We start out the new year with a spanking-new President, but the outlook for the old economy looks gloomier than ever and the likelihood of emerging from the recession any time in the next two years seems remote.  The number of eBay regulars bidding on glass is predictably dwindling but, even so, it's heartening to note that while values of the rarer glasses are experiencing a "market correction", pre-pro collecting staples are continuing to sell reasonably well.  It will be interesting to see if this trend continues to hold, but regardless, I suspect that for those who have the financial where-with-all to weather the coming months, it will be a great time to pick up rare glasses on the cheap.  Hmmm - the Poo-Bah is starting to sound like a stock analyst, better move on.

From the "Poo-Bah knows about as much about shot glasses as a demented squirrel Department",  I need  to bring you this update on the Cedar Leaf glasses that were featured in the last, Bush-era edition of SOTW.

I had mentioned that "The glasses have a monogram "BG" -- the brand and its origins are unknown".  No sooner had I clicked "Save,"  I received a flurry of e-mails (OK, two), informing me that [a] I was an idiot  (I get a lot of those), [b] they were listed (OASG, p. 41, bottom), [c] they come from Goodkind Bros of Helena Montana, [d] "you're an idiot". 

'Nuff said.  It would be nice if they actually mentioned City and State on the glass to help demented squirrels identify them and increase their worth, but a nice buy nonetheless.   

Two new collectors have been dipping their feet in pre-pro waters in recent weeks: guthpuppy and weeeevr.  Hopefully both will stick around long enough to get seriously bitten by the bug: we could use some new faces in the chat room.  Charles is getting lonely in there on his own.

In the past month, I've been having conversations with two eBay regulars, one from pre-pro land, the other a descendent of the artist who decorated the Fort Mackinac souvenir glass that Dick Bales features in the current edition of "Common Stuff".   We know so little about the origins of the designs on glasses that it's a rare pleasure to hear from someone who both has information and is willing to share it.  The man who painted the Fort Mackinac landscape was Franz Joseph Kriesche, a talented artist who wintered in Chicago but spent the summers producing decorated and engraved glass to order from a studio on Mackinac Island.  He was responsible for most of the hand-engraved, ruby-flashed souvenir glasses from the island.  I'll be putting together a page on his background and work in coming weeks.

I've also been chatting with a collector that you may remember from the period before eBay became inundated with fri****g  asterisks: blank9.   If you check out what he bids on, you'll see that he collects anything from Cumberland, MD, but especially glass etched by our pal George from the Maryland Glass Etching Works.  In the course of conversation, he mentioned that he'd picked up four GT novelty glasses at auction last fall.  When I checked out the auction, I whacked myself over the head a couple of times with Dale Murscell's book on Truog because NOT ONLY had I completely missed the auction, it consisted of a "Draw the Line" glass (uncommon),  "It's a Long Time" (very rare), but also a "Just a Smile" and "Oim As Dry As a Fish" both of which are super-rare. 

I didn't even know that the latter existed until a  couple of months ago: the only other example I know of is in Tom Lawrence's collection (glass above right).  How much did blank9 pay to take these four home?  A measly $107.55.  Ack.  The runner-up list includes azsaloon in number two position - Ed rarely misses a thing.

Although I knew that George Truog was a prolific artist, it seems his glasses are showing up everywhere one looks.  During the past year, I've been building a sales database that tracks values of pre-pro beer glasses.  The number of beers with a design that is clearly Truog is truly impressive, plus his work looks even better on a larger glass. 

Somewhere between the beer glasses and shot glasses are the souvenir tumblers and water glasses.  If you keep your eyes open, Truog-decorated glasses are relatively easy to spot when they list and they usually sell for a song.  Here's an an example from the past month, although the final bid price was about double what one usually sees on tumblers such as these:

shot-head took this nice example home for $38.27. 

Since we're having an unabashed Truog-fest this month, might as well end with a SOTW that features one of his more important glasses, at least from a pre-pro shot-glass history POV.