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Hello
My name is R.J. and I am 15 years old. I got interested in flower frogs this summer when I found one at a garage sale for a dime. It was a small marigold one. I got it to resell, but the next day I found another one for a dollar. I decided to look for more and now I have 51. Where I live there are not a lot of garage sales and a lot of the antiquers around town usually get all the good stuff including the frogs. I like the colored and clear glass frogs. I don't have any real expensive ones yet but I am saving my money. RJ
Dear Bonnie
I have got so many new flower frogs. I got my first Cowan lady in Denver for $20.00 but it had been broken and repaired then spray painted gold and white. She is 9.5 in tall and after spending hours removing the paint I discovered she was a light sea foam color. She has the Cowan stamp and the letter S on her base. I also got two Van Briggle frogs in Denver. Thank you and please e-mail me back (dglantz@captain.sc.whecn.edu ) as soon as you can. R.J.
Dear Bonnie
To remove the paint on the Cowan lady I used De-Solv-It. I found her in the newsletters in the October 1986, Volume III, Issue 4 on page 5. She is like the black one in the center but she is 13 3/4 in tall and mine is only 9.5 in tall. She has the same wonderful shape as her with one arm in the air a the other down, and her knee lifted up. She is very neat even though she has been broke. Some one did a very good job fixing her, so you can hardly tell she is broken. They had $45.00 on her and I got her down to $20.00. My mom hates when I buy broken frogs but I loved her. I also just got a lady frog that is on the top part of the cover of all the old FFG's. I saw her all over the place in Denver marked as a Cowan scarf dancer also at ebay auction. I don't think she is a Cowan is she? R.J.
(FFG masthead flower frog is not a Cowan scarf dancer. BB)
DEAL OF THE CENTURY:
I just had to e-mail you with my best find so far. I was looking through some of e-bays listings and I saw a auction titled "glass lady art deco pen holder." I though it could be a flower frog. Sure enough it was the pink Cambridge Mandolin Lady. She was at $18.00 so I bid. Finally this morning it got (over at 6:00 am). I was the high bidder with a bid of $41.00 . I thought that this was a deal of a century. The picture of it is not that good but you can see that it is her. Have you ever seen a frog marked as something else, like a pen or pencil holder? (Yes. BB)
----Bye for now, R.J.
Thanks for e-mailing me back. I have been very busy with school I am now in tenth grade. I have got many new frogs lately and I am now up to about 140. I finally got a Cambridge 8 inch draped lady in pink a few months ago for $125 on the Internet is that too much? I have also got two more luster birds one $5.25 and the other $15.00, a pink bowl and pink frog at a local auction for $12.00, a fish frog and cute frog frog for $4.00, many pottery rounds (I am really starting to like them), four or five glass rounds (still no red, white or purple), a strange two piece glass frog, a very unusual metal frog that you can adjust the size by and shape by loosening a screw. I got a call from a local antique dealer that there was someone in town that had just started collecting flower frogs and took their name and number. I called her and she had just 5 or 6, but we decided to meet to show off our collections. I was surprised there was someone else in town because our town is very small. All I could think was competition but she is more into McCoy pottery. She had two neat ones but mostly clear. I gave her some of my duplicate metal and clear ones.
Do you know if any glass company has reissued the 12-inch Cambridge Heron? I have the book Glass Animals that has a very large section on Cambridge frogs but is not that great for help on reproductions. I saw the large Heron in Denver but it had the ribbed base like the repro ladies. I have noticed that the prices on e-bay have been through the roof. I have bought about five off of it but they were pottery and glass rounds. I saw the Cambridge Melon Boy on there, and he went for about $600.00. I also saw a Red Wing Sea Horse like mine, but white, go for $550. I was amazed. On e-bay I search for flower frog, just frog, arranger, and flower holder. I just stumbled on the Mandolin Lady looking under Art Deco.
I will e-mail you after Christmas to tell you if I got any from Santa (ha ha).
----Bye for now, R.J.
New Deal:
Dear Bonnie,
I found another "hidden" flower frog on e-bay titled as a Jade Lady with Stand. It got over a few minutes ago and I was the high bidder at $110.50. She is the Steuben Alabaster lady flower frog #7133. The pictures are a lot better than the mandolin lady. Do you know how much she is worth????? Maybe even a estimate???? Was it a deal???? I don't know much about Steuben but their glass is very expensive.I have looked in all of my antique books and can't find any frogs under Steuben. She is pictured in the Glass Animal book on page 227 but with no value. Thanks for any info you can give.
----Bye for now, R.J.
To RJ: Congratulations on your new deal! Your Steuben #7133 is referred to as a Buddha in The Glass of Frederick Carder by Paul Gardner, p.92. In my price guide there is an alabaster Buddha listed at $250. The price should have doubled by now. BB.
Dear Bonnie,
Hello and thanks for the info about the Steuben lady frog. My sister got me a turtle flower frog for Christmas and it is very cute. I have two turtles now, it and a very detailed metal one. A local antique dealer has the Westmoreland glass turtle frog in pink and I love it but it is not for sale, but she said she would sell it to me one day. My parents gave me money to go frog hunting instead of buying me any so I can get what I like. I will try to get a better picture of the Mandolin Lady as soon as I can. I scanned my Cowan lady at my sisters college and will have to wait until they open again. The Mandolin lady is perfect without one chip. I think finding her so cheap is like how Karen Jakubco said in the April 1986 Gazette "The occasional but irresistible rare bargain makes collecting twice as enjoyable." She is almost the same shade of pink as my Draped Lady but a little darker. I have noticed a big difference in the shades of the Cambridge Dianthus, some are very light and some as dark as amber.
----Bye for now, R.J.
March 9, 1998
Dear Bonnie,
Hello how have you been? I haven't gotten any new frogs but just wanted to e-mail you. For 2 months my Frogs will be at my town's public library on display. I was not sure if I wanted to put them there but I did. They look really good. I was only able to put about 70 down there. I'm sad to say that I have been bit by the beannie babie bug. I went out to find Smoochy the new frog and came back with it and 30 others. I think I will sell them at my friends booth at the Antique mall this summer to the tourists. Well, I guess I will talk to you sometime soon.
----R.J.
March 19, 1998
Hello Bonnie,
How are you? I'm good. ... Did you notice what my Steuben set sold for? $485. I was pretty happy. Now all I have to do is spend it. HA HA. I don't know what I'm going to buy. I want a 12-3/4 inch or 13-1/4 inch draped lady in pink or crystal, Bashful Charlotte 6 inch in pink and the 11 inch in crystal, Rose lady 8 inch or 9-3/4 inch in pink. If I ever do see any of those I will only be able to buy one. I'm waiting for one to pop up on eBay. I saw a Two-Kid in pink on the net for $275 but I don't think I like him as well as the ladies. Do you ever see any Cambridge frogs at any stores or antique shows you go to cheaper than on the net? I have only seen a few of the figural Cambridge frogs at stores in Denver and they were a little less but not much. My frogs are still at the Library and I'm starting to miss them but I go and seen them about twice a week, to check to see if my Sea Horse has swam away. The snow is finally melting and it is warming up around here and garage sales are about to start and I can't wait. ... I have only found maybe 10 frogs at garage sales but I have a feeling I may find a good one.
Bye for now RJ
July 12, 2002
Hello Bonnie,
I just wanted to write and say hi! Life here in Wyoming has not changed much. The first year of college went better than I expected and I can’t wait for it to start again. I’m almost starting to like this little town of Laramie WY. I moved into a nice 2-bed room apartment with a good friend. It’s close to campus and has a nice view. The frogs, which were still in Sheridan until now, handled the trip down well. It’s nice to have them around again. On trips home I would hug the family while eyeing the frogs (hehe).
I’m only a few months away from my 21st birthday and can’t believe the first letter I wrote to you was 6 years ago. I still go and reread the “letters from RJ” section every now and then. I often wonder how my life would be different if I wouldn’t have bought that first frog for a dime. All I can say is I’m glad I did. I’m still as excited about finding a new frog, as I was when I started.
I went home for the 4th this month and a few friends and I went to Billings Montana to do some shopping. They limited me to one antique store and boy did I pick right. Just after entering the store I turned the corner and saw what I thought was a cute little blue pottery round. I was not super excited until I looked closer. It was an opaque Azurite blue Cambridge glass round with the 1916 patent mark just smiling at me. The little mint beauty was mine for $16.00, tag read “blue holder.” That was only the second opaque blue Cambridge frog I had ever seen (the other was just on ebay). So I think the finds are still out there and I plan on finding more!
Your book is beautiful! I have wanted to tell you this for a long time. I have looked at it so many times I think I have it memorized. Are you planning on doing a second book some time in the future? I would love to share my pieces that were not in the first book with you to photograph. But I’m sure you would like to rest for a while. I can tell that took a lot of time, energy, ect.
I feel my collection is starting to mature. I have started to focus on Cambridge pieces and other fun or unique glass rounds. I now have 16 Cambridge figural frogs and many interesting colored rounds. I love the British Davidson rounds and would love one of the jumbo ones but have not found one, yet! I’m excited to see my collection in another 5 years. Hopefully post college life will place me some place where the frog hunting is prime, because oh am I a hunter.
Thank you Bonnie for all of the information you have ever shared with me from your original newsletters, the web page, and now your outstanding book. You have made a young collector excited, motivated and best of all educated. I hope our communication continues for years to come.
Always,
RJ Glantz
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