Well if it isn't the Price is Right game, what is it?  It simply is an art glass company that has been around for over 100 years.  But they are best known for their mid-century modern glass.  And it can be quite collectible.

So what is it about glass that makes it collectible? Is it the challenge to see how long we can keep it without breaking it? If you have kids like me, that is truly a challenge! Well, even though I usually buy and sell glass, among other things, sometimes I just have to hold onto certain pieces. Some of those pieces were made by Blenko. The real desirable pieces were made in the 1960's and 70's. I suppose one of the reasons I tend to like their glass is because they are just a few miles down the road from me. I have been through their factory, watched the glass blowers puff their cheeks, and walked through the kaleidoscope of discarded glass piles.

Even though I'm sure I am biased, Blenko glass has a very distinctive mid-century modern look. It is definitely an artwork. And sadly, a dying art. The factory has recently come out of bankruptcy, but they are likely to go the way of many other glass houses. Yet their vases, pitchers, whimsies, and decanters continue to find life on the shelves of many collectors. The bright colors are very distinctive and the characteristics can easily be learned.

Blenko glass is hand blown and it takes a team of workers to make one piece. Typically, you will see a pontil scar on the bottom where the metal blow pipe was connected to the molten glass. In this case, the scar is a good thing! Not like the scar I got that one time...well...anyway. Blenko glass has a fire polished rim. This means that it is rounded and not perfect. One key to decanters is to look at the stopper. The inside of the decanter mouth is ground. The outside of the stopper is also ground. Some decanters may look like Blenko, but always check the stopper. After you look at several pieces of Blenko glass, you will oftentimes be able to see a piece across the room at an antique store and know it is Blenko. The color is that destinctive. I've shown enough pieces to my seven year old that when I bring home a piece, he immediately knows it is Blenko just by the color and the shape. The shapes are quite flowing and curvaceous.

As with just about anything worth collecting, there are copies out there. I hesitate to call them fakes since they are made by other quality art glass shops. Not all pieces have copies, but it is something to be keep in mind.

I'm sure I will come across other great pieces, especially considering where I live. I just hope the kids don't decide to play home run derby next to the display cabinet.

Jacob

Very early in my picking and selling, I quickly came to the realization that there is a collector for everything.  One fascinating, if not a tad eccentric, group of collectors I have found is one who collects things that are radioactive.  It is somewhat surprising how many antiques and collectibles give off some level of radiation.  I’m not talking amounts that will require the big yellow hooded suits.  But they are radioactive, nonetheless.

I looked into this topic when a friend of mine, Stephanie Riley, posed the question about flying back home to Arizona after buying a piece of Vaseline glass in West Virginia.  Vaseline glass is an antique glass that is generally transparent and has a yellowish or greenish hue.  However, when you place this glass under a black light, it looks…well…radioactive.  It glows a vibrant, bright green.  This glass is also called Uranium Glass because Uranium Dioxide was used in the molten glass to give it the greenish-yellow color in the final piece.  Most pieces of Vaseline, or Uranium, Glass were made in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  However, there are companies that still make the glass today.   Pieces made today are decorative and not intended to be used with food or drink consumption.  Just to give you an idea, a worker transporting the Uranium Glass from the factory to the warehouse would receive, on average, 4 mrem/year (millirem/year).

Another collectible that is radioactive is clocks and watches with glow-in-the-dark faces or hands.  The faces or hands were painted with radioluminescent paint containing radium.  The peak era of production of these pieces was the early 1900’s (what is it about that time frame?).  Radium dials were hand painted, generally by young women.  Who has licked the end of a paintbrush to make very fine lines when painting?  Well, these young women did too and suffered the consequences of the radiation in the form of jaw bone degeneration.  Once the connection was made to the radium, the women sued their company, the U. S. Radium Corporation, who told them the paint was harmless.  The Radium Girls, as they became known, won their suit.  These watch and clock faces can still give off 20 to 100 mrem/year.  So you may think twice about wearing a watch with a radium face.

One widely used collectible with serious amounts of radiation is Fiestaware.  Now, before you go and call in a hazmat team for your Fiestaware collection beside your dinner table, you need to know that only the pieces made before 1972 may contain varying amounts of radioactive goodness.  Generally speaking, the reds and oranges contain the highest amounts.  Again, it is not recommended to eat or drink from Fiestaware that was made prior to 1972.  Higher amounts can be found in pre-WWII pieces.  Red pieces from the first years of production have been measured to give off between 30 and 40 mrem/year.  However, if you have a collection of the old red pieces, you can multiply that amount.  For instance, an 8 place setting containing a dinner plate, salad plate, and bowl would give off about 720 mrem/year.

While it is generally safe to own radioactive items, it is good practice not to lick them or wear them.  Some common sense goes a long way.  When I was going through college, I was in a work program where I went to school a semester and worked a semester.  The place I worked was the North Anna Nuclear Power Station.  That was a different story.  I did have to wear the big yellow hooded suit a few times when I went into highly contaminated areas of the plant.  It was all very safe though.  Extremely safe.  As a part of my attire, I wore a digital dose meter when I went into these high radiation areas.  I think the highest I ever saw on my meter was around 40 mrem/hour.  I was only in that area for about 10 minutes, so my dose was still quite low.  The limit allowed in a year was 5000 mrem.  On average, the public receives about 500 to 600 mrem in a year from background radiation and medical procedures.  I hope you can see from these numbers that having a collection of bright red Fiestaware will increase your radiation levels only slightly.  Even with the background radiation, if you carried around the 8 place setting mentioned above every day of the year, you would still be at only 1320 mrem.  The key is the same thing we learned in our safety videos at the power plant – time, distance and shielding.  It may be difficult to put up a lead wall in front of your China cabinet.  But a little common sense would tell you not to use the Vaseline glass tumbler for your rinse cup when brushing your teeth twice a day.  Oh, and Stephanie made it back to Arizona with her Vaseline glass just fine.  And that was even after being selected for pre-screening at the airport.