|
For a printer-friendly version of this article, click here.
What a Ride in Life Collecting Punch Sets Our first punch bowl we bought was a rarity we bought the marigold Whirling Star punch bowl and base from Darryl and Norma Strohm when they sold their collection at HOACGA 1997. It is massive and I believe it to be the only known old marigold punch bowl. What excitement when we were the successful bidders. We still get that feeling today.
The second punch bowl and base we bought from Swede Tilberg. He finally sold me (Emmett paid) a beautiful Many Fruits with a ruffle base. It is wonderful and I had a hard time letting go! It has such even and heavy iridescence inside and out. Whoever the next owner of this Many Fruits will be, it will be a treasure to own. The third one we acquired was from John Muehlbauer. Thank goodness he was building a new home with Jan and felt he would not have room for his beautiful master Grape and Cable punch bowls! He sold us the purple one. Needless to say you know he had an eye for iridescence. It is another massive piece of glass. It amazes me that such a large piece of carnival could be made. Masters are masters of punch sets. Another master set we are selling is a green one that John and Jeanette Rogers finally sold us and it makes a statement also. My memory is now blurred and I cannot continue with which one was bought next and etc. Needless to say, Emmett surely cannot remember either!!! So I will just continue our saga of acquiring punch sets. I drank another martini when the S-Repeat punch set was wrapped. Thank goodness Stacy and Des Wills needed money to buy a Millersburg piece and they felt like they could part with a Dugan piece!!!! This set is just spectacular. According to Stacy he bought it at the 1998 Stremming auction. If you ever wanted to own an S-Repeat, this is the one for you.
I probably like Imperial more than Emmett and in our second collection I will again have Imperial punch sets. One of my favorite is the electric Flute punch bowl and base. We were fortunate to go to a Jim Wroda appreciation auction and bum off with Stacy and Des for a few days. This set either belonged to Randy and Jackie Poucher or Paul and Dee Bekemeier and I had to hold my hand up often because another friend wanted it also. The smoke Fashion Punch set was purchased at the Sunshine Convention and belonged to John and Jeanette Rogers and is nothing to sneeze at either. We went to the Sunshine Convention and we were the successful bidders. Smoke can be such a beautiful color with the right type of iridescence and in my opinion it has it. This set and color would be a nice addition to anyone’s collection. Emmett and I were delighted when we acquired the emerald green Four Seventy Four punch bowl and base at a Texas convention. Another person who collects and knows his imperial is Roy Hieger and he and his daughter each sold us a cup. Another martini was drunk after this set left our house.
As you can see by now we collected all makers of punch sets except Millersburg. One day we hope to own one. The Northwood emerald green Acorn and Burr bought at a Texas convention auction has even iridescence and has just enough of that blue!! Cannot remember how we obtained that one. The white Acorn and Burr used to be owned by Nona Taylor of Texas. It is nice and frosty. In fact, she was the very first person who sold us something from a window display. We love the pattern Memphis. I think Emmett has fond memories of Memphis since there is where he spent his childhood and grew up to be that good guy I know and love. In fact, Emmett refused to grow up!!!!!! The green Memphis used to be owned by Franny Difilippo, the pumpkin marigold and white frosty Memphis sets I have no idea where we acquired those. Memory does fade with youth!! Peacock at the Fountain is another favorite pattern. Northwood did well with that pattern. Tom Mordini sold us many great pieces of glass but at one convention he really got Emmett hooked on the Lime green Peacock at the Fountain. Mordini did his sales pitch, I blessed it and Emmett paid for it!!! The marigold was added to our collection from an auction and the three of them made for a nice display above the TV. The purple one we went all the way to a Woody auction being held in St. Louis. The picture in the brochure was not as good as the real thing. When I saw it I said “holy _____” as well as when we saw the emerald green Chrysanthemum chop plate that is now owned by Stacy and Des Wills.
The purple Broken Arches used to be owned by Jane Dinkins of Texas and was I on Cloud 9 when she offered to sell it to us. Jane kept finding that her cat loved to crawl into the punch bowl for its nap and she was afraid the cat would break it. Due to possible earthquakes, our friends in California do not always want punch sets. That is how we acquired a blue small stippled Grape and Cable set at one of their fun filled Southern California Convention. The green Cambridge Hobstar is the only one known and if you like one of a kind, this punch bowl is for you. Steve Davis was the first carnival collector to own the Cambridge Hobstar and sold it to the Pouchers. Dee Bekemeier loves red and when I bought the red stretch punch bowl from Bill and Sharon Mizell , I thought I could be like Dee!!!! Maybe we will never own 20 punch bowls again, but we had a blast collecting these. Now needless to say, Emmett and I were not always in the same book when they were purchased. As our good friend Rick Stockhill would say “sometimes we’re not only not in the same book, we’re not even in the same library”!!!!!!!
When you take one of these punch bowls home, we know they will be in good hands and be enjoyed each and every day as we enjoyed them. Here is a listing of our punch bowls in the auction by lot number (all of which are pictured in this article:
Merry Christmas to all and have a happy prosperous New Year. We will continue in January with another segment of our wonderful addiction and ride of collecting carnival glass plates. Dorothy and Emmett Morgan |
