Review Of Events
Winter Meeting
February 3, 2001

The Winter Meeting of the Delaware Valley Chapter-PCA took place at Williamson Restaurant, 500 Blair Mill Road, Horsham, PA, our usual venue, on Saturday, February 3, 2001, beginning at 10 AM. During the first hour, attendees scanned displays of paperweights from Fairhaven, MA dealer William Pitt, an exhibit of antique glass bottles, offerings of “for sale” weights and books by various members, displays of paperweights made by members Beverly Schindler and Ken Brown, other PCA chapter newsletters and a large number of antiques-oriented newspapers containing lead articles on glass art. As has become customary, coffee, tea and Danish were available during the morning hours.

At 11 AM, Vice President Lee Kvalnes called the meeting to order and introduced members Sandy and Martin Mikelberg for their presentation “How to Identify and Date Antique Bottles.” Sandy started by showing the first bottle they had collected, almost 30 years before, a $2 inkwell of “sick” glass, i.e., glass that had been in the ground too long and was beginning to decompose. Sandy outlined the history of glass in the United States, starting with the first major glass house, Caspar Wistar’s in New Jersey in the early 1700’s. One by one, she showed their display of antique bottles, dating from 1830 to about 1900. She told how to identify a bottle as antique:1) Look at the bottom: an uneven bottom thickness indicates handblown; 2) Look for seam lines: if blown into a mold, there are none; 3) Look for whittle marks: pouring glass into a cold metal mold creates an uneven surface as the glass shrinks; 4) Look for labels: labeled bottles are older than embossed ones. In 1890, Michael J. Owens (remember Libbey-Owens?) invented an automatic bottle maker which was patented in 1903. By 1920, almost all bottles were machine made. Sandy went on to show and describe the different types of bottle lips that might be found: sheared (cut by scissors), ground, blob top and flared. Next, she identified different closures: cork, to accommodate uneven tops; lightning stopper, which has a glass top, clamp and gasket; Hutchinson, two rubber discs and a metal hook; blob top, cork with baling wire over it; and cod bottle, a marble inside the bottle’s neck created the seal when the bottle was turned upside down and the marble pressed against a gasket. Cod bottles mostly came from England and were made in many colors. Most cods were broken open by young boys to get the marble out. Sandy advised what bottles NOT to buy: no chipped or cracked ones, none “wet” or “oily” to the touch, since some dealers put Dexter’s on the surface to improve the look of “sick” glass. It is OK to buy repaired items, rebuilt with resin, as long as they are advertised as such. Care instructions include: Windex or wash in soapy water or dish detergent. Use sand or rice shaken in the bottle to dislodge dirt. DON’TS include: don’t hit the bottle against the faucet and don’t put a hot bottle in cold water. Remarkable fact: after stamps and coins, bottles are the third most collected item. Bottles can be typed by their contents: 1) Fruit jars: food wasn’t preserved; the jars just kept dirt out. Oilcloth, wax or corn cobs were used as sealers. Eventually, Mason jars with threaded tops and zinc lids were developed in the 1850’s. 2) Mineral water and soda bottles: in 1894, the shape of the Coca-Cola bottle was derived from the shape of the cola nut. 3) Flasks: for whiskey, including commemoratives and historical events. 4) Barber bottles: held bay rum, witch hazel, skin bracer and tiger’s rub. Some were painted by Mary Gregory and are valuable today. 5) Bitters bottles: to evade the liquor tax and be identified as medicine, herbs and spices were placed in alcohol. 6) Poison: bottles containing poison were required to have a quilted or pebbled surface (so that they could be identified by the blind) and to be made of colored glass (until 1930 when the American Medical Association declared that colored glass was too attractive to children). 7) Gin jars: tapered for easy removal from molds. 8) Medicine bottles: in those days, the sick cured themselves with alcohol, such as Lydia Pinkham’s which had narcotic additives. 9) Ink: ink was expensive. Early inkwells were pottery; later in the 1800’s, they were made of glass. Examples shown were Carter’s Ink, teakettle shapes, schoolhouse shapes and Ma and Pa Kettle shapes. Finally, Sandy showed two similar brown bottles…one was a fake and one was an antique Booz bottle worth several thousand dollars.

The question and answer period following Sandy’s presentation was lively and long. The first question was about stained or “sick” glass interiors that did not result from burial. Sandy said it was produced by something acid in the bottle or from lime deposits. Also, clear glass will turn purple if exposed long enough to bright sunlight, and some glass will crizzle. Andy Dohan asked about applied lips where the collar was added to hot glass. Question: How long does to take to make glass “sick”? Answer: It depends on many variables but perhaps 50 years. Answering a question about the cleaning of glass bottles, Sandy added that BB’s or vinegar can be used on the inside but not Dexter’s. How to tell a new Mason jar from an antique one was difficult to answer; one would need to know whether the new jars were copies of old ones or just made for current use. Sandy suggested collecting one of every bottle type and putting them away for 20 years. At the end of two decades, you would have a substantial fortune in antique bottles. She also mentioned the dangers of digging for bottles--- a disease that can kill in hours can be caught by digging in areas where long-dead rodents are buried. Also, digging around old privies, where bottle shards were often thrown, can be hazardous and necessitates poking the ground with long sticks. Always hunt for old bottles with a buddy and wear protective clothing. As she ended, Sandy received appreciative applause for her interesting and informative presentation.

At noon, a delicious luncheon, with fish or chicken entrée, was served. At 1:10 PM, President Kruger called the meeting to order, introducing newcomers Craig and Cindy Fry, Judy and Glenn Scott and Ginny Franke. He spoke of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL, now a suburb of Orlando, which has the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world. Beverly Schindler called attention to the six paperweights she had made last November at William Manson’s studio in Scotland. President Stan showed the Cambridge (England) Paperweight Circle newsletter, with all color and good articles and conceded that DVC’s was no longer the best newsletter of any PCA chapter. He noted that PCA’s membership has dropped precipitately recently and urged members to join the international group. He said no local paperweight exhibit was known to be scheduled during the chapter’s ninth anniversary weekend this July and Len Kornit suggested a group exhibit by DVC members. Also needed was a morning presentation for that Summer Meeting---any volunteers? Sotheby’s has announced staff cuts after being fined $256 million for conspiring with Christie’s to fix commission and buyer’s premium fees---will that affect their paperweight expert? Our newest member, Nancy Alfano, of Portia Gallery, Chicago, is curator of Sotheby’s paperweight auction on March 7 and an associate dealer with Sotheby’s. President Stan announced a change of venue for the meeting on October 27, 2001. It will start at Wheaton Village, instead of at the Vineland, NJ Ramada Inn. The Silent Auction winners were announced: Pat Ackerman won the Jokelson-Ingold reference book “Paperweights of the 19th and 20th Centuries”; Jim Lefever won The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Caithness Paperweights by Colin Terris; and Stan and Toby K. won the Pairpoint milkglass swan. If planning to attend the PCA Convention in Corning, NY this May 16-19, reservations must be in to PCA by April 1. A show of hands found that 14 members would attend Convention. Raffle prize winners were (among others): Rosemary Kozak (twice), Don Formigli, Georgette Most, Cindy Fry (who won three times), Toby Kruger, Henry Loftus, Bill Payne, Jim lefever, Pat Ackerman, Sara Dierolf and John Zecca, reluctantly accepting the computer program “Virus Scan.”

At 1:35 PM, Mr. Kruger introduced the main program “The History, Personnel and Products of the Dorflinger Glass Works of White Mills, PA” and its presenters, Henry J. Loftus, Curator of the Dorflinger Glass Museum, and DVPCA member and noted Dorflinger collector, Frank Gardner. To begin, Mr. Loftus passed around two glassmaking tools called “pucellas” or “jacks” that were used at White Mills. He emphasized that the main exhibit at the Museum was brilliant cut glass, for which Dorflinger was internationally known. In 1995, he and Frank collaborated on photographing Dorflinger weights for an article later published. At this point, Mr. Loftus began a slide presentation. The first slide showed a partially hollow glass apple in the Museum’s collection; could anyone ID it? Suggestions included Saint Louis, Wheeling and Charles Schneider. Next, Mr. Loftus showed slides of the factory. Christian Dorflinger was born in Alsace, France on March 16, 1828, emigrated to the U.S. in 1846 and opened a factory, first in Brooklyn, NY and then in White Mills, PA, after moving there for his health in 1863. In 1865, the factory began making glass and soon after began cutting glass. A group of French glass workers, including Francois and Nicolas Lutz, was brought over in 1866 to do the glass cutting. All these Frenchmen were cousins by intermarriage. Some cut glass decanters in the Museum’s collection have Lutz rose inclusions in their stoppers. Although there has been some debate about whether Nicolas Lutz was ever at Dorflinger, Mr. Loftus’s research into local tax records has proved that, indeed, he was.

Dorflinger paperweights, which were never a production item as none appear in their catalogs, may be divided into three time periods: Lutz, 1866-c. 1870; Tobias Hagburg, by c.1905; after 1910, when weights with large lettering were made. The latter were low, flat and very large, some up to six or seven inches in width, and included names, dates and place (usually White Mills, PA). Some made by Johnny Johnson were of higher quality than the Hagburg inkwell weights. Johnson later worked for Steuben. According to Mr. Loftus, Dorflinger never signed its glass; in later years, John Dorflinger, a nephew, would ID pieces as Dorflinger products, placing a paper label or acid stamp on them. The Lutz rose is in every stopper made from the first period---a bit of red glass in the center surrounded by white petals, the outer petals coated with green, used as the center of a flower. Both Francois and Nicolas Lutz relocated to New England around 1870, Francois working briefly at NEGC, until his death in 1872, and Nicolas working at Sandwich until it closed in 1888. Since Dorflinger never made weights as a production item, they are scarce; a collection of five is significant. The Museum only has ten. During the first time period above, Dorflinger workers were French; by 1880, they were Swedish. According to Mr. Loftus, the quality of Dorflinger weights varies from good to horrible, possibly because the poorer ones were made by apprentices in off-hours. Hagburg weights and inkwells are identified by a floating disc of multi-colored glass in the bottom of the piece. Weight colors are most often green or red but yellow, pink, cobalt blue and light blue have been found. The color overlays a white ground with bits of broken glass chips on top, pushed down by the pucella. Hagburg did not push the pucella down far enough to disturb the floating disc on the bottom, but Johnson pushed clear through the disc. Some weights of the most recent, third, period are of poor quality. Some of the mica or foil letters are backwards, due either to illiteracy or to the difficulty of laying out the letters accurately backwards so that they would be picked up facing forward. Weight bottoms range from highly polished to fire polished to ground flat to just crudely broken off. They may be flat or concave. Some are quartered in two colors; then the pucella is pressed in an X shape across the edges to indent. Red, green and white were common. J. A. Larson (the father), Ivan and Emil Larson worked there. Emil made weights with controlled bubbles. Up to 1920, Ernst W. von Dohln made good quality letter weights. None are dated after 1916 but may have been made up to the end of factory production. Christian Dorflinger died in 1915, but the family, having grown up in the business, carried on until the firm closed down in 1921. Mr. Loftus’s assessment was that Dorflinger made very good crystal, probably the best in the world at the time, but their weights were not up to par. He noted that a Dorflinger cut glass goblet would sell for $6, $8 if flashed, at a time when glassworkers were paid $2 a week. He concluded by pointing out the eight item Dorflinger weight collection on display from Frank Gardner.

After appreciative applause for Henry Loftus and Frank Gardner, President Kruger announced that the next DVPCA meeting would take place at Williamson’s on April 28, 2001. The formal meeting closed at 3 PM, with the Paperweight Fair continuing until the room cleared an hour or so later.

Respectfully submitted,