FENTON FINDERS OF GREATER KANSAS CITY GEORGE AND NANCY FENTON The meeting of the Fenton Finders of Greater Kansas City will be Saturday, October 10 th 2009 at the Raytown City Hall, 10000 E. 59th Raytown, Missouri. The meeting will start at 7:00 P.M. Another Gala has come and gone. It was lots of fun for everyone who managed to come. George and Nancy Fenton were wonderful as they always are. With lots of information about the new products that Fenton is going to put in their line. They were scheduled to arrive in Kansas City around 1:30 P.M. Thursday but were held up in Chicago until almost 10:00 P.M. As you can well imagine they were very tired. However I heard that someone managed a few rounds of golf while in Kansas City. Thursday It started out as it always does with a lot of confusion and a little bit of frustration. First all the glass has to be set up for the big display; everyone who has glass in our Saturday auction needs to get it delivered to the hotel so when it is time to set up Steve Duncan and his crew can set it up. The
hospitality room is open and food is coming in from our many generous and hard working members. Glass sales are busy and people who preordered cats are picking them up. After getting our rooms and getting registered its time to shop the rooms. Things slow down until it is time for the Bar-be-que dinner and there is a rush to the second floor. We were still waiting for George and Nancy to get here when glass ID starts at 7 P.M. Tom Smith, Carolyn Kriner and Melvin Lampton do all the work and it was very enjoyable watching these three knowledgeable people explain why this piece o' glass was Fenton and that one was not. They very kindly identified some glass from other companies and more fun was had by all who attended. Afterward there was more room shopping as well as meeting up with old friends and new. Friday The day started early with a great breakfast and then for 18 people a rush to the salon were we got to set up our small table displays. It is kind of nice to get a peek at the tables before anyone else can. Carolyn Kriner then presented her seminar on rare pieces of Fenton Glass or WOW!; Where did that come from? She brought lots of slides to show us and gave everyone who attended a wonderful education on just what is out there hiding in someone's private collections. For some of you who are thinking that we were overworking Carolyn let me tell you I think she had as much fun as the rest of us were. We got to see some of the new Kelsey Murphy / Robert Bomkamp pieces that are in production now at the luncheon. George and Nancy invited everyone write out questions for them to answer at our dinner Saturday night. However, George took the position that he had the right to ignore any that he wanted to but it seemed he didn't ignore much, We had a great luncheon. Joy Livengood and Bev Spencer did a wonderful job picking out the menu for both the lunch and dinner. The Embassy Suites has consistently done a great job on our meals and Bev and Joy are doing a great job working with them to plan them and to set the tables up so that they are attractive and comfortable. As most of you know Tom Smith has always done the small table reviews. This year George and Nancy helped. It was very enjoyable listening to the information that they gave us. There was laughter as well as information. We had tables with old and new carnival glass, a table full of old and very rare
Fenton lamps that included a Ming Apple Tree vase made into a lamp and a wonderful Sung Ko lamp made in 1935 that looks very much like pottery. Value? How big is your pocket book? There was a table of Royal Blue that included another wonderful lamp that looked like it was made from the #898 11 1/2" vase in a very rare cased blue over white with cut-back floral design. Similar but not the same as the vase pictured on page 63 in William Heacock's book The Second Twenty Five Years. It was a joy for all Fenton collectors to see these three very rare lamps. We enjoyed seeing these as well as a table that had a collection of Turquoise and Green Pastel glass that also included some very rare and hard to find pieces of Fenton and a table of Plum Opalescent that two of our members put together. A table of Topaz thumbprint glass (very hard to find) and a very exciting table of Peach Blow and several tables that featured glass from the second twenty five years, Mongolian Green, Mandarin Red, Pekin Blue and more. A table of green and amber hobnail glass and a very nice display of Kaleidoscope nursery cup plates. There was a table that included a lot of the different colors of blue that Fenton has produced. We know that it only contained a few of the blues that Fenton has made but it was a really good try and a very nice table. Our reviewers decided that Fenton had made at least 90 different versions of the color blue. We had a table of Fenton liquor decanters from the 1930's and early 1940's. A very nice display by our members, doing a small display is very difficult but as most of our attendee's will attest it is well worth it for the education that it provides our members. After a break for dinner (really it was time to relax and do some room shopping, get a bite to eat. No one went down to the bar for happy hour - really) it was time for the seminar on glass from Fenton's Second Twenty Five Years. Richard Speaight, Bill Chadd, Steve and Nick Duncan, and Bernie Johnson did a wonderful job setting up the big display. There were over 250 pieces of glass on display. The sight was something that we will not see again. If you can, please check out our website, www.fentonfinderskc.net Bernie Johnston has posted pictures of the big display as well as all of our events at the Gala. This is something that you will need to see, words can not describe it. Nancy and George helped Richard do the seminar with Tom Smith sharing a lot of his knowledge as well. It was a fun as well as informative hour. There were many rare and hard to find pieces of glass on the display as well as a Wrisley cologne bottle and powder box. It was really neat to see that Richard took the time to honor this piece of glass that was not so rare but was so important in Fenton's history. After that everyone ran
over to the Ambassador Room to check out our auction glass that Steve Duncan and his friends had been busy setting up for us. This covers the first two days of our Gala - at least it covers the first two days that most people are aware of. It does not cover all the meetings that took place or the time spent working with Fenton to get a piece of glass made. It doesn t cover the time spent planning the menu, how to set the tables. How do you count the time spent picking and choosing the glass to go on the big display? Not to mention the stress of handling glass that is not your own but is very expensive and sometimes irreplaceable. It goes without saying that it takes a lot of planning to put together the hospitality room as well as a lot of work from our members who make the homemade salads and desserts that we serve. Hopefully you will all agree with me that it was well worth the effort. Saturday There was 249 pieces of glass in our Saturday morning auction. We had some very nice pieces of glass for sale Saturday, including a Green Opalescent New World decanter set, an Amber Ming decanter as well as a wonderful Lotus Mist Green Gone with the Wind lamp. Janet Wilke reported that on the average we got $82 for each piece of glass that was sold. That is a very good average. Jim Wroda, our auctioneer, did a wonderful job. We all enjoyed Eddie Powers and his wonderful sense of humor in our past auctions but it must be said that Jim Wroda and his lovely wife Laurie did a wonderful job auctioning our glass. I think that everyone can agree that it was a lot easier to check out at the end of the auction with the computer set up that they had. For those who are interested Bernie Johnston has put the auction results up on our website. There is not enough room in the newsletter to print the results. After the auction the hospitality room opened up one more time and yes we ran out of almost everything. Mostly it was time to check out the glass for sale one last time before all the rooms closed their doors. It was time to visit with old friends and new before getting ready for the banquet and whimsy auction. We had two surprises at our dinner. Bev Spencer arranged for entertainment to go along with our great food. Matthew Wroda (Jim and Laurie's son) and his singing partner, Chelsea Martin, spent some time singing some old favorites to us. They are both very talented. They also gave out a Christmas CD that they made to every member of the Gala committee and promised to
send one to everyone who attended the Gala. Everyone (but the younger people who where the guests of our club received a sitting cobalt blue slag cat) received a special table favor. A Dave Fetty Chameleon Green Mosaic Hat Vase. As Carolyn Kriner would say. WOW! Our dinner was wonderful and dinner was a relaxing and enjoyable time with Chelsea and Matthew entertaining us. We had time to relax and visit with friends before George and Nancy got up from their tables to give us a short but very informative program on the new paint that Fenton is using. At this time they answered the questions our group left for them - skipping only those that they admitted that they did not know the answer to.
After George and Nancy's program, Jim Wroda conducted our whimsy auction. It must be said that Jim is not only a very good auctioneer but he has a wonderful sense of humor and is willing to work hard for those whose glass he is selling. The Gala committee, as well as all of our members, wants to thank Jim and his family for coming to our function and working so hard to make it a success. We also want to thank our star attractions, George and Nancy Fenton for making our 10th Gala such a big success. We had more people attend the Gala than we ever had before. They were a big reason for that. It didn't hurt that we had the very knowledgeable and gracious Carolyn Kriner join us with all the information that she had to share. There is no denying that Tom Smith is a treasure that is always willing to help out where he can and has always given us his time and shared his knowledge. Thank you one and all. For everyone who made a donation of money, food, and time, Thank You. Everyone in the club worked hard to make this Gala great. I have mentioned a few names but just a few. But it took too many people to mention to put the Gala together but please let it be known that your hard work is appreciated
and let the Gala committee say thank you. On a personal note I would like to thank everyone for their kind words to me on the hospitality room. It was always a lot of fun and there was never any shortage of help, thank you everyone. Most of all, the club would like to thank Richard and Virginia Olds for taking over the hospitality room making big improvements on it already. Janet Wilke brought in a treat to the hospitality room and quite a few people were interested in where she got it. It was one of those special simple treats that everyone enjoys but it is so simple to make that anyone can make it and look good. That information will be in the next newsletter. Please welcome new members Woody and Carolyn Kriner, Pat Kerr, and Ruth M. Pierce. Please add them to your roster. For our newer members who have not received a roster as yet a new one will be posted out in January for everyone. Addresses & Phones are intentionally omitted for this version. Just in case you think that our meeting has been forgotten, Richard Speaight gave a great program on Red Carnival Glass the week before Gala. Sorry that not much has been said about this meeting in our newsletter. Richard and Sara went to a lot of work to make this a great program. As you can imagine it was wonderful seeing so many pieces of Red Carnival at one place. This was one meeting that did not include any talk about the Gala. All plans had been made and we were ready to go so we got to focus on the glass. Our next meeting will feature glass from the Gala. Bring in that great piece of glass that you found at this Gala or at a past Gala. If you won it at the auction or found it in one of the many rooms selling glass at the hotel or did you get a great door prize in one of the functions. Please bring in all the great glass that you have found and show them to all of us. This will be the last meeting that Richard and Sara will attend until the spring so please come to show off your glass and say bon voyage to our traveling President and Mrs. President. Until then take care of yourself and your family and have fun shopping for Fenton. Jackie Oglesby, Secretary www.fentonfinderskc.net