A Blenko Collector : Selling 20 West Virginia Birthday Vases

Hilery,
  We have 20 West Virginia Birthday Vases.   I have the first ten
and then the last ten.   We've been told people are paying 1500 to 1000 for the early ones,
and about 500 there after.  Is this correct?   A year ago some one wanted to purchase the entire collection perhaps he will want my vases.     Will you provide an address so we can send our vases to you?  If you need a vase I'll give to you for the original sale price.
Thank You,
    Mrs. Clyde E. McCoy


Mrs. McCoy,

While I can not give you a value for your vases, let me assure you,
  the West Virginia Vases by Blenko are indeed valuable to others- those  Collectors who may need one or two   vases  to complete  their own collection.  
 I no longer collect the Birthday Vase,  my collection was a gift to West Virginia University while I was in Dental School. 
    If you will send us  the listing with the number of each signed piece
and perhaps a photo of each item,   Vivek will post  the list and photos.   Many  Blenko Collectors -  list items with EBAY, others  ask an auctioneer to assistance.
     You mentioned the first ten years?    I have a close friend/ collector looking for 89  and 91 - I'm certain he will want these two,
we get notes from folks daily asking about this collection and other vintage Blenko.
     Thank you for purchasing Blenko Glass -  this is a wonderful collection of glass by various Blenko Glass designers.  It was a way for Blenko to honor West Virginia.  A 30  plus year tribute.
HJH 
   
   If you need  a few of the WV Birthday Vases to complete your collection - send us an email  - when we hear of available collections we'll contact you with the sellers info.  hjh 

This WV Birthday Vase is extremely difficult to acquire -  the size made it difficult to keep in a china or buffet / thus many have been broken or damaged. 

Don Shepherd designer piece

Hi Hillary,

Just wanted to share this with you and your readers. I stumbled upon this Don
Shepherd designer piece mis-listed a couple of months ago. I couldn't hit the
Buy-It-Now button fast enough. I cut a deal with Shelley that she would hold it
until my birthday in January. For once I couldn't wait for that day to roll
around. I hadn't seen one of these except on the old Blenko Museum webpage that
showed this piece in an exhibit in honor of Shepherds work shortly after his
untimely death. Maybe one day I will be able to add the bowl that I saw once on
Ebay several years ago. For now though I will just to just enjoying this
addition to my Shepherd grouping.

Hope you enjoy,
Bruce

Three designers - One color-Rose

 Three designers - One color-Rose
from Blog friend Bruce

Finally got a chance to shoot some more photos that I have been composing in my
head. All three of these are mis-lists on EBAY that I have been lucky enough to
find over the past twelve months.
What is even more interesting is that all three are from different designers but were in production long enough to overlap with the rare color of 'Rose'.
From the left you have a Myers designed Blenko
#645 optic pitcher, Anderson designed Blenko #533 vase, and Husted designed
Blenko #569P pitcher.

Help ID this Item

Help ID this Item

Blenko Collectors this item is 27 inches tall.  It is signed Anderson,  the owner's question is -  Could this be a Winslow Anderson item?
We welcome your comments.
HJH

Anderson Vases

This photo is a good example of the difference in Blenko Amethst and Mulberry.
From the left is an Anderson designed Blenko #927 in Amethyst and Blenko #533 in
Mulberry. Hope this is of some help to your readers.

Enjoy,
Bruce

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from Heart of Glass! 

Christmas (or maybe V-day?) grouping

This is a grouping of pieces in Ruby and Chartreuse really look wonderful and festive from Blog friend Bruce.

Shepherd designed "Barnwood" pitchers

Shepherd designed "Barnwood" pitchers Blenko #7911L and Blenko #7911S in Wheat

Myers decanters

I am sending along this photo of two more Myers decanters I have picked up along
the way. They both found their way into my collection as mis-lists from Ebay.
The Crystal optic decanter is a Blenko #6942 and the Turquoise optic decanter is
a Blenko #6935. Both are wonderful examples of Joel Philip Myers design work
during his tenure at Blenko in the 60's.

Hope you enjoy,
Bruce

Worth going back

 

One of these decanters has an interesting story to go along with it's joining my
collection. Both are examples of a Pre-designer Blenko #37 decanters in Ruby.
The decanter on the left I happened upon when Shelley and I did some antique
shopping the first weekend in December while my daughter Kayla was taking the
SAT test on a Saturday. Shelley and I were rushing about trying to take in a
couple of malls when I stumbled across this piece. The stopper threw me off
because I had never seen the Teardrop shape on a Blenko #37 decanter. I had only
seen, up to that point, the flame stopper that that most people are familiar
with or the older version of the flame stopper shown on the right. Even though
the piece had the pontil mark and the wonderful Blenko Ruby coloration that runs
almost to black I could not bring myself to purchase the piece that day. Upon
returning home I started doing more research and ran across the catalog picture
in the Eason Eige reference book showing the older stopper design. Now my
trouble was that I would not be heading back toward Dallas for several weeks. We
finally got back to Dallas last week and I got down to trying to find this
wonderful piece. I need to add here that when I first stumbled across the piece
it was buried among a table full of Anchor Hocking Royal Ruby glassware. When I
found it again it was the only piece of Ruby glass remaining in the sellers
booth. The best part was adding this missing link piece for only $28.00.
Needless to say it was well worth the trip to go back.

Hope you enjoy,
Bruce