of the books are those paperback versions filled with recipes from an assortment of churches, fire departments and other entities that were compiled and sold as fundraisers. And I still have several of the paper pages ...

Collectors Love Vintage Valentine’s Day Trinkets

Do you have a favorite Valentine decoration or trinket that you display each year? Of course, I do — actually I have several. One is a heart shaped glass candy dish made by LE Smith Co., one of the last molded glass companies in the country founded in nearby Jeannette, Pa. This lovely candy dish is a delight to bring out and fill with chocolates each February. The ruby glass makes for a dramatic statement and of course, ruby glass has long been collected by fans of Victorian and art glass. This dish is classified as a nappy in antique glassware terminology, which means that it’s ...

Organization Is The Key

I should have taken his advice years before this. A very conscientious physician, after evaluating a pain in my back, picked up my purse and immediately put it back down. Well, there’s part of your problem, he said. You are only aggravating your bulging disc by carrying that heavy bag around. And he was right. I carried a large handbag at the time. Not only did it contain a wallet (by no means filled with cash), there also was an assortment of makeup, handkerchiefs, an envelope filled with store coupons, hand sanitizer, pens, pencils, notebooks, a cell phone and my camera I was ...

Drama of Silhouettes Captivates Collectors

Paper-cut silhouettes have always captivated me. The idea that an artist can create an image of a person or even a complete scene, simply by cutting paper is amazing. Plus, the simple elegance of a black silhouette pasted on white paper is dramatic and makes for great art. That must be why the antique paper-cut silhouettes remain popular with collectors. Even new antique fans are drawn to these images that were first referred to as “shadows.” Often referred to now by the Pennsylvania Dutch or German term of scherenschnitte, paper cutting is an art that requires sharp blades and a ...

Keep Looking Up

Something woke me from a sound sleep. It was not a noise as you might expect at 2:45 a.m. Rather, it was a bright light streaming through the partially opened window blinds in the bedroom. I knew instantly what it was. The moon was in a super mood in that early hour of the day — or night — however you look at a.m. times. Earlier I had stood outside and noticed the full moon as it came bounding over the horizon at dark with a hoot owl announcing its arrival. Seeing it now in all of its splendor, I could not help but smile. How could I be angry at being awakened by something so ...