| Comments by Alan and Lorraine Pickup
Imperial Hobstar Nu-Cut Vase From HOACGA bulletin December, 2000 |
How do we find something to write about each month? That's easy. We look through our rogue's gallery of glass snapshots and just pick any good picture that I didn't mess up--and start typing. We bought this vase on one of our many excursions to the antique mall. I could blame this one on Lorraine, but it wasn't totally her fault. We had walked the entire mall and were getting a little desperate to buy something. We spotted this vase in a locked display case and my bet was it's a new vase. We summoned the attendant and asked to look at it closer. I still felt it was a new vase. After eating a couple of bad hot dogs and a bag of popcorn, we retreated to the car to consult the H.O.A.C.G.A. notebook that we usually bring on our trips. The vase was shown in section three, #138, and listed as Hobstar & Nu-Cut. It was noted, "This pattern has been reproduced. Reproductions are marked I/G and the inside of the bottom is stippled." An additional note states "Bottom of base on old vases is plain and unmarked." Armed with this newly obtained knowledge, we charged back in and bought the vase. After all, the bottom was not stippled and we did not see the I/G logo so I had to be wrong...again. Well, after getting it home, a number of miles later, and holding it up to good light and looking down through the vase, there it was, the I/G logo, very lightly impressed and extremely hard to see. A lesson learned. This pattern, but not the vase itself, however, is old. Pictured in the Douglas Archer Imperial glass catalog reprints, in crystal glass, under their Nu-Cut assortment produced in 1914. We have seen this vase since then in glass colors other than marigold. This all took place over a year ago and the vase was in hiding for some time as we were slightly embarrassed, but now it is being put to use. Last year we had the carpet replaced in my room, the one filled with all the "old glass." The carpet salesman said that they wouldn't touch that room till we moved all the glass in that room plus the room leading to that room. You would think the guy had never been in a glass collector's house before. Well, I set up some tables in the basement and loaded them with glass. I was playing with another project in the basement when I turned around holding a six-foot long board. What a mess. I knocked an especially nice Weller vase that was holding a dried flower arrangement for a base hit. Lots of little shattered vase pieces, but the dried flowers survived and today grace the NEW Hobstar & Nu-Cut vase. The moral of this story, if there is one, is don't believe everything you read. |