The Greentown Glass Museum Auction – October 10, 2009

Greentown glass Cord Drapery pattern cobalt blue compote and flat lid

The Greentown Glass Museum held a consignment auction featuring about 220 lots of glassware on Oct. 10, 2009, at Greentown, Ind. Conducted by Otto Auction Service, the sale was the museum’s sixth fundraiser in five years.

Generally, items from one collection make up the bulk of each sale, while three or four other consignors add to the mix. This sale had eight consignors.

“None of the glass is from the museum,” stressed Gary Buckley, who helped coordinate the event for the museum.

“The quality was good overall, but there were fewer rarities than in past sales,” said Buckley. The top price of the auction was $700. There was no buyer’s premium.

Patterns and colors that continue to attract attention, according to Buckley, are Holly in golden agate, Cord Drapery in cobalt-blue and Teardrop & Tassel in amber. “If you get something rare in the animal dishes and toothpicks, they sell very well too,” he added.

“The rare stuff is bringing the top dollar it’s ever brought. The common pieces haven’t been bringing as good a dollar as they were in the past. It seems that’s fallen off a little bit.”

For that reason, the auction was a boon for beginning collectors, who were able to pick up some entry- and intermediate-level pieces of glassware at reasonable prices.

Much of the glassware went to four bidders. “One of them was an established collector, but the other three were pretty much beginning, early collectors, and they bought a lot of stuff,” said Buckley. “It made our sale.”

Patterns for which interest has waned include Leaf Bracket and Cactus. “Some of those pieces don’t bring what they were bringing.”

While the recession isn’t solely to blame, the downturned American economy is still affecting the market. As Buckley noted, “If people are having a hard time making their house payments, they aren’t going to spend it on glassware.”

-Don Johnson, Editor, p4A.com