The first week of December brought us this rare Conway’s Famous Shakeup glass:
It listed with a $49 opening bid with a $129 buy-it-now, which is a hefty price to ask of a new collector who may be unsure of the background or authenticity, so it ran without attracting a bidder for almost a week.
We don’t actually know much about the origins of this glass. It was given away by Henry E Dowd, of Toledo, OH., about whom we know next to nothing. We know that he applied for a patent covering his name and his face (we can safely assume that it’s Henry’s face that appears on the glass) back in 1981, the patent listing as a “Medicinal Beverage.” Beyond that, I have no idea.
The glass shown above is clearly old. It’s a heavier glass and the label is acid-etched and, although unsigned, clearly the work of George Truog of the Maryland Glass Etching Works of Cumberland, MD. I’ve seen this glass twice now, so it’s a rare one and most likely early 1890’s. There’s a sister glass that’s equally rare. Both are in the database, but perhaps there’s another variant out there that we don’t know about (Toledo collectors please get in touch if you can provide more information).
The auction finally closed on December 8th with a buy-it-now at the asking price, which is a bargain if you’re interested in the older pre-pro glasses.
While I was noodling around on the internet, I happened to notice that an “identical” glass was still listed on a Russian scammer site at 50% off — with 11 still in stock! Yay! Caveat emptor…
