First let me introduce myself. I am Mark T from West Virginia. My wife and I have recently opened an ebay consignment shop in town, and I am getting overrun by glassware and questions about it of one kind or another. I love it when people bring me old items from Fenton or elsewhere, but I am essentially an amature at ID'ing old, old glassware. I want to tell my clients the right thing, but I will not knowingly rip them off or misrepresent an item to the public for sale on ebay or anywhere else. By the way, I live about ten minutes from the Fenton factory. Anyway...
A nice lady brought a Carnival compote to me yesterday and said it belonged to her great grandmother. Well, it looked like Fenton to me, but it looked so old that I took it up to their meusem. The historian had a blast with it and actually was a tad bit stumped, if only for a few minutes. And then he found the same mold in a Fenton book (ware # 8227). But the story goes on. He is convinced that this piece pre-dates Fenton's offerings. He says that the piece is actually a US Glass creation because it's iridescence was slightly different than Fenton works. Upon further reseach it was discovered that Fenton actually bought that mold from USG many years later, well after this piece was made. It was also noted that the piece was "overfired" before the coating was applied, creating softer tips around the rim and causing the five sided pedestal to slightly twist under the weight of the top portion. It looks like it was all done on purpose.
This is a beautiful piece of old glassware and, from what I am told, could be quite valuable. The historian at Fenton Art Glass has asked that I share with him any more information I can find about this compote. So, where do I go now? I hate to just stick a nice piece on regular old ebay to go for a buck or two just because my client doesn't know what she has.
Any ideas where I can turn? If it keeps up like this, I might become quite a fixture in this forum (if you'll have me). Thanks to you all in advance.
PS Still working on figuring out the picture thing.