Through the looking glass

As you can see Stuart Crystal is clearly marked on the blade of the opener. I do not have any idea on how old this letter opener is.

It is in very good condition, there is a very tiny flea bite to a couple of the corners, but they are very hard to find.

It measures 8.5 inches in length.

Tall green Stuart crystal wine glass

This glass is slightly different to my other glasses as it has quite a long shaped stem. I have managed to find one on the Internet the same style but in amber, on the Great Glass library. http://www.great-glass.co.uk/library/lib2ab.htm. registered in 1921. It is worth having a look at their site as is has some lovely examples of Stuart crystal.

I purchased this one on eBay for a good price which was very lucky on my part. Unfortunately I missed a pair of the same in amber, as I missed the end of the auction (They went for a good price). But this one is a great addition to my collection.

It is marked with RD681650.

It stands 16.5 cm tall and measures 7 cm across the rim.

We (being my two sisters and I) decided sell at a antiques fair, We thought how hard can this be. We booked and payed for our stand. Then the night before we had no tables to display our stuff!! After much head scratching we managed to borrow three paste tables off a neighbour in our village (lucky). We arrived there (Park Hall, in Oswestry) the day before to claim our spot, but now what!

The experienced sellers were already there with their caravans and gazebos. So we drove home to fetch my tent, now the fun started we had to put it up. We managed, borrowed a couple of rubber mallets and got it up (With a few bent pegs). Yes! Now we were set.

The first morning of the fair we had to get up at the crack of dawn, well it felt like it actually it was 6.30 in the morning. After a mug of coffee we were off. We borrowed my partners 4x4 loaded up (never drove it before,lucky there was not much traffic in the morning) we put up the paste tables and displayed our stuff, It looked nice we had mainly glass as we all like collecting glass, I think we all spent a lot of the day questioning the other sellers for tips and looking at their stuff trying our hardest not to buy anything. One stall holder actually brought a vase of ours to sell on their store (to which I am quite proud of as I brought it on a car boot and made profit). Myself and my next sister up manage not to buy anything but our oldest sister couldn't resist, she kept slipping off and coming back with something in the guise of going to the toilet!(mmm). We didn't do brilliantly but not to badly, apparently it was a quieter show than normal... We spent two days standing around chatting and drinking coffee. I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was a great experience.

The second day we nearly gave up the wind was very strong so we ended up putting our glass on the floor. Sellers lost a lot of stuff (Great British weather) blowing over, we stuck it out and sold a little more. We did come back with a load of stuff but we did sell some as well.
Now we want to do another fair (bitten by the bug). We are already buying stuff on eBay, car boots, and charity shops. But this time we are not only collecting glass but some other bits & bobs as well.

I have to confess if I had seen any Stuart crystal I would have brought some home with me, unfortunately or maybe luckily I found none!!!!

I would highly recommend the experience to anyone that enjoys collecting or selling antiques or collectables....

The organisers of the antique fair were AMULET FAIRS. http://www.amuletfairs.co.uk/