Review Of Events
8th Anniversary Celebration Weekend
July 15 & 16, 2000

The Delaware Valley Chapter-PCA began its 8TH Anniversary Celebration Weekend with a “double header” Summer Meeting on July 15, 2000 at Williamson Restaurant, 500 Blair Mill Road, Horsham, PA, our usual venue. Although a record number of 58 had signed up, a serious rainstorm and flooding situation the night before down at the Jersey Shore cancelled the appearance of most of the Elizabeth Wiest Devlin group from Sea Isle City; thus, 50 were in attendance.

The meeting officially began at 10 AM with a Paperweight Fair featuring hundreds of mostly contemporary weights from Guest Dealer/Speaker Gary W. McClanahan (as usual along with his wife Marge and his mother Mabel), three members’ tables showing weights and books from Stan Kruger, Ken Brown, Frank Gardner, Diane Atkerson and Andy Dohan, several tables of FYI literature, 17 Today’s Raffle Prizes, other Chapter Newsletters, selections from the Delaware Valley Paperweight Lending Library, free-for-the-taking glass-related and recreational brochures, two Silent Auction items and the two volume Chapter Memories Photo Album. Andy Dohan had available for sale an Errata and Supplements booklet to his now-classic book, The Dictionary of Paperweight Signature Canes, Identification and Dating. Coffee, tea and Danish were in place as members gathered and socialized from 10 to 11 AM.

The Morning Program, at 11 AM, was a slide talk by Gary McClanahan, wearing his second hat as Guest Speaker, as he presented his hands-on lecture/demonstration entitled “Perthshire: The Hollow Weights.” Gary showed both slides and actual weights during his talk and had a few hollow weights for sale, as well. He noted that the only makers of hollow weights are Zimmerman Art Glass in Indiana and Perthshire in Scotland. Also, in a hollow weight, the interior decoration or figure does not have to be compatible with the glass forming the globe of the weight. However, hollow pieces tend to be fragile and difficult to produce. In response to a question from the audience, Gary described the Perthshire system of Annual Collections. Usually there are seven very limited editions designated by the year and a letter, such as, 1994 A, 1994 B…through 1994 G. As one progresses through the alphabet, the designs become more complex and the price rises. Perthshire’s mid-year issues are designated by number, not letter. The factory also issues Christmas weights annually, special occasion pieces and a general line of limited edition mid-year and annual weights

At 1 PM, after a delicious lunch, President Kruger called the meeting to order for a brief business session. He read a letter from Harvey and Doris Robinson thanking the membership for a warm and friendly Spring Meeting (4/1/00) and looking forward to their appearance as Guest Dealers/Speakers at the Fall Elections meeting (10/14/00). He recognized those who had traveled some distance to attend: Richard Jacobs from Montclair, NJ, Elizabeth W. Devlin from Sea Isle City, NJ, Fred Ashley from Columbus, Ohio, Bonnie and Gary Geiger from outside Pittsburgh, PA, Ed Poore from Cape Cod and, of course, the three McClanahans from Fountain Valley, CA. He announced that Audrey Smit, George Kamm’s former partner in Glass Accents, Ephrata, PA, has Jim Donofrio prototype weights at much reduced prices. Stan also recognized the enormous debt owed by this Chapter and the entire paperweight collecting community to Larry Selman, for prize materials, promotional literature and general support.

For the second straight meeting, President Kruger requested the membership’s cooperation in mailing in their luncheon reservations in a more timely fashion. It has even been suggested that a penalty be added to late reservations. In future, PLEASE GET YOUR MONEY AND RESERVATIONS TO THE TREASURER AT LEAST ONE WEEK BEFORE THE SCHEDULED MEETING!

This meeting being the opening event in the Chapter’s 8th Anniversary Celebration Weekend, maps were available showing the route to member Don Formigli’s home in Levittown, PA, for today’s Garden Party/Catered Cookout, immediately following the meeting, and to the Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ, for the Stankard tour on Sunday, July 16.

Next, the President introduced our Guest Speaker for the afternoon, glass artist Edward W. Poore, proprietor of The Crystal Workshop, specializing in antique glass repair and restoration, 794 Sandwich Road, P.O. Box 475, Sagamore, MA 02561; Phone 508-888-1621, Email crystalw@capecod.net. Ed has thirty years experience in the field of glass restoration and is, quite simply, the best in the business, according to the President. Until recently, his son James worked with him; but not long ago James left so Ed now works alone. (By the way, Ed is a newlywed.) Ed presented a truly fabulous and breathtaking slide show, with narration, on his antique glass repair and restoration, emphasizing his work with paperweights, and demonstrating what can be done to restore damaged antique or modern weights or “Grandma’s” cut glass vase. The most amazing repair involved laminating a chunk of antique paperweight glass to another antique weight, then reforming the globular shape into the correct size and profile of that particular, and now more normal appearing, antique weight. His work is truly amazing. With a brief Question and Answer period, Ed’s presentation lasted until about 2:45 PM.

Thereafter, a session of Stump the Dummies (Ken Brown, Andy Dohan and Gary McClanahan) ensued. About two dozen weights were presented by the membership for analysis. Most they knew but several weights remained in the “mystery” category.

At about 3:30 PM, the major portion of the group left Williamson’s for the Garden Party at Don Formigli’s home, a 30 minute drive away. Cleaning and packing up took the Krugers and the McClanahans longer, but everyone was at the Levittown site of the outdoor affair by 4:30 PM. Amazement reigned here, too, due to the four full size organs in the house, Don’s great paperweight collection, and especially, the magnificent gardens surrounding the dwelling. Pat Ackerman was overheard to remark that she could not believe she was standing in Levittown!!! The group enjoyed the organ playing by the caterer, the weight collection, the floral displays, the cookout and the fellowship engendered by this social occasion. A GREAT deal of credit must go to Don Formigli for volunteering his home, securing and paying the caterer in advance of the function, setting up the menu, cleaning the house and grounds by himself, scrounging chairs and tables from a local church, physically moving a great deal of party equipment, and, of course, cleaning up afterwards. Thank you, Don!

The first day of the Celebration Weekend ended at about 7:30 PM, and it had been a thoroughly enjoyable one. The next day, Sunday, July 16, about half the group journeyed to the Jersey Shore, meeting soon after 11 AM at the Noyes Museum, off Route 9, on Lily Lake Road in Oceanville, NJ, for a guided tour of “Recreating Flowers: The Glass Wonders of Paul J. Stankard,” a major retrospective of the work of the person generally considered the world’s premier paperweight artist. The guide was the “master” himself, Paul Stankard, accompanied by his wife, Pat. From 11:30 to 12:30, Paul presented a new slide presentation of his history and work with glass, in the small library area behind one of the galleries. Some had viewed the exhibit before Paul’s slide talk but at 12:30, the entire group trooped into the gallery to hear Paul commenting on the artistic genesis behind many of the 70 works, dating from the early 1970’s up to a $45,000 Assemblage dated 1999. Incredibly, the entire retrospective was only one-fourth the Stankard collection of one man, Dr. Michael Diorio, a Vineland, NJ dentist, a contemporary and colleague of Paul’s. Unfortunately, Dr. Diorio was unable to attend the group tour because, as we learned later, he was playing piano during the Marriott Seaview’s Sunday brunch, where a lucky dozen paperweight collectors ended up after the tour ended at 1:15 PM.

Our next meeting, for bi-annual Elections, will be the Fall Meeting, on October 14, 2000, at Williamson’s Restaurant.

Respectfully submitted,