New and Shotworthy

I have yet to find a suitable replacement for the old “glasschat” forum that, sadly, became a target for spammers and then failed to be supported in the wake of programming language updates, rendering it inoperable. I pulled it down and it has stayed down for some time now.

Since the collecting community is small, maybe there is no need for such a forum, but the upshot is that I now get many emails from visitors to the site, mostly from non-collectors (see the last post below for an example), but I’ll try to address the collector-related queries here.

I’ve had a handful of emails asking if I’m selling my collection. The short answer is “no”, although I’ve added a large number of glasses to the sales pages in recent months, so it may certainly seem that way.

During the past 5 years, I’ve been involved with several intense work-related projects that left me with little in the way of free time to devote to the site or the hobby. That meant that large numbers of glasses were coming in from collections, individuals wanting to sell, eBay buys etc. but were not getting processed (washing, photographing, logging, entering into the database), to the point where I had around 500 glasses waiting in line. The backlog extends back to 2015-2016, although some have been lingering since the previous decade.

I’ve finally had a chance to work though the pile recently, so all of the duplicates and upgrades are making their way online. Most of the common white-etched glasses have now been processed and have been logged. Next, I’ll work through the many colored-label glasses, the embossed/debossed glasses, the metal shots, and the lugs, all of which require a different camera and lighting set up – which is why they’ve had to wait patiently.

Thanks to Jim Dennis for sending the image above of the latest addition to his pre-pro glass collection. Jim notes “I traded plus a little cash for this unlisted full face label under glass, hell of a deal, under $200.00, excellent condition. I guess it was maybe meant for me. Have you seen this one before ?? I’m up to 120 shots in my Oregon collection now.”

Fleckenstein, Meyer & Co. of Portland OR. produced a large number of glasses over the years, including at least three rare label-on-the bottom glasses and two with a label applied to the side (including the one shown above). The other (an “Our Monogram”) can be found in the database.

Congrats to Jim for such a stunning find!

Finally, I periodically get some unusual requests for information related to the old liquor dealers or distillers listed in the databases. Usually it’s along the lines of “I really enjoy Old (insert brandname here) but can no longer find it in my area. Please can you give me the name of a liquor dealer who still carries it?“, the author clearly believing that a distillery listing page is a current company website. Here’s one that came in just recently and left me wondering quite how to respond:

“Our family purchased some land in Halifax County Va and it has an old car, I’m guessing from the thirties, on the property. On the door is Frankfort Distilleries INC so I was trying to figure out how it ended up in Va. The land was owned by a Jones family and I read that Frankfort Distilleries was bought by Paul Jones.in 1922. Is there any information that would link that car to the Paul Jones family? I would think there has to be some cool history on how that car ended up in Halifax County Va.

Thank You for any information you can provide.“

Well, not so much, but I needed an alliterative title and “weesl watch” was the only one to come to mind. The weesl in question is princeweesl, an eBay seller who listed a couple of dozen glasses for sale this past week with a note that “I am auctioning off the remainder of a Pre Prohibition Shot Glass collection. Have fun and bid with confidence! There are some rare Western glasses as well as National brands and Grape Juice shots and soda fountain glasses.” Many of these glasses listed and went unsold a year ago to the day; this time around, most attracted at least one bidder.

Of the group, my favorite probably was the Tucker Whisky highball glass featuring a spoof of the famous Victor Talking Machine Co. trademark. Whereas the gramophone company featured Nipper, a fox terrier, transfixed by the sound emanating from of a Victrola horn (“His master’s voice”), the Brown-Forman version featured a bulldog sniffing a funnel used to fill a jug of Old Tucker Whiskey.

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The glass had a banged-up rim, but still fetched $62.00 when the hammer fell.

These past month has been notable for the high prices being realized on eBay glasses. During the past 4 weeks, 163 pre-pro glasses listed for sale. 57 auctions closed without attracting a bidder, but the average price of the glasses that did sell was $56.03.

In top place was a two-city Rose glass (Jacksonville, FL. and Chattanooga, TN,) with a label so badly ghosted that it was almost unreadable. It was offered for sale by gator-ben and the auction closed for a whopping $334.99!

In third position (in #2 position was a Mobile, AL. saloon glass) was another Rosebud Whiskey. We saw one of these on eBay late last year and I was gobsmacked to see it sell for $212.50, which I figured must have been a fluke given that it’s a plain text-only glass. eBay regular nuffbarn listed one with a dodgy label last week and this one sold for $233.50. Nuffie – maybe the high bidder can tell us why these glasses have become golden, because it beats me….

Finally, in the last post I showcased a bevy of glasses that were being offered through Glass-Works Auctions, observing that their pre-pro glasses often reappear in diggerdaveb‘s eBay store. Apparently at least one of the featured lots was won by diggerdave because the glasses are currently being listed and are selling on eBay. Among them are a Red Cross Whiskey and a Hiller’s beer glass, both from Omaha, NE. Both were binned for $70 apiece.

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I’ve mentioned this many times before, but eBay is not everything (well, almost everything) when it comes to growing the pre-pro glass collection. In pre-Covid times, one could actually go to antique malls and to bottle shows and find glasses in the wild, but for the face-mask-weary, there are still online alternatives such as Glass-Works Auctions (GWA).

Glass-works Auctions used to be associated with Antique Bottle and Glass Collector (ABGC) magazine in the days before the magazine was sold off and its interests were more wide-ranging than bottles, bottles, and more bottles and the occasional insulator. The auctions have continued, however, and, once in a Blue Moon, they have pre-pro glasses on offer.

They are currently running auction #149 that features five lots of rather scruffy-looking glasses with a few gems thrown into the mix. The listing photo are shown below (I was unable to link in the individual auctions – search on “shot” in the auction catalog to find them). There’s an interesting back-story to this collection that dates back 15 years or so and to a famous American football player — but I’ll leave that for another time.

I have bought glasses from GWA in the past and they are a solid company that I have had no issues buying from and would not hesitate to buy from again. The only caveats are that a) the bid increments tend to be high (compared with eBay), b) there is a 20% buyer’s premium added to the final bid price (17% if you send a check rather than use a credit card), and c) their shipping rates tend to be hefty (the glasses arrive very well-packed; they know what they are doing and a good packing job costs a little extra).

Just an observation – many of the GWA offerings end on on eBay in diggerdaveb‘s online store, so if you see something interesting that escaped you, it may be a good idea to bookmark him and watch for the buy-it-nows.

Oh – and for the curious, 160 shot-glass auctions closed during the past 28 days. Of these, 86 closed with no bidders and the average price of glasses sold was $35.24.

Amazingly enough, a rare and desirable picture glass has shown up on eBay twice within the space of a couple of months (see the Eleventh Day of Christmas for the other example).

It’s an Old Valley Whiskey glass, featuring three old gents and a bottle of — what else — Old Valley Whiskey. The example shown below was listed by eBay seller trsan-5934 with an opening bid of $15.75. As I write, the bidding stands at $38.00. The listing photos leave something to be desired – is that a crack in the rim at the 11 o’clock position? The seller describes the glass as “This shotglass is in awesome shape and it will look great in your collection!!” – maybe the artefact is a trick of the light, but it may be worth asking ahead of time.

Pre-pro shot collectors as a general rule tend to eschew masonic glasses, preferring instead to limit their collections to liquor advertising glasses. That’s perfectly understandable given that collecting budgets are often limited and there are, quite literally, many tens of thousands of liquor-related glasses to go after.

However, if you have a nice display case (especially a mirror-backed display case), here’s a masonic glass that is well worth adding to the collection based on display value alone.

It’s a Hermann Loge glass from Philadelphia, PA. and is dated 1900. The inscription is in cream and gold – it’s quite a stunner. It’s offered for sale by friend of pre-pro Pam Hadley under the seller id itsnfs8 with a starting bid of $85.99. Be warned, however, this is a big glass at 3″ x 2-1/2″ so you may have to adjust the display-case shelves to accommodate it, but it’s well worth the effort.

Happy hunting!

So how did this work out? The original auction ended without a bidder, but Pam relisted with a buy-it-now of $65.99. It sold the same day. Nice!

I was going to title this posting “Blood, Bath, and Beyond”, because there is the potential for this auction to set records.

The Red Top Rye shown above (the listing photo slots are mostly empty- keep scrolling right to find the listing images) just listed for sale with an opening bid of $50 and already there is a bidder in place. Offered by eBay seller scoobydoo22222, this one promises to be “interesting”. RTR glasses have a massive following and this is one of the rarest of them. Let the games begin!

So how did this auction work out? The bidding war that might have been expect did not play out in practice and the glass sold for $356.56 in the final seconds. Congrats to the winner – definitely a top-ten, display-worthy glass!

There have been so many stellar glasses to choose from this past couple of weeks that it’s difficult to pick a favorite and I’m not going to here, but I can’t close without at least mentioning the ever-popular Royal Stag that was listed by digbybot before Christmas.

Royal Stag was a Ahrens-Bullwinkel Co., San Francisco brand and there are at least 6 different variants of this glass that I know. This is another glass that usually stays close to home and rarely makes it onto eBay. The last one to show up sold for close to $300. True to form, the glass shown above was sniped for a cool $290.

There were only two glasses to fetch more than the Stag recently, one from Marysville, CA., the other a P. Morville’s AAA Old Bourbon from Taussig & Co. of San Francisco (below, left). These were also digbybot offerings.

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This is a nice showy glass that I would estimate to be worth around $125 base on how many I’ve seen and prices realized on eBay. Somewhat surprisingly, the glass shown was bid up to and sold for $305 in the closing minute.

Shortly after the first of the two glasses sold, a second of these glasses listed with an identical photo (the one shown at right) with a $50 opening bid and a $250 bin. Today, the listing vaporized with a “no longer available” message. Did it get binned or better offered? Enquiring minds want to know….

Today (Jan 6) is Epiphany, which marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas and is the day when the observant take down the decorations and pack them up in boxes until next year. Many of my neighbors stripped the Christmas cheer on Boxing day and deposited it on the curb for the trash dudes to pick up and are already looking ahead to Valentine’s day and St Paddy’s day … big sigh…..

Given the recent political shenanigans (I’m in Georgia, which appears to be ground zero for shenanigans), I’m fearful about what the coming year may bring us, but I wish you all a safe and healthy 2021, and I’ll see y’all on eBay.

Technically speaking, these auctions closed on the ninth day (i.e., ladies dancing day), but who’s counting.

Accumulated eBay wisdom dictates that you don’t list glasses for sale between Christmas and New Year’s Day because collectors are typically very distracted by domestic drama involving relatives that have violated Ben Franklin’s infamous three-day rule and have overstayed their welcome. Distracted collectors typically are not checking eBay listings as regularly as they would normally or, if they are, may lose track of nice glasses and then forget to set a snipe. That’s why savvy collectors pay particular attention over major holidays, because that’s when they get to expand their collection at minimal cost.

Such was the case with the two classic picture glasses shown below.

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I’ve seen many examples of both glasses over the years, although the Remington Liquor Co. glass usually stays close to home and does not make it onto eBay. Both are top-notch glasses that rank among the top 1% in terms of display-case appeal. Historically, these glasses have sold in the $200-$400 range, depending on condition.

Both glasses were listed for sale by cquimby2, whose other offerings have appeared earlier in this 12-days posting. The Remington Liquor Co. glass has some rim damage, but the etching looks to be strong based on the listing photo. It sold for $46.85. I suspect it was purchased by someone who’ll flip it in short order.

The Old Valley is the more common of the four known variants but is in very nice condition. It sold for $52.00. Congratulations to the two winners!

Here’s one that we haven’t seen on eBay before, although it is in the database, the listing courtesy of the late Bob Mraz.

Not the fanciest of pre-pro glasses, but the King Kotton Korn (abbreviated “KKK”; was this intentional, I wonder?) brand name was owned Heller & Co., who were based in Bristol, VA. right across the state line from Bristol. TN and who had branches throughout the Southern States.

The VA/TN connection to this glass guaranteed that the final bid price was going to be high given the number of collectors interested in pre-pro collectibles from these two States, but even I was surprised by the auction outcome. The glass was listed for sale by tpe_asl and was sniped in the final seconds with a final bid price of $277.72.