Topic: FBS mark (French, Scottish, Italian & Czech glass) ... Solved - See Post 88

[sao125]

Hello everyone -- I'm going to post these additional photos of the oval dish that has the mark just in case it can help someone in the FSB-Y search. Maybe it will give someone a hint or clue of another place to look, etc. I only included the one side of the dish -- the other side is the 'friendlier' scene!

Sorry if this posted twice -- was having problems getting it to post.

[flying free]

I'm sure this could be a red herring but remembering that Butler Brothers catalogues have Czech glass in and I thought they were importers/distributors (sorry, I don't know enough about these things so I'm just dredging info from memory) I looked them up to see if any retail/importer names came up.  I'm guessing someone has already done this but thought I'd post the link here to see as a bit of 'brain storming'  
to see if the precis can maybe shed any light.  They were part of something called the Ben Franklin Stores BFS? however it seems those stores were five and dime - does that mean cheap?  so I don't know if any of the items being discussed would have retailed at those kind of stores anyway.  Just thinking out loud.....Modified but I've left it in- I'm guessing that these kind of stores would not have been retailing any of the items .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butler_Brothers
m

[flying free]

umm, still just thinking out loud here and a long shot I know but...Butler Brothers also had a chain called Federated...could FBS stand for Federated Butler Stores or something?  according to what I've read Ben Franklin were 'variety stores' which seems to be five and dime but Federated are referred to as Department Stores.  Given Butler Brothers imported Kralik glass they clearly did import things that I guess cost more than a five and dime type place might sell, so could it be that the Federated Stores (department stores) owners were the purchasers of these pieces?
m

[Frank]

Monart would be classed as high end in the 30s and very expensive, as too would some of the other glass with the mark. Smoot-Hawley tariff act link is not likely as that merely required country of origin and all of the FBS marks on Monart also carried the Monart mark used ONLY for export to the USA. Further, not all Monart with the US export mark carried the FBS mark. The main benefit of the act which was dropped in 1944 is that we know the FBS mark was used somewhere in the period of 1930 to 1939 (maybe until 1944 but not Monart.) This, as far as I am concerned, is the worst documented area of US glass trade history and many of the companies in the business changed names or just disappeared during WW2..

sao125 what is the date of your piece?

[sao125]

No idea at all on the date of my piece. Found it at my mom's house (estate). My dad had a antique store and bought stuff everywhere.  When mom saw something she liked that dad had bought or she thought it was worth money, she'd snatch it. I'm guessing this was one of those occurences. Or else she may have found it at a garage sale. It was out in the garage, wrapped in newspaper from around the year 2000, and then inside a plastic bag and written on it was 'old dish'. I didn't ever remember seeing it before and I'm sure it wouldn't have been my grandma's (because of the scene on the other side of it, she wouldn't have let it in her house I don't think!)

I'm sure it's not from the Ben Franklin store though. I've been to probably a hundred different Ben Franklin stores in my life. They weren't super cheap, but usually reasonable. They were a variety store and had a small departments of things: some giftware, fabric, yarn, crafts, some clothing, hardware, linens, towels, cards, toys, even used to have live birds and goldfish, etc.  They were individually owned franchises - not a chain store, so they did their own ordering. As far as glassware/ceramics, the only 'brand' I can think of that I ever saw them carry was Enesco. Another point that it wouldn't been Ben Franklin is they NEVER sold any limited edition or numbered items. This dish is #3 of 108 that were made.

I'm also sure that Ben Franklin didn't carry any of your high end glass -- their's was always very reasonable priced -- I recall purchasing some little glass dishes when I was young for about 19 cents each and they were seamed glass.

[sao125]

sorry if this is a dumb question -- are the glass items marked FSB colored glass? I'm on a good lead!

[Lustrousstone]

This dish is #3 of 108 that were made.

Unless your dish is pretty new, that's unlikely to be an edition mark; it's far more likely to be the decorator's mark

[Frank]

sorry if this is a dumb question -- are the glass items marked FSB colored glass? I'm on a good lead!

All types of mostly art-deco period glass.

[Frank]

Solved. Ferdinand Bing & Co. Successors (1900-31) then Friedlander Buying Service (1931-WW2)

http://www.porcelainmarksandmore.com/related/usa/newyork-08/index.php

Spotted by Tony.

[Mod: edited to add] ... Just in case the URL does not work at some stage ...
The above businesses were successive proprietors of a New York importer / retailer - originally Ferdinand Bing & Co from at least 1888.

[Lustrousstone]

Brilliant!