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My smashing success

PrettySquareGal

I'll Lock Up
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4,003
Location
New England
Today I found a set six 1950's starburst tumblers in mint condition! Five bucks! They were packed in a paper bag which I held from the top as I got out of my car. It ripped in a matter of seconds and the bag went crashing to the ground. :( I lost two of them.

Just sharing.
 

KittyT

I'll Lock Up
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4,463
Location
Boston, MA
PrettySquareGal said:
Today I found a set six 1950's starburst tumblers in mint condition! Five bucks! They were packed in a paper bag which I held from the top as I got out of my car. It ripped in a matter of seconds and the bag went crashing to the ground. :( I lost two of them.

Just sharing.

So sorry to hear :( You still have 4 cool tumblers for $5 though, and that's still pretty good. Check on Ebay - there is tons and tons and tons of old china and glassware up there and it's usually pretty easy to find pieces to match, unless it's a really rare pattern.
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
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9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
X-actly the same thing happened to me last time I moved. Girlfriend picked up a box that had a taped handle, not realizing the tape was not really secure. Smasheroony.
 

J. M. Stovall

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,152
Location
Historic Heights Houston, Tejas
We had a collection of those old frosted glasses from all the states we had ever lived in, about 15 total. When we put out the Christmas decorations we packed them away to make room, and after the holidays when I was getting boxes down from the attic the box holding those tumbled down the stairwell crashing to the floor. Only California survived :( .
 

BegintheBeguine

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Tell yourself this:

The broken ones were the ones that had held poison in them. You're better off!
I have an amusing story, I think, about breaking a glass from a set. When I ran an antique store I had my hair in a big bouffant and one day dropped my pen. As I bent over to pick it up my hair got stuck on a price tag attached to the fifth cordial glass ( #six was already missing). I carefully lifted my head but the glass fell and broke. No sooner had I swept it up and reattached the sticker until I could change the price than a lady came in and bought the 'set of four'!
Any number of vintage glasses is better than none.
Ashley
 

PrettySquareGal

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4,003
Location
New England
J. M. Stovall said:
I've broken things vintage a few time over the years, and I always feel terrible for a while. I think how this great piece of history was perfectly fine for 50 or more years-until it met me.:mad:

That is what bothers me. I pictured a housewife taking such good care of them, and then being passed along, and then surviving the handling at the collectibles shop (and they were not in a glass case). Or, maybe they had some other near misses. And I ended their long life in an instant!
 

PrettySquareGal

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,003
Location
New England
BegintheBeguine said:
The broken ones were the ones that had held poison in them. You're better off!
I have an amusing story, I think, about breaking a glass from a set. When I ran an antique store I had my hair in a big bouffant and one day dropped my pen. As I bent over to pick it up my hair got stuck on a price tag attached to the fifth cordial glass ( #six was already missing). I carefully lifted my head but the glass fell and broke. No sooner had I swept it up and reattached the sticker until I could change the price than a lady came in and bought the 'set of four'!
Any number of vintage glasses is better than none.
Ashley

You know, things have been going well for me lately. They must have been like the Tiki doll from The Brady Bunch!
 

Mojito

One Too Many
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1,371
Location
Sydney
It is a heartbreaker - and when it's vintage, there's always that added burden of guilt, although it was simply an accident like happens to us all at some point (I'll never forget feeling a seam pop a couple of stiches - oh, the self-recrimination!) Hope you find the replacements in an equally great deal!
 

PrettySquareGal

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4,003
Location
New England
Some people are unlucky in love.

I'm unlucky with vintage 1950's tumblers.

I've been looking for a set of six flamingo tumblers for years. I finally found the right set and I paid good money for them. Hand painted, frosted, all of that good stuff.

They arrived safely.

I was removing the bubble wrap from the last one, when, I don't know how it happened really, but I was pulling it out gently (the bubble wrap was still taped around it) when suddenly it overshot and fell to the ground. Smashed into pieces.

:(
 

Puzzicato

One Too Many
Messages
1,843
Location
Ex-pat Ozzie in Greater London, UK
PrettySquareGal said:
That is what bothers me. I pictured a housewife taking such good care of them, and then being passed along, and then surviving the handling at the collectibles shop (and they were not in a glass case). Or, maybe they had some other near misses. And I ended their long life in an instant!

I know that feeling! My grandmother gave me a tea-set that her father gave her in the early 50s, and she said that she'd never even chipped or cracked a single piece. I've moved house several times since, including moving between hemispheres, and I can't even bear to open the box now, because I don't want to know if I have chipped anything!
 

Fleur De Guerre

Call Me a Cab
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2,056
Location
Walton on Thames, UK
I smashed a beautiful teacup from pre-war Germany the other day - it had obviously made it over here in the last 70 years, been treasured and kept safe, then old butterfingers here gets hold of it... muppet.

The irony is that I was pulling out my most unremarkable and non-rare teacups to give away, when the fatal smash occurred. :eusa_doh:
 

PrettySquareGal

I'll Lock Up
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4,003
Location
New England
Fleur De Guerre said:
I smashed a beautiful teacup from pre-war Germany the other day - it had obviously made it over here in the last 70 years, been treasured and kept safe, then old butterfingers here gets hold of it... muppet.

The irony is that I was pulling out my most unremarkable and non-rare teacups to give away, when the fatal smash occurred. :eusa_doh:

I don't understand it. I've handled all kinds of old and fragile glassware successfully. Why must it happen to the most cherished pieces! Perhaps we get anxious and our hands tremble while handling them? Or is there something more sinister at play, like possessive ghosts (maybe former owners) making it appear accidental. Hmm :eek:
 

Foofoogal

Banned
Messages
4,884
Location
Vintage Land
I am great at research. Send me a photo and I possibly can replace these things for you all.
I love all vintage and giving back memories. I just found a matching sugar for a person that had the matching creamer from 1880s or so. Makes me so happy to do this.

I have only personally broken 1 eggcup selling glassware even doing shows since 1996 and I am mainly a glass lady or started out that way. I have handled hundreds of pieces of glass.
:eek:fftopic: One time I was in a shop and saw a whole display with about 40 suntea jars. Those great big ones. I reached into bottom shelf to get one at back of course. The whole cheap shelf gave way and I promise everyone of those jars broke. Glass was flying all around me. I was sitting in a sea of broken glass. Not one piece cut me. I could not move and was yelling for help. The angels were with me that day. So maybe I broke my quota of my lifetime glass that day. lol
As a kid I was constantly breaking glass tumblers. Maybe you all need to start selling. :p
 

vitanola

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Messages
4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
A couple of years ago I was cleaning out the cupboards and set three stacks of Pearlware and Lusterware plates of various patterns on a table. I left the door to the room open a crack when called to dinner, and a cat belonging to a houseguest apparently decided to investigate. I passed the room , saw the cat on the table, and HISSED at it. I'm sure that you know the rest of the story.

I no longer collect these wares.
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
Note for future referance: When kitty kat is in a position to do massive damage with a single panicked leap, the proper course is to calmly and casually and gently invite him or her to gently and calmly and casually hop down from that spot.
 

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