What's New? (July 1999)

   I'm a little late with the August issue of "What's New?". Part of the reason is that I'm away from home on business and it's much easier to do my work at home than it is on this small laptop. The other reason is that I have been waiting for convention attendee's to return from their trips to give us a report on new Fenton they may have seen. One other thing, although I try to keep up on what's going on in the Fenton world, I can't do it alone. If you have a tidbit of new information related to Fenton glass, PLEASE pass it along!

New Fenton Book! - Margaret and Kenn Whitmyer just had a new book published, and as with their first book, it is a MUST HAVE reference for Fenton collectors. This one, titled "Fenton Art Glass Patterns 1939-1980", is a great reference for identifying Fenton based on their patterns like Coin Dot, Crests, Hobnail, Spiral Optic, and various other patterns that Fenton used during this time period. Each pattern section is broken down into the various colors used. For example, for the Coin Dot patterns it is subdivided for Blue Opalescent, Cranberry, French Opalescent, Honeysuckle, Lime Opalescent, Topaz Opalescent, and other special Coin Dot pieces. This 336 page book contains hundreds of pictures and catolog reprints that makes identifying and pricing your Fenton collection a breeze. Some of the rarer pieces shown in the book you probably never see except in the Fenton museum but you will love looking at them and dreaming :) The book also contains a nice Historical Synopsis about Fenton production throughout the years. Margaret and Kenn obviously put a lot of time and effort into publishing this treasure and I encourage you into purchasing the book so it will support this and future efforts. In fact, they are currently working on a new Fenton book that will be titled "Fenton Art Glass Colors and Hand-Painted Decorations 1939-1980". You can purchase "Patterns" from Amazon for a reduced price of $20.97. (Note: If the previous Amazon link doesn't work, goto www.amazon.com and do a search on "Fenton Art Glass".)

QVC Fenton Show - The August 7th QVC show is now history. I guess it was a good show, but I was away on business so didn't get to see it. I'll watch the taped version when I get home. A few people on the Chat Board has mentioned that Fenton is "Over irridizing" in that almost every piece was irridized and they would have bought the piece if it wasn't.