Betsy Hewlett Lessig, Yarmouth Port, Mass., exhibited an assortment of American pattern glass.
Review and Photos by Jackie Sideli
WEST BARNSTABLE, MASS. – The Cape Cod Glass Club once again presented its annual glass show and sale at Cape Cod Community College, September 16-17, with 23 exhibitors participating. Club president Betsy Hewlett Lessig said attendance and sales were healthy on Saturday, the opening day of the show.
Bill Thomas, a board member of the National American Glass Club, was doing appraisals here. He is past president of the Baltimore Chapter of the National Club. From Aberdeen, Md., Thomas was showing rare carnival glass, including a scarce piece of white carnival glass.
The show elicits a loyal following and Hewlett Lessig said the show’s strength lies in that it is an “all glass show.” Many of the current exhibitors began with the show, including me!” Kirk Nelson, who was the featured speaker at the show, also director and founder of the New Bedford Museum of Glass, was the curator of glass at the Sandwich Glass Museum for many years and he started the Cape Cod Glass Show, then sponsored by the SGM in 1987. “It was Kirk’s idea and he’s been an exhibitor for a number of years representing his museum of glass in New Bedford. Very impressive,” she said.
The exhibiting dealers here are all members of the club and were joined by several glass institutions presenting educational displays. The New Bedford Museum of Glass was represented by Kirk Nelson, executive director, who presented a seminar, “Glass Collecting and the Internet” on Saturday. The museum boasts a collection of Pairpoint, Mount Washington, Tiffany, Steuben and Sandwich glass, as well as paperweights, cup plates and more.
Bill Thomas, Abingdon, Md., who is on the board of the National American Glass Club, was also on hand. He has been a member of the club for more than 30 years. The Cape Cod Glass Club is a chapter of the national club. He offered a glass ID table and glass appraisal for attendees at the show. His inventory at the show included glass from the Victorian period and earlier, including a piece of rare white carnival glass and other rare carnival examples.
Goosefare Antiques, antique dealers and antique show promoters from Wells, Maine, showed early blown Stoddard, N.H., bottles, while dealer Bruce Mitchell, Orange, Conn., offered an early snuff bottle for $205 and a blown glass rolling pin priced at $145.
Betsy and her husband, Jim Lessig, club treasurer, each had their own booths at the show. Jim’s display featured American and European art glass, including contemporary and antique. Betsy was showing a clear glass deer and pine tree cake stand, measuring 10ý inches, for $285. Betsy had a comprehensive selection of early American pattern glass (EAPG). Pattern glass, also known as pressed glass or Victorian glass, was made during the Victorian era in America, 1850-1910, in goblets and in sets, so that all of the pieces in the set match in design.
Kirk Nelson, Director of the New Bedford Museum of Glass, is shown in his booth.
Edmund Beard, PhD, who is the senior advisor at the University of Massachusetts, was running the club’s booth at its own show. Members may consign things to the booth, and if sold, the organization gets 20 percent. The booth was stocked with good period glass of all descriptions. Goosefare Antiques offered a collection of early Stoddard glass. Antiques dealer Henry Callan, Sandwich, Mass., offered up clear and colored classical glass forms. Diane Lytwyn, Fairfield, Conn., featured mercury, Bohemian, carnival and French gold glass as a specialty. Matt King, Marshfield, Mass., specializes in early American glass.
Other exhibitors included The Ahlfelds, Lancaster, Penn., specializing in early American pattern glass, C&J Antiques, Norfolk, Mass., and Cape Cod Octopus’ Garden, East Falmouth, Mass., which brought sea glass jewelry. Once and Future Antiques, exhibitors from Chelmsford, Mass., exhibited Nineteenth-Twentieth Century glass. Wilma’s Antiques, from Falmouth, Maine, offered a selection of Flint, Waterford, Steuben and Fostoria glass. Carlese Westock, who came to exhibit at the show from Woodland Park, N.J., was showing Nineteenth Century American blown, pressed and cut glass in her booth at the show. Rose Colored Glass, Ogunquit, Maine exhibited American, Victorian, pattern and some art glass.
The Cape Cod Glass Club holds its meetings at the Hirschmann Theatre at the Sandwich Glass Museum. Coming up is a lecture by Jeffrey S. Evans, Mount Crawford, Va., on “Canary Glass – the history and evolution of a color,” December 7 at the Sandwich Glass Museum. On April 4, Dorothy Hogan-Scofield, curator at the Sandwich Glass Museum, will give a presentation on glassmaking techniques of Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, 1824-1888.
For show or club information, contact Betsy Hewlett Lessig at 508-896-4887.
