Fenton Glass Art

Many of us remember Grandma's collectible Fenton treasures, her prized art glass animal figurines or that beautiful parlor lamp that we couldn't wait to light up in the evening. Often she would change her decor to coincide with the seasons. She had a piece of Fenton art glass for every occasion it seemed!

These beautiful decorations and household items were special and we knew it. They were well cared for, carefully packed at the end of each season or occasion until next time. As the years went by Grandma had to make the move to a smaller living quarters, thus giving up a lot of her old Fenton glass pieces. Some get passed down to family, but often it is auctioned off very cheap or even given away. This is the case across America everyday and that's great news for us Fenton collectors!

The bargains on vintage Fenton art glass abound if you know where to look. And many of those pieces are in excellent, near perfect condition! From the beautiful carnival glass, Burmese and Vaseline (Uranium) glass you can find these collectible art glass pieces at bargain prices.

Your local thrift store is a great place for smaller pieces. If you like the animal figurines this is a really good place to look. Many a Fenton cat, bird or dog can be found and always at a low price. While they can sometimes be less than perfect, you'd be surprised at the beautiful pieces you can find. Both vintage and new! Vases and bells are also common at these stores. People often donate without thoroughly checking things out, such as the many boxes in Grandma's attic! The are basically just cleaning things out.

Estate sales are another great place to find Fenton art glass pieces! There are estate sales every Friday and Saturday all spring and summer long in virtually every area of the country. This is where you can find the valuable pieces such as antique lamps, limited edition pieces or large baskets. Of course if there's one piece of Fenton lying around there's likely more as most folks collected this art glass year after year. Estate sales are hit and miss for bargains. If someone knows they've got a rare 1920's Fenton lamp, it's doubtful they are going to give it away. But if they don't, you'll often see a sticker on valuable items like that for $20.00! You can always make an offer at these sales. If you see a group of say, 3 cats, a bird and 2 vases, offer them something like 30% or 40% off of what the total would be if bought separately. These folks are more interested in cleaning everything out than making top dollar!

Another fantastic place to find almost any Fenton piece you could imagine is the online auction site, eBay. You likely won't get as good a deal as the thrift store but you'll do at least as good, probably better, than the estate sale. The best part about the online auction is the huge selection. With items such as the Fenton animals, vases, pitchers, bells and baskets, you can find very good bargains. These smaller items are often in terrific condition and the selection on both the new and vintage items is very good. It's worth checking out for sure!