Heart of America Glass Collectors

Kansas City

Meeting Highlights & Past Programs

October 2009

Dewayne shared his wonder collection of green Block Optic, made by Hocking Glass Company between 1929 and 1933.  Block Optic has remained firmly entrenched as one of the ten most popular patterns to collect though all these years of Depression Era glass collecting.  Dewayne started buying green Depression Glass in the mid-1990s.  He soon realized that he had quite a bit on one particular Art Deco pattern, which turned out to be Block Optic.  Once he had a pattern name and a reference book, he was on his way to what is now an advanced collection!

Dewayne noted that Block Optic remains one of the more affordable patterns for new collectors.  It is a starting pattern for many that then springboards them into second or third sets.  Several other club members acknowledged that they had collected Block Optic "way back when".  The pattern is readily available in green.  It was also made in pink, yellow, and crystal, but Dewayne said that it would be harder to work on a complete set in those colors.  He has a few representative pieces of each, as well as some unusual amber pieces.

Hocking Glass Company redesigned the line several times throughout the four-year run, so there are multiple versions of cups, saucers, sugars, and creamers.  Dewayne has collected all possible variations known to date for each of those items.  The accompanying photos illustrate what a gorgeous set this is when put together!  Dewayne pointed out several highlights of his collection, including the hard-to-find 7 ¼ inch salad bowl, the butter dish with "Butter" stamped in the bottom (for those early ice boxes), the complete tumble-up, the ice tub, the snowflake-centered plate, and the center-handled sandwich server.  The array of tumblers and stems was amazing.  Dewayne showed a footed tumbler with an ebony foot and mentioned that other sizes of stems and footed tumblers received the same treatment (and he left those at home)—again calling to mind the Art Deco era in which this was made.

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Show & Tell

Club members brought the following treasures for Show and Tell!  Here are some highlights from this meeting.  Descriptions of each treasure is found below the pictures using the corresponding number.

 

 

 1. New Martinsville Flame (Squirrel) crystal candleholders.

 

 2. Contemporary hand-painted, artist-signed pottery bowl from Poland. 

  

 3. Westmoreland Peacock Optic (Scales) tricorner bowl in Peach Opalescent.

 

 4. On the left is a Lalique Owl.

     On the right is a Milk glass toothpick with squirrel, manufacturer unknown.

 

 5. On the left is a Cambridge gold band Wildflower 3500 short compote.

     On the right is a Cambridge Wildflower 5-part relish in yellow.

 

 6. On the left is a Cobalt and crystal swan, possibly Duncan Miller or Viking.

     On the right is a Fostoria Victoria footed bowl, using the Paradise (829) blank with a mother-of-pearl wash,

     made only in 1927