Education gives collectors an edge

Educated collectors find bargains. The more you know, the more likely you are to find a "sleeper" at a house sale or auction. And it is also important to handle a piece to judge weight, texture and quality.

Recently a group of five blown-glass champagne glasses were offered at auction. Each glass had a transparent "globe" on the stem with a tiny colored glass bird inside. The bowl and base of the glasses had lines of color swirled in the glass. They were in the style of Bimini glass, a relatively unknown but expensive collectible glass.

Fritz Lampl (1892-1955) made hand-blown glassware, often with tiny lampwork figures, at his workshop in Vienna in 1923. Lampwork is a special way of sculpting thin rods of glass heated over an open flame. It's a method often used by today's artists to make beads.

In Vienna, the Bimini factory made glasses, cocktail sticks, figures (especially ballerinas), lamps and vases. The glass was marked with paper labels. In 1938 Lampl moved to London and started the Orplid workshop that specialized in glass buttons. The company was out of business before Lampl died in 1955.

Others copied his style and made similar glasses, decanters, perfume bottles, swizzle sticks and tiny animals. An expert who handles glass can tell the difference. It would be difficult to be sure in an online auction. Glass objects by Bimini are very lightweight. The shape and posture of the figures are accurate but lack details. Swirled green lines and birds are both found in glasses by Bimini and imitators.

The auctioned champagnes identified only as art deco, not Bimini, sold for $40 each. The glass price guides show similar Bimini glasses with birds at $300 each. Were they an unrecognized bargain or were they just attractive glasses? Careful examination by a glass expert will tell.

Q: My mother had a Hoosier-style cabinet in our kitchen for as long as I can remember. The small clock set in the top of it still runs and the roll-top works, too. The finish on the whole cabinet is white enamel. What can you tell me about it?

A: An Indiana man named J.S. McQuinn is credited with inventing a freestanding kitchen cabinet with bins for dry ingredients like flour and sugar, a tin work surface (later changed to porcelain enamel), and lots of drawers and cabinets for pots, pans, bowls, dishes and utensils. McQuinn founded the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. in Albany, Ind., in 1899, then moved it to New Castle, Ind., after a fire.

Many other manufacturers, most of them in Indiana, produced similar cabinets. They have all become generically known as "Hoosier cabinets." Look inside the drawers and doors on your cabinet to see if you can find a manufacturer's name.

Even if you can't, your cabinet could be valuable. Its price is determined by what it's made of and its size and condition. Many sell for $500 to $1,500.

By the early 1940s, built-in kitchen cabinets had replaced Hoosier cabinets.

Tip: Check the claw settings on any antique jewelry to be sure the prongs are not worn or loose. It is cheaper to be careful than to replace lost stones.

Terry Kovel's column is syndicated by King Features. Write to: Kovels, (Las Vegas Review-Journal), King Features Syndicate, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019.