Topic: "American Collector" archive

[Glen]

My friend, Dave Margulius, at the Collectors Weekly in the US has told me about a feature they have just made available. It's an archive of American Collector magazine articles that were originally published in the 1930s and 40s. You can see them here:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/category/american-collector/

Glen

[Anne]

Glen, thank you for posting this, it looks fascinating. I can see where I'll be for the weekend - happily reading. Thank you. :kissy:

[Lustrousstone]

Thank you Glen, great link

[Pip]

 :hiclp: Glen what a timely link!  The past few weeks I've been attempting to undertake a little research on various American pottery and glass makers to try and get a little knowledge on the subject - this will be extremely helpful in my quest.

Thanks for sharing it :-)

[KevinH]

Thanks for that link, Glen.

As a general comment, I would offer:

It's always good to read what was said in past years and this helps to put some things into a better context.

Also, it gives clues to how some opinions have developed over the years and how some "conflicts" with later thinking have arisen or been resolved. An example of something along those lines appears in the archived article, "Flashback: Paperweights, Rare and Not So Rare" by Evangeline H. Bergstrom, first appearing in the 1943 edition of American Collector. Two of the paperweights shown were also illustrated in Bergstrom's classic 1940 book Old Glass Paperweights. The one stated to be "Bristol" remained as such in the 1947 reprint of the book but there appers to be no evidence for paperweights of that type ever being made at Bristol. I think it is possible that the weight shown was either of 1920s / 1930s French origin or perhaps from Murano. The second weight, with a "P.Y" signature was, in the 1940 book, said to be by an unknown French maker but this was removed entirely from the 1947 reprint (along with a another "P.Y" signed example). The archived 1943 American Collector article shows that Bergstrom made every effort to correct her misunderstandings / errors, but that the then current knowledge only went as far as a next best guess by stating the the "P.Y." initials "... are now generally accepted as the mark of the Czech weight-maker turned Scotsman." As most paperweight collectors now know, the "P.Y" initials were for Paul Ysart, working in Scotland and his family was Spanish.

So, no critiscm on my part, just a general reminder that all older articles should be read with caution and, where possible, always compared to later text on the subject.