A 1770-1815 American green-aqua cream jug with 24 ribs sold for $38,500 (includes buyer's premium) at the conclusion of Glass International's absentee auction that closed on June 5 (originally scheduled to close on May 28). According to the Medford Lakes, New Jersey, auction firm, that price is the highest ever paid at public auction for a blown glass creamer.
The buyer was folk art collector Anthony Picadio of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, underbid by a New Jersey collector of American decoys and early New Jersey glassware.
Other highlights from the sale included a rare pillar-molded pitcher that sold for $12,650; a rare olive green handled lamp with crimped foot, $11,550; and a Stiegel Diamond and Daisy flask, $7425.
In other news, Glass International recently acquired a 1740-50 Wistar vase that had been handed down through the Wistar family. Along with the vase, the firm acquired a rare ledger compiled by Caroline Pennock (widow of Casper Wistar Pennock, Casper Wistar's great-grandson) in 1877, documenting glass and ceramics that had been in the family as early as 1750.
The Wistar vase, however, is one of only four pieces out of several hundred mentioned in the ledger that were made at the factory of Caspar Wistar. It is referred to in the ledger as a "Bulb glass," for the growing of tulips and hyacinths.
There is a very old note on the base of the vase that reads "Made by Caspar Wistars Glass works in about the year 1730." The vase has a crimped "table ring" with crosshatch decoration, often seen on Wistar sugar bowl finials and decorated bottles. The vase was purchased in early May by Anthony P. Picadio for $35,000 in a private sale. He also acquired the ledger.
John Decaro, owner of Glass International, noted that interest in 18th-century American blown glass has been stimulated by information obtained at the former site of Wistarburgh, the glasshouse in Alloway, New Jersey, owned by the Wistar family from 1739 to 1782. Fragments and other information obtained in these excavations have made attributions more reliable. Additional excavations have recently been made at the Manheim, Pennsylvania, site of Henry William Stiegel.
For more information, contact Glass International at (609) 714-2595 or visit the Web site (www.glassinternational.com).
© 2004 by Maine Antique Digest