New Features on Miami Valley Study Group Web Site

This summer and early fall has been a slow period for project completion. However, we can report that several additions have been made to our web site during the last two months.

1. 432 photos have been added to our reference photo albums. Most of them came from the October National Cambridge Collectors quarterly meeting program on "Fall Colors" or from the photo shoot of the Lots for the 2018 auction. See prior posts for guidance on searching for and displaying new photos.

2. A video of the "Fall Colors" program has been added to our videos page along with a video on the "Bring and Brag" presentation after the main program.

3. A new photo album has been created to display the 424 lots for the 2018 auction.

4. A new feature was added to our home page to display a listing of original catalogs and price lists. Links on this new page allow you to access the National Cambridge Collectors publications page for reprinted items available for sale or to view or download those catalogs and price lists not reprinted.

5. A second new feature was added to our home page to display many miscellaneous Cambridge Glass Company documents including sales brochure, sales booklets, molds junked during WWII, mold order books, move & cost lists and advertising mats. All these documents can be downloaded for off-line research. More such documents will be added from time to time. Watch this blog for messages when new items are added to this page.

6. And, finally, the Miami Valley Study Group has created a YouTube© video channel to provided more access to educational videos on Cambridge Glass. The channel has the first two of six planned short videos on Cambridge Swans. In additional to the six videos on Swans, plans are to create short videos on other Cambridge Glass topics. We recommend that you subscribe to the channel to receive automatic notifications when new videos are added to the channel. To subscribe, click this link and click the "Subscribe" button on the right side of the page.

Enjoy these new items!!

Cambridge Price Lists

The latest major feature added to our web site is 50 Original Cambridge Price Lists containing over 1900 pages. This was done in response to requests at this year’s annual convention of National Cambridge Collectors, Inc. The value in price lists is that they contain information on Cambridge Glass not normally available in Cambridge Glass catalogs. Some catalogs contain both images of Cambridge Glass production items and prices, mostly pharmaceutical catalogs. The price lists are great research tools when used in conjunction with original catalog reprints, our online trade advertising and photo albums. You will find a link to the list of the 50 price lists above and near the bottom of our home page at mvsg.org. This list contains active links to each of the price lists along with a general description of the price list. ENJOY!

New Videos from the 2017 Convention

In an effort to keep everyone informed of new items or features on the Miami Valley Study Group web site, we are announcing the addition of three new videos from the 2017 National Cambridge Collectors, Inc. convention held in June. These videos include:

"Digital Safari" by Miami Valley Study Group narrated by Larry Everett: a basic tutorial on how to use the search functions on the MVSG.ORG main web site and the PHOTO ALBUMS site.

"Cambridge Animals" presented by Lynn Welker: a discussion of many of the animals found in Cambridge Glass products.

Bring and Brag Session Video Narrated by Lynn Welker: the usual session on items presented for identification.

At the same time, the ever expanding videos page has been reorganized to make it easier to locate new videos. Newer videos appear at the top of each video section and older videos have been transferred to a secondary page for that section. No videos have been removed from our site, just moved around and to separate pages.

More Trade Publication Articles

Today, we announce the addition of seven more years of Cambridge Glass advertisements and articles from China, Glass & Lamps and Crockery and Glass Journal from 1923 through 1929. This brings the total coverage of articles for the period 1901 through 1929, half of the production life of the Cambridge Glass Company, 1901 to 1958.

We have also added highlight notes on the 1901-1922 years covering shapes or lines, colors, decorations and special events occurring or listed in those years. These notes appear at the top the the web page for the years indicated. Highlight notes will be added to 1923-1929 in the near future.

The overview web page providing access to these advertisements and articles is found at: http://www.mvsg.org/tradead.

New Videos and Photographs at MVSG.org

Late 2016 and four months in 2017 have been busy times adding videos and photos to our web site and photo albums.

You will find new videos of the “Bring and Brag” sessions at the October 2016 and March 2017 quarterly meetings. Click here to view these and other educational programs and Hollywood videos.

473 photos were added in November 2016. These photos feature new items from the 2017 NCC auction photography session in November and Miami Valley Study Group (MVSG) meetings in late 2016. You can conduct a “Search” function to see these photos using the following search parameters:

Search Box [space character]

Newer than 178 days

Older than 118 days

Increase the “Days” counts for the difference between today’s date (April 28, 2017) and the date you perform this search. Alternately, you could enter the name of your favorite etching in the search box if you track a particular etching, e.g. “point” for Rose Point etching. If your favorite etching is numbered only, enter “e” and the number without spaces, like “e731”, in the search box. Also check the “Filename” check box to increase the probability of search hits.

224 photos and images were added in April 2017 from a variety of sources. Featured items include pharmaceutical items from an MVSG program and two newly acquired pharmaceutical catalogs from 1905 and 1907. A new “ID Aid” album was created to facilitate identifying pharmaceutical items. The “Search” function can also be used to view these images using the following search parameters:

Search Box [space character]

Newer than  5  days

Also featured in these latest photos are new images from another newly acquired Cambridge catalog covering the 2636 “2636 "Sunburst" Line. This makes the coverage on the Sunburst line more complete.

Those readers planning to attend this year’s NCC convention should also plan to attend an educational session by the Miami Valley Study Group covering how to maximize the use of the key features on the MVSG web site for identification of Cambridge glass. Bring your laptop, internet enabled tablet or smart phone with data plan to this session. It is currently scheduled for 4:00 PM, Thursday, June 22^nd.

Access to this BLOG is now available using an encrypted connection at:  https://miami-valley-study-group.blogspot.com.

2017 NCC Benefit Auction Photos Online

National Cambridge Collectors, Inc. will hold its annual benefit auction on March 4, 2017 at the Pritchard Laughlin Convention Center, Cambridge, Ohio. Photographs of the 430 lots are now available for viewing at: http://auctions.mvsg.org/. A listing of the auction lots and instructions for participating in the auction in person or by mail bid is scheduled to be published in the January 2017 issue of the Crystal Ball newsletter. Selected lot and group photographs are scheduled to be published in the February 2017 issue. Highlights of the auction will be presented during the March quarterly meeting the evening before the auction. Watch the NCC web site for an early look at the group photos.

Major New Feature started on our main web site

 We are pleased to announce the first phase of a major new feature for our main web site. Have you ever wished that you had access to the glass trade advertising and articles involving the Cambridge Glass Company used by Crystal Ball article writers for the past 40 years? Only those club members involved in the original research in the 1970s and 1980s and those with time and easy access to the research room at the museum have had access to this information.

Now everyone will have access through our web site. Phase 1 is now online covering the first 22 years of Cambridge history from 1901 to 1922.  It can be accessed from our HOME page at the bottom of the image table or directly at TRADEAD. These articles and advertisements include actual Cambridge advertisements although Cambridge didn’t publish as many ads in the early years as in later years. These advertisements range from notice of the Cambridge exhibit location during the annual Pittsburgh glass show to hints of new items to be introduced to ads showing examples of new items being produced. Most of the information is in articles written by publication staff writers containing the latest news about Cambridge. The information in these articles varies from the writer’s description of new items shown by Cambridge at the Pittsburgh show and in Cambridge’s permanent showrooms to tidbits about company personnel travels, illnesses, funerals and reassignments. There is a wide variety of information in these tidbits. Much of the information in these short articles may not be of much interest to many collectors but, in total, these articles describe many of the production issues faced by Cambridge over the years including the impact of foreign competition, two world wars and the great depression along with lesser issues like plant fires and breaking melting pots.

A separate web page is available for each journal for each year. The publication journals included are:

Glass and Pottery World – 1901-1909 (publication discontinued in 1909)

Pottery, Glass and Brass Salesman – 1910-1942 (1923-1942 not researched)

Crockery and Glass Journal – 1875-1961 (1906-1958 only researched)

China, Glass and Lamps – 1890 to Date (1907-1958 only researched)

Not every one of the weekly issues of these publications was available to research; sometimes even whole semi-annual volumes were missing.

Everyone is encouraged to read through this information. There are hidden gems about new  decorations not currently known or documented. There is even a new color name not yet identified or included in current lists of known Cambridge colors. The most important value of this information is the timing of release or introduction of new items by Cambridge that cannot be deduced from catalog reprints and other resources.

This initial offering in phase 1 covering 1901-1922 is only the start. As time permits, additional years will be added and announced in this blog. Only China, Glass and Lamps and Crockery and Glass Journal items will be included in future releases.