Review Of Events
Spring Meeting
April 28, 2001

The Spring Meeting of the Delaware Valley Chapter-PCA took place at Williamson Restaurant, 500 Blair Mill Road, Horsham, PA, our usual venue, on Saturday, April 28, 2001, beginning at 10 AM. For the first hour, members scanned displays of paperweights for sale from Needham, MA dealers Harvey and Doris Robinson, an exhibit of antique and contemporary marbles from Diane Atkerson, three tables of weights, books and glass objects brought in by Chapter members, the Chapter Memories Photo Albums, a selection of other Chapter Newsletters and For Sale Chapter T-shirts. Coffee, tea and Danish were available during this time.

At 11 AM, Vice President Lee Kvalnes called the meeting to order and introduced the Morning Program speaker, loyal DVPCA member and Chapter Candid Photographer Diane Atkerson and her topic “Marbles: Miniature Paperweights?” Most antique marbles are from Germany where they were made up until World War II and where cane fragments and marbles can still be unearthed. Antique marble types include sulphides, swirls, coreless, gooseberry, “naked,” Indians (dark glass with colors on the outside), clambroth, Lutz (named after Nicholas Lutz although he had nothing to do with them), peppermint (red, white and blue stripes; if there is mica in the stripes, the marble is rare and expensive) and Bennington (made in Germany not Vermont). Ancient stone game balls and ceramic carpet balls are other related categories, as well as china marbles (made of porcelain), inexpensive clay marbles made in Germany and Ohio, crockery, agate (aggies) and other semi-precious stones. Hint: you can tell the real ones by their facets as they were hand-made. During the Transition Period in America (from 1880 on), marbles were made half by machine and then finished by hand, which was the first step toward all-machine-made marbles. There are a great variety of pontils, difficult to distinguish. One team of men could make 10,000 marbles in 10 hours. The M.F. Christiansen Company was one of the first, continuing until WW I. The Akro Agate Company, first formed in 1911 in Ohio, then relocated to Clarksburg, WV, developed an automatic cutoff machine, thus producing totally machine made marbles. Original boxes from this company have great value. Akro Agate also developed corkscrew designs, oxblood and brick marbles, the latter named for their red color. Master Marble Company was formed in 1930 by four former employees of Akro Agate and made major inroads into Akro’s market. Later all these companies went out of business, Master in 1941, Akro Agate in 1951. Peltier Glass Company is one of the oldest surviving manufacturers of marbles in the US and survived longer because they diversified into other product lines. In the 1920’s they made marbles with thin lines, picture or comic marbles (for which they are most well-known) of 12 characters, all very desirable, moss agate, Champion Junior and sunset marbles, so called because they resemble sunsets. The Christian Agate Company began in 1925 in Akron, Ohio and went under in 1933. Their flame marbles are rare and much sought after. Some sell for $400-$600. They also made folds marbles and a color called electric orange. By the 1960's, the market was flooded by cats-eyes from Japan. There are now only two marble manufacturers in the US, Marble King and Jabo, both in West Virginia. Among the many contemporary makers are Jerry Coleman in California, who makes marbles by lampwork, Franz Lavenstein, Andrew Fritz (each individually made) and Mark Matthews, who pinches marbles off canes. As for sulphide marbles, the figures are actually only _” tall and are magnified by the glass. If they have a silver sheen, that effect is produced by an air space around the ceramic insert. During the Question and Answer period following her presentation, Diane advised taking a magnifying glass and a mag light when hunting for good marbles.

After appreciative applause for the marble program, President Kruger, at 11:35 AM, released the group to return to the many displays of weights. At noon, a delicious lunch was served by the very capable Williamson staff. At 1:10, President Stan began a brief business meeting. His announcements included the upcoming Paul Stankard show at the Rosenfeld Gallery in Old City, Chris Buzzini’s new website and the PCA Convention in Corning, NY, May 16-19. Harvey Robinson noted the sad news that Neil Drysdale had died two weeks before at age 45, leaving the future of the Perthshire factory in doubt. The raffle drawing was held. Winners were: Sue Sutton, Leonard Kornit, Sue Woodland, Diane Atkerson, Frank Gardner, Guest Speaker Gay Taylor (who exclaimed she never won anything!), Lee Kvalnes, Toby Kruger, Eileen England, Jim Perna, Lee Kvalnes again, Sue Woodland again, Eugene Styles, Stella Styles, Don Formigli and Sue Sutton again.

President Kruger then introduced the afternoon speaker, Gay LeCleire Taylor, Curator, Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Village, who spoke on “Some Selected Notes on South Jersey Weights and Makers.” According to Gay, weights were being made in South Jersey in the 1860’s. Whitall Tatum was established in 1857 and melted Jersey sand, which gave a greenish tinge, as well as better quality clear glass. Whitall Tatum made bottles in several colors, teal, cobalt, amber, red and opal (white) as well as clear. Opal is hard to work with and eats up tanks, so it wasn’t widely used. The workers started making weights on their lunch hours, using colored glass. From 1868, the factory made standardized bottles individualized for various companies by using “slug plates” inserted into the molds. The workers modified these slug plates into dies for frit-style weights (e.g., “Home Sweet Home,” etc.). They also copied designs found on some slug plates when making weights. The first frit weights used white powdered glass in the die depressions and later other colors. This was a form of folk art. Michael Kane, born in England, was the most famous of frit weight makers. First he worked in Brooklyn but by 1882, he was working in Millville as a tube blower before tube-blowing machines were invented. He made upright frit weights with ship designs as well as deer and dog with quail designs. A 1900 photo shows early Whitall Tatum weights---no roses, but frit, devil’s fire and mushroom weights. Perfume bottle with matching designs in bottle and stopper were also made. John Ruhlander was the most famous of inkwell makers. The “Jersey Devil” image was introduced. (Jack Choko would dress up as the Jersey Devil and once was arrested in this guise!) The “blue flame” created by marsh gases lent the image to devil’s fire weight designs. Water lily weights were made with a pick tool with a ring of nails; they are more rare than rose weights. In the summer of 1889, because June to September were too hot to work in the Millville area glass houses, a glass factory (the Bohemian Art Glass Company) was built in Atlantic City to demonstrate glass blowing for summer visitors to the shore. Hotels complained of the noise and soot and the factory was shut down in September of that year. But an opportunity had been created for weight makers, Ralph Barber and others, to compare ideas and by 1903 or 1905, the Millville rose was created and perfected, using homemade hand crimps, often of crude materials, plaster, sheet metal and tin cans. Ms. Taylor has traced many different petal arrangement in South Jersey crimp rose weights. The leaves on early rose weights were lamp-worked, sometimes by workers other than the weight maker. Other lamp-worked designs were made into names, flowers, etc. Ralph Barber made some of these name weights in a very distinctive style incorporating barber pole twists. Eventually, the era of man-made, mold blown bottles came to an end when factories turned to machine-made bottles out of economic necessity. Michael Owens invented the bottle-making machine around 1905. Knowing they soon would be put out of a job, workers repeatedly sabotaged these machines. Management’s response to the sabotage was to prohibit the practice of weight-making and the glass workers lost the opportunity to supplement their income through the sale of paperweights. Other factories that made weights in South Jersey included Durand, from 1924 to 1931, which made bubble balls. Emil Larson was the head gaffer there. After Durand closed, he opened a shop in his backyard. The making of rose weights halted in 1910 but began again, spontaneously, in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. The WPA factory made glass during the Depression (the 1930’s) and some weights, too. Clevenger Glass Works made South Jersey glass also. Charles Pepper at Wheaton made rose weights in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Adolph Macho, in Vineland, made crude rose weights from melted Coke bottles. Some sulphide weights were made. The Koering Glass Company in Vineland produced crudely made sulphide weights in the 1940’s. Harry Caralluzzo made rose weights at the same time. In 1942, Charles Kaziun was at the University of Pennsylvania making scientific glass apparatus. He was the first to make an entire weight at the torch, starting first with buttons. He then met Emil Larson who challenged him to make a rose weight entirely by lampwork. Kaziun finally succeeded in this endeavor and set the standard 20 years before anyone else attempted it. In the late 1960’s, Jack Choko and Pete Lewis made compound weights as a hobby, influenced by Francis Whittemore, but had trouble with glass compatibility. Hugh and Carolyn Smith made weights in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Paul Stankard, after ten years or so in scientific glass blowing succeeded in committing himself entirely to glass paperweights. Ray and Bob Banford were successful at this, also. Arthur Gorham’s paperweight shop in Millville was a very important outlet for weight makers. Kontes Glass (Jim and Nontes) made weights in the 1970’s and is still producing weights and marbles. Skip Woods made tankwork weights as well as lovely rose weights in the 1960’s and 1970’s, using the Kontes brothers’ crimp. Wheaton Village opened in 1970 and the glass factory there in 1973. Gene Crabtree made weights there first. Tony DePalma made rose weights there. Wheaton Village’s biennial Paperweight Weekends provide opportunities for interaction between makers. Even today, a weight is made every day at the T.C. Wheaton Glass Factory to continue the tradition. And DVPCA members Ken Brown and Boyd England have made weights at Wheaton Village.

A Question and Answer period followed Ms. Taylor’s presentation after which President Kruger spoke of the July session…our 9th Anniversary Celebration Weekend. On July 14, the Guest Artist will be Ken Rosenfeld. A catered garden party will follow at the home of Martin and Sandy Mikelberg, only two miles or so from Williamson’s Restaurant. On Sunday, July 15, we will travel to Wheaton Village to view the exhibits of Glass Weekend in the new Convention Hall and the Museum of American Glass. The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,