FENTON FINDERS OF GREATER KANSAS CITY

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FENTON FINDERS OF GREATER KANSAS CITY The meeting of the Fenton Finders Greater Kansas City will be Saturday MAY 9TH, 2009 at the Raytown City Hall, 10000 E. 59th, Raytown, Missouri.

1 FENTON FINDERS OF GREATER KANSAS CITY The meeting of the Fenton Finders Greater Kansas City will be Saturday MAY 9TH, 2009 at the Raytown City Hall, E. 59th, Raytown, Missouri. The meeting will start at 7:00 P.M. We had a wonderful Easter program in April. All kinds of baskets, rabbits, eggs and glassware showed up. There was even a couple of Blue Carnival Glass items with the Peter Rabbit design. All quite wonderful. Our show and tell included a pair of Celeste Blue rounded candlesticks from the 1920's as well as a turtle base for an aquarium also from the 1920's, the new Kelsey Murphy ginger jar, Just Ripe. We enjoyed some cookies, tea and coffee after the meeting as we have been given permission to bring in refreshments from the city of Raytown if we clean up after ourselves. Connie Duncan has volunteered to bring in treats for our next meeting and I will bring in the coffee and tea from our hospitality room supplies. Richard and Virginia Old have stepped up and volunteered to take over the hospitality room. They will work with me this year so that they can see what is already being done and how. And next year they will become the official hosts. They have already come up with some very good suggestions. I am looking forward to seeing the improvements that they make. If anyone wants to them with

2 suggestions or more important thanks for taking over this job send your message to their new address OMITTED FROM INTERNET VERSION Don't forget to update your roster with their new address. Things are looking very good for the auction as there was some hints on what will be in our auction and it looks good So, keep tract of Jim Wroda's auction site and before the Gala he will be posting pictures as well as a list of the glass that will be in the Gala auction. Hey, just had a thought; Could we get a sneak peak at some of the whimsey's on his website Richard? I know that we only find out what we are going to have at the last minute but if you have any idea it would be really neat if we could have a sneak peak at one or two pieces. Okay, okay it's a Gala special thing, just thinking it would be neat to have one or two of the best of the best on the web site. Richard, what do you think? Speaking of Richard he should be showing up in Kansas City soon. When he gets here he will be ready to start his list of glass for the big display. If you have glass you would like to place in the display please get your list ready and, if you have pictures, they should help him decide on which pieces he would like to include in the display. This is going to be a hard job so the sooner he gets a idea of the glass that he can use the easier it will be for him to plan how many risers he will need as well how many pieces of glass that he will be able to include in the display. The second twenty-five years that Fenton was in production was a time of growth as well as change. It was also a time when it was very uncertain that Fenton would survive. The Great Depression challenged the determination of Frank L. and Robert Fenton to keep the glass factory going. There were problems with the unions and they had to cut production and wages of almost everyone in the factory. It was in 1936 that one of the only 3 major strikes occurred. For the first time since the early days of the factory they borrowed money to keep the company going. William Heacock goes into great detail on the problems that they had getting money to keep the company going. It sounds very familiar to us today with the troubles Fenton is going through. One difference is that the price of fuel during this time was stable and low. How very difficult it must be to plan

3 production costs if the cost of fuel doubles or triples from one month to the next. During this time the very popular Mandarin Red, Periwinkle Blue, Mongolian Green lines continued and then around 1936 disappeared. There was a lot of overlap with the glass of the first twenty-five years as well as the glass of the third twenty five years. During this time Ruby, Crystal and the various satin finish decorations became very popular and the opaque colors like Mandarin Red disappeared. The Georgian pattern as well as the Sheffield and Plymouth pattern gained popularity. Mermaid Blue, a very light delicate Blue was introduced. This color is very hard to find to day but when found is treasured. These lines along with the Daisy and Button line and the Lincoln line kept Fenton going. But what kept Fenton in business in the thirties was two different companies; A. F. Dormeyer of Chicago was their largest single customer by ordering opaque glass mixing bowls. Then at the end of the 1930's the Allen B. Wrisley Company became the biggest customer Fenton had ever had on record with its orders for hobnail perfume bottles. These bottles came out in many different colors. Hopefully we will be able to have a good representation of these bottles on the display table as they were the single biggest reason that Fenton survived. We still find lots of these bottles in antique malls. Please read up on this important time period in Heacock's book, the second Twenty-Five Years. It was a time of great troubles. By 1939, War World II was beginning to affect Fenton's business increasing demand for its glass. Glass from European countries was soon to disappear from the market place in the United States and when the U.S. joined the war, many of the key ingredients needed to make some art glass would be needed for the war effort. Fenton would have to change the kind of glass it made. It was during the thirties that Fenton began to produce satin glass. It had a short run but has proven to be very popular with collectors today. From1935 to 1939 Fenton produced these lines mostly in crystal but sometimes in others colors. It had a limited run and now because of environmental concerns will most likely never be produced again, at least not in the U.S. The most popular of these was the Ming, San Toy and Wisteria patterns or at least these were the most produced. When shopping for acid etch glass these will be the ones found most often and even

4 these three patterns are found in very limited amounts. Ming as in San Toy and Wisteria, were produced mostly in Crystal but can also be found in Rose and Green. The Ming line was also produced in Amber and that is perhaps the hardest to find. Amber Ming was produced in only 3 pieces according to Margaret and Kenn Whitmyer in their book, Fenton Art Glass , that was in the #950-5V2" cornucopia candlestick, the #1934 decanter with flower stopper, and # oz. tumbler. They also made the #950 11" oval tulip bowl, that was not listed in the Whitmyers book - this I know as I was lucky enough to come across it and now have it in my collection. How many more items were made in Amber but not recorded in books? San Toy was made mostly in Crystal but it was also made in very limited quantities and in very few items in Green and Rose. Silvertone and Poinsettia was also popular acid etch patterns. Poinsettia was only produced in Crystal but Silvertone was produced in Amber and Mermaid Blue with the Sheffield Pattern. Silvertone with the Sheffield pattern in Amber and Mermaid Blue is very hard to find and you can expect to pay for that. The Whitmyers only listed 17 items made in Poinsettia, which makes it very limited and hard to find today. It is listed in Crystal only. Pineapple, #2000 Pattern was also made in Satin glass in Crystal, Rose Satin and Ruby. This pattern was a satinized embossed Pineapple pattern introduced in Fenton has also produced the embossed pattern more recently for QVC as well as in their line in a Carnival glass water set. Now we have the more rare pieces of acid etched glass. Scenic is a very attractive design. It's name being very descriptive of the design. In it are trees and a fence line, very scenic. The Whitmyers list 14 items produced in this line. I am not sure if there were production problems or if it was not popular when produced but it was only made in 1938 and is very difficult to find today and when found the prices are high. The covered bonbon is most likely the hardest to find and of course the most expensive. In 1937 Fenton made the Snow Fern design in 7 items, making it rank high in the hard to find Satin Glass. Perhaps the hardest to find is the Twin Ivy pattern. It was made, according to the Whitmyers in 11 items. I've never seen this pattern except in books. In the Whitmyers book it is listed as one of the "more elusive patterns. So count yourself lucky as well as a great shopper if you own some of this pattern. Last but not lest is the #1621 pattern. It is the only pattern that does not have a "name" just a number. If trying

5 to describe I would say it is a combination of the San Toy acid etch pattern and the Silvertone molded pattern. That is not a very good description but hopefully you get the idea. Thirteen items are listed in the Whitmyers book in this pattern in Crystal and Royal Blue. Strangely enough this pattern is found fairly often and does not bring the higher prices that other acid etch glass does. Acid etch or Satin etch glass, whichever you want to call it, has not been the most popular glass that Fenton produced in its second 25 years. It is most often the lest recognized of Fenton's products. The fact that it was produced for only a short time and in such limited lines make it very difficult to find. It has been my experience that more people who are dedicated Fenton collectors will upon seeing the acid etch glass in a display of Fenton exclaim - Is that Fenton? That is what makes finding a piece of this hard to find glass so very exciting. More about the second 25 years in the next newsletter. Sondra Matthaei has ask that if anyone needs a lift to our meeting that they call her to see if anything can be worked out. She lives in the Independence area and her number is (Check your Roster) For our next meeting we will feature Levay Glass. That program will be in honor of Gary and Dodie Levi. As you all know we lost Gary recently and we want to honor him and the glass that he had Fenton produced for his line. Remember that all the glass that he had Fenton produce will have the Fenton logo on it so unless you know that it is Levay glass you may have to do some research to find out if it was produced for Gary and Dodie. That is well worth the effort. Please bring your Levay glass to our next meeting so that we can honor Gary and all the wonderful glass that he created with Fenton. So don't forget to come to our meeting on May 9th and bring your glass for show and tell. It is the time of year that we go outside and get our gardens ready and start mowing the lawn but be sure to take the time to check out what glass you can bring to our meeting for everyone to enjoy. Be safe and enjoy the spring weather. Jackie Oglesby Secretary

FENTON FINDERS OF GREATER KANSAS CITY

FENTON FINDERS OF GREATER KANSAS CITY The meeting of the Fenton Finders of Greater Kansas City will be SATURDAY, JULY 13 TH, 2013 at the Raytown City Hall, 10000 E. 59th, and Raytown, Missouri. The meeting