Joe Rice Art Glass

 My grandmother loved to collect the St. Clair toothpick holders made by both Joe and Bob St. Clair.  As most of these were replicas of older patterns produced by other glass companies, St. Clair is more respected for the art glass paperweights that they produced.  Joe Rice's art glass paperweights are still made in the same family traditional way, but he also likes to experiment with new techniques.  Joe Rice is the nephew of Joe and Bob St. Clair.

I have watched them make the paperweights.  It is fascinating how this glob of hot molten glass turns into this beautiful paperweight with the flowers and bubbles encased in glass so clear that it looks like they are suspended in liquid.  I can get lost looking into these beautiful paperweights.

The first time I met Joe Rice in the late 1980s, I took a Greentown chocolate cactus sauce bowl to see if he could use the glass to make me a paperweight vase.  I had dropped the bowl several years earlier and broke it in many pieces.  I was so upset when it broke that my husband tried to glue it back together.  It was really beyond repair.  Well, you can't throw Greentown glass away so I thought maybe Joe could make it into something beautiful again.  He said he could.  As I started to hand him the glued sauce bowl that had missing slivers of glass, he looked at me and said he just couldn't break it.  He handed me the hammer.  So, I broke the Greentown chocolate sauce bowl.  I went back up the next week to pick up my vase and he gave me two vases made with my bowl.  They are so pretty with the caramel flowers in the bottom.

I offer new Joe Rice "paperweight" pieces for sale at my eCrater store.  While I will purchase some pieces already made, I also request certain pieces with the color combinations that I like.  I'm especially fond of pastels on black.  The pink and black is my favorite.  Will be ordering new perfume bottles with this combination soon.  Whether you collect Joe Rice Art Glass Paperweights yourself or are looking for that special gift, please visit 

CAROLINABLUELADY Vintage Collectibles for

 Joe Rice Art Paperweights                

Sadie Cat and The Cherry Pitter

Some boxes of auction items that my mother purchased, at first glance, do not seem all that interesting.  We really like the boxes of glassware or pottery, but the old iron or metal stuff just doesn't seem all that great.  We just keep pushing them to the side looking for other boxes of real goodies, but sooner or later we are going to have to go through those other boxes. 

We started going through one such box.  There were light fixtures - some of the glass globes were pretty cool.  Then we found this - looked like a sausage stuffer gadget to me.  My brother, sister-in-law and sister weren't too sure.  We just couldn't figure out what else it could be.  So it was one of the items I brought home to do a little research on.  I have a large book of old kitchen items so hopefully, I could find it.

Stamped on the item was:  New Std. Cor. Mt. Joy PA Pat Pending #70.  What was really different was that it had Left Hand stamped on one side and Right Hand stamped on the other side.  The handle is connected with a pin so you could move the handle from one side to the other.  That's cool.  I started looking through my reference book for sausage stuffers.  Can't find one that quite looks like mine.  Tried googling; not much luck; a lot of #50s but doesn't look like mine.  OK, going through the book; page by page.  You know when I start doing that, I start reading about different things that catch my attention.  This became an all afternoon process.  And, then I saw it.  It's a cherry pitter.  Back on the computer looking up cherry pitters #70.  Not many but there are a few to look at.  Looks like mine is missing the bar clamp, but I see where it would attach. 

Not too much information - looks like it was probably made between 1920 to 1930. It is just too cool! Still not too sure exactly how it works, but happy to know what it is. Laid it on my dining room table on the paper I had wrapped it in. Next thing I know, Sadie Cat is laying with the cherry pitter. Has her paw on it and is fast asleep. For several days she gets on the dining table and sleeps with the cherry pitter even when I move it around to different spots of the table. She loves the cherry pitter. 

I wonder if she is going to let me sell it!  It's hard to say "no" to Sadie Cat!