PART  1

"Abels, Wasserberg & Company" (AWCO), America's premier decorating company of porcelain and glass during the 1940's/1950's, first began operation in 1926 in NYC. The company was owned and operated by Walter J. Abels and Harry Wasserberg. The company first began solely as an importer of European giftware and lamps. If these items were decorated, they were done so overseas as Abels did no decorating during their early years.

At the beginning of WW II supplies from Europe were stopped due to shipping concerns. AWCO, like many other American import firms, turned to domestic suppliers for their inventory needs. Since many of these manufacturers did not decorate these items, Abels opened their own decorating studio in NYC and began producing their own decorated items in 1942.

The decorating studio as well as the rest of the factory was under the supervision of the very talented Ralph De Felice, a naturalized American citizen from Italy. He was the one who was responsible for the one hundred plus decorators who produced these beautiful Charleton decorations, many of which he created himself.

Westmoreland began their association quite early with Abels, Wasserberg & Company. This is evidenced by two pieces of Westmoreland glass that appear in the earliest Charleton advertisement we have found, dated October, 1943. Altogether, Westmoreland items appear in four different Charleton advertisements, the last one is dated November, 1950.

We feel certain that AWCO was still buying glass blanks from Westmoreland into the mid 1950's. This is based on certain types of decorations seen in advertisements from this later period that have also turned up on various pieces of Westmoreland glass.

Westmoreland appears to deserve being ranked as the fourth largest supplier of glass blanks to AWCO, with Fenton, Cambridge and Consolidated being more prevalent. This makes the available number of pieces on the market not terribly difficult to find but will still require a bit of patience. As collectors have become more knowledgeable, prices on the nicer items have begun to escalate and are harder to find.

The easier pieces to find will be the Hen and Rooster covered dishes, Beaded Edge plates, #14 Pin Trays and the 1923 line of Leaf dessert plates aka bon-bons

 

The harder pieces to find are the dolphin footed compotes, vanity sets, English Hobnail baskets, and Old Quilt honey boxes. Pieces that have a blush in either pink, green, or blue are especially desirable but scarce. AWCO referred to items with a blue blush in their advertisements as Blue Mist and we extended the appellation to include other colors.

I must mention that Lorraine Kovar was a big help in our research on Westmoreland items. We relied heavily on her books for identification and examples of Westmoreland's own decorations. She also made herself readily available throughout this process in personal communication with us regarding unknown pieces.

Westmoreland holds the distinction of being one of the easier to find pieces of glass with AWCO's "Hand Painted" black ink stamp. When present, it usually appears under the base or on the lid interior of items. This is a great aid in identification of pieces lacking a Charleton label. This stamp might be confused by some collectors with a similar stamp used by Kemple Glass, but their mark uses much larger block letters.

 

Westmoreland also was the first glass upon which we found a very rare AWCO ink stamp. It is a blue triangular mark with the words "Hand Painted" written above the inverted triangle and "AWCO USA" inscribed in the center. We have only seen this mark on three pieces of Westmoreland and one piece of Fenton.

 

Westmoreland pieces will also occasionally sport the AWCO beige paper label with a mustard colored typeface. This paper label is much scarcer than the standard black and gold foil Charleton label.

 

The handwritten number found inscribed in pencil on these labels indicates AWCO's 

 

 

numbering system for a particular blank. It has nothing to do with the type of decoration or the name of the artist. Sometimes you will find that the artist has placed their initials under the base of an item. Usually these initials are done in china paint but occasionally you will find two sets of initials, one in china paint and the other set done in gold leaf. We feel that this indicates that two different people were involved in applying the china paint and the gold leaf accents. The Fenton Art Glass Company has just undertaken this same dual artist identification this past year.

A recent find was a beige paper label on a Westmoreland #14 pin tray with the number actually stamped in blue ink instead of being written by hand in pencil. This is the only one we have seen like this and was an exciting discovery.

These #14 pin trays are not shown in any of Kovar's books. We did find them pictured in a color brochure of a Westmoreland company catalog showing their "Handmade reproductions of choice pieces of Early American Glass".  On page 30, it shows this little tray described as a"#14 Chick Ash Tray. Generally used, in the 1880's as a pin tray".

This tray as pictured in the catalog has a baby chick in the center of the tray but on the AWCO pieces this inner portion of the tray is smooth. Evidently this mould was modified for them by Westmoreland to make it suitable for decorating. The intricate moulded border and inset handles on both trays remains identical.

One of the many pleasures of collecting Charleton items is that the company produced numerous decorations on hundreds of different items. New decorations turn up every month and there is never a dull moment for collectors.

 

There is however, a finite number of really good pieces with pristine decorations and now is the time to start that collection of Charleton. We believe that before too long that Charleton will come into its own right and pieces will be much harder to find and will only escalate in price. We have seen this trend take on reality in the past two years.

Bargains are still to be found for the persevering collector as the majority of glass collectors are not familiar with the various decorations. In its heyday, AWCO had 4,000 distributors and we have found Charleton items in boutiques 10 miles from our house. Good luck and happy hunting!

Michael & Lori Palmer

(About the authors)

Michael & Lori Palmer, authors of The Charleton Line, published by Schiffer Publishing, reside in Greenville, NC with their four year old twin boys and two cats. They are avid glass collectors and enjoy the pursuit of that next elusive piece of Charleton.

The Palmers occasionally speak at various glass clubs on this subject. They report that past engagements for Fenton and Heisey clubs have been well received. They will be featured as the banquet speakers at the National Cambridge Convention in Cambridge, Ohio this year and will also be addressing a gathering at the new WV Museum of Glass later in the fall.

They are currently documenting new pieces for an intended updated edition of their book and welcome any information that other collectors may be able to provide. They also would be glad to help collectors with any suspected Charleton identification and can be reached at:

mlpalmer@glasshousenc.com