Interesting Thoughts on Collectible American Flags

With Independence Day coming up on Wednesday, I started thinking about putting up Old Glory; strong winds a while ago took down the bracket that held it up in front of our house.  This in turn got me thinking about information that I had written a few years ago for the NOVA-Antiques Newsletter.  The article was titled Collecting Early American Flags and it was more of an excerpt of information from John Bridgman’s article in Country Home Magazine.

In the intervening years, here are some more things I learned about collecting the American Flag.  First and foremost, in Virginia and some of the southern states, Civil War flags are very collectible.  Many of these flags have only 35 stars.  On the more desirable flags, The 35 stars are normally embroidered by hand, but people also collect them if the stars have been machine embroidered.  The 35^th star on a Civil War flag represents West Virginia, which became as state on July 4, 1863.

Although there are many Civil War collectors looking for flags from that era, there are quite a few other collectors that look for any American Flag.  One of the most famous and most recognizable to most of us because of our history lessons in school are the 13 star flag.  The thirteen stars, of course, represent the thirteen original colonies, and we were all taught that Betsy Ross was the designer and maker of this famous American Flag.  What most people don’t know is that Betsy’s granddaughter sold many of those flags from her establishment in Philadelphia.

Other flags, besides the Civil War and Betsy Ross flags, that people collect include flags early 19^th Century and the country’s Centennial and Sesquicentennial celebrations.  But one thing is certain, regardless of what era the flag comes from, the flag collectors all have one thing in common, they are American patriots, who love their country and their flag.  I admire them, the collectors and the flags both, for I too am a patriot and although my flag is neither old nor collectible, it will fly proudly in front of my house on July 4^th.

Pocillovy – Collecting Antique & Vintage Collectible Egg Cups

Pocillovy is the act of collecting egg cups. An egg cup is a container used for serving boiled eggs. Although not much used in the United State, egg cups still remain popular at the breakfast tables in Europe. There are many types of egg cups, some are footies, which means they have a wide base, others are know as buckets, which do not have a pedestal. They can be made of many materials including wood, glass, plastic, porcelain or metals.

The earliest images of egg cups appear in a Turkish mosaic dating to about 3AD and examples were found among the Pompeii ruins of 79AD. It wasn’t until the late 1800’s that egg cups were produced as individual pieces of dinnerware and in most cases, silver egg cups were gilded on the inside. These early examples of egg cups are very hard to come by because they were used as everyday dinnerware and often got chipped or broken. The Wabash egg cup pictured above sold on eBay for over $760.00.

NOVA-Antiques Newsletter Archive – August 24, 2006 . . . . .

Pairpoint Glass and the American Brilliant Cut Glass Period

Pairpoint, the company that has been crafting beautiful art glass for over one hundred years was a merger between two companies, Mount Washington Glass Company and Pairpoint Silver Company. They merged in 1894 to become Pairpoint and a derivative of the company still does business today in Pairpoint Glass Works in Sagamore, Massachusetts. The original company produced hand blown art glass lamp shades as well as cut glass lamps. However, the glass that most people associate with Pairpoint as well as other companies of the time comes from the American Brilliant period, the mid 19th Century to the early 20th Century.

Many companies including Pairpoint produced what is sometimes known as ABCG glass (American Brilliant Cut Glass). This type of glass was usually thick and cut in many patterns, with the hobstar being one of the top designs and motifs generated by all the glass houses of the time. A lot of ABCG collectors favor the signed pieces, especially those by Libbey and Hawkes as well as pieces that were named for American statesmen. ABCG can ranges in price from relatively inexpensive to very expensive. A ruby cut glass wine goblet in the Lincoln Pattern once sold at a Christie’s auction for close to $23,000.