The
PatternGlass.com Story
As
with so many antiques dealers, beginning a business was the furthest
thought
from our minds when we headed south to DisneyWorld in our old motor home
in 1989. The trip home included a visit to relatives in Louisiana and
as part
of the local scene, we were treated to some great antiques stores. Elaine's
Mother had inherited a few pieces of old glass in a pattern she called "Feather"
so having nothing better to do in antiques stores, we looked for some of
that glass. Bill found a wine glass in Feather for $5 and that made his
day.
Our next antique excursion was to a ghost town in northern
New Mexico where we splurged about $3 on a couple more little wine glasses
which appeared to be similar to our Feather ones. As we cast around for more
"old glass" dishes, the "hunt" became fun, the "finds"
became a challenge to identify and money spent for the stuff became almost
like monopoly money! As we bought to learn, we now consider some of our early
purchases as "tuition". We finally identified our ghost town wine
glasses- they are the Greentown Cord Drapery pattern.
"The Hook" gradually set in, our trips & vacations
became nothing more than compulsive treasure hunts, our old motor home was
replaced by a new Coach and our home became a museum of old glass. Enter the
need to DO SOMETHING with all this glass and the Computer to do it with. With
tons of help from our sons and inspiration from the folks at Replacements,
Ltd., we launched a "Mom & Pop" pattern-matching service, put
our meager inventory into a database and invited others to add their inventories
to it. Then we advertised for collectors.
Today
Our
computer pattern glass database has grown to some 35,000 pieces (a gross guesstimate),
our Want List includes pieces of over 600 patterns, and our circle of EAPG
friends has expanded
around the world! Email expanded our correspondence
horizons and now here we are,
8 Grandboys & 1 Grandgirl later-- on the
World Wide Web!!!
Future Vision
As technology collides with the past--- keep checking with us as we continue to bring our business into the 21st century with more on-line information and services including our Pattern Glass Store and ever-growing Pattern Glass School!