Northwood Grape & Cable Ice Blue Dresser Set
Description
On Collecting a Complete
Northwood Grape & Cable Ice Blue Dresser Set
by Ray Henry
Our eyes were first opened to Carnival Glass thanks to Don Moore’s article published in the early 70’s in the “Antique Trader.” Carnival Glass according to him seemed to be a strong, upcoming market to invest in. We also saw it as something beautiful to adorn our barren Victorian furniture with.
Off we went to every show, sale, and auction. We soon realized we really didn’t know much about this glass. Thanks to Rose Presznick, Marion Hartung, and our own local author Sheman Hand from Rochester, New York, we amassed all the books we could. Now armed with information we set off again.
We had been collecting for about seven years when we heard about an auction Tom Burns was having. It was in his hometown in Bath, New York, about an hour south of us.This was one of his first auctions and being friends with him we couldn’t or wouldn’t miss it.
We hadn’t settled into any collection style yet. As we looked at the glass being offered, one piece caught our eye. It was a beautiful ice blue Grape & Cable dresser tray. We went all in on it and got it for $300.00. I happened to be sitting next to Sterling Butz, of Pennsylvania. He offered his bidding card so we could avoid the NY State 7% sales tax. Wonderful help to a young couple. As I kept looking at the dresser tray, I turned to Shirley and said, “I think we ought to put the ice blue dresser set together”. She has always been supportive but still thought I was crazy.
The original Grape & Cable dresser set included two cologne bottles, a powder jar, a hat pin holder, a small pin tray and a large dresser tray.
Shirley bought our first cologne from a Cooper auction in Cleveland in 1982. We were on our way.
Move on to November 2011, 29 years later, while visiting friends in Sandusky, MI, we attended an auction where we acquired the ice blue hatpin holder. I guess we are patient collectors. We wait for what we want, at a price we'd like to pay.
Two years later, I was telling Lloyd Ward that I was still looking for a pin tray, another cologne, and the covered powder jar. He said he had the pin tray and sent it to me at a reasonable price and the deal was struck. I have always enjoyed trying to deal with Lloyd. If you have not tried it you should. He does get some great glass and he’s fun to play with.
2014 was our banner year to reaching our goal. We obtained the second cologne at the Dave & Ruth Chronister Auction. I remember about thirty years before when it sold to Dave at an auction in a New England dairy barn. Dave told us he wanted it and being friends we bid on other things. We figured he would outbid us so why make him pay more. We were a young couple then on limited funds raising two expensive kids. Little did we imagine that we would be buying the same cologne from Ruth all these years later. Dave had paid $165.00 for it back then. We paid a whole lot more. Call it inflation.
Wow! Now we are down to just the powder jar. I had not seen one in mint condition with the lid at any of the auctions or sales that we were aware of. Dave Doty only lists prices for the bases selling. On line, Shirley heard of one selling on E-Bay. After a few stressful hours it was over. We did it. We had completed the set with no damage and nice color and it only took thirty-five years.
What we have learned over our forty plus years of collecting is to be patient, formulate a plan, try to avoid trends or fads, and avoid being manipulated. Remember the past trends of plates and peach opal? There is always something that is hot in the market. But something else always comes along to take the place of that piece you didn’t get. Buy what you like! Happy Hunting!
The Ray & Shirley Henry Collection
