by Guest Poobah, Dick Bales
In Robin’s last
Shot of the Week column, he commented on (well, since he admitted to being a
curmudgeon, "complained of" is probably a better term) the roller coasting,
"feast or famine" cycle of shot glasses on eBay.
I think that all of us would agree that we are feasting this Thanksgiving
week, and it is not just on turkey and dressing. In the last few days, we have
seen a dazzling array of glass. For example, consider the following beauties;
all of these were selling on eBay at the same time!
 |
 |
| Two other
shots deserve special mention. Have we ever seen two, count ‘em,
two, enameled glasses listed on eBay at the same time? Consider
this Old
John Tipping shot and this Victoria
glass. Bluroc and Junkmoney bought them for $504.99 and $235.83,
respectively. |
So what about a SOTW? I must confess that
probably anybody else would pick the aforementioned Old John Tipping glass. When
was the last time we saw a glass sell for more than half a grand? But alas,
enamels leave me cold. The seller describes it has having "pearly opalescent"
lettering with "gold flourishes." Sounds nice, I suppose, and it no doubt stands
out in a display case, but I like glasses with a sense of history, not
histrionics. Enamels are too fancy for my tastes; they are like the flashy dude
(or even flashier dudette) you meet in a bar on Saturday night. You are eager to
take the glass home with you, but will your mom appreciate its significance the
next morning when you show it to her on the way to church? Enamels are the bling
bling of the shot collecting community, and man, I am here to tell you, there is
never going to be a bunch of Mr. T gold chains around the neck of
this fifty-five year old!
| However, I decided to pick the Beechmont
Whiskey glass for SOTW. This is surely a heretofore undiscovered
George Truog glass. Although it does not bear the telltale "GT" initials
like some of Truog’s glasses, it still has many Truog
characteristics.
And what are these features? I mentioned them in
the first of my two "Common Stuff" articles on Truog. For example,
compare the leaves on the Beechmont glass to the leaves on the M. Salzman
Co. Nightcap glass. They are virtually
identical. |
 |
Truog also seemed to favor bold, transparent
lettering. This lettering was often in banners that ran horizontally across the
glass. Look at the Davis & Drake "Every Time We Drink Things Look Different"
glass and the John J. Stump & Co. glass and compare them to this Beechmont
Whiskey glass. Note that all three have leaves around the bannered transparent
lettering.
I was not the only one who liked this glass. The seller noted that several of
our collecting brethren wrote him, asking him to cancel the auction and instead
sell the glass directly to them. He chose not to do so, but instead, let the
auction run its course. Both bluroc and junkmoney slugged
it out for this one, with junkmoney taking it for $153.50. I would love to know if any of the
collectors who offered to buy this glass from the seller offered him more than
the hammer price. Is the seller now wishing he had made the private sale, or is
he thumbing his nose at buyers who offered him a pittance? Does anybody want to
talk? No?
Well, in any event, congratulations to junkmoney!
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