Nancy Townsend Johnson’s collection of uranium glass. Submitted photo
It’s as though Eric Jean was just sitting around waiting for someone to ask about his collection – how often, after all, does one get a chance to brag about his thermoses?
“Every thermos tells a story,” says Jean, of Lewiston. “I’ve been collecting them for about a year now. They are always hanging around flea markets and yard sales for low prices.”
Some people might balk at buying a drinking vessel with an unknown past. But not Jean. As far as he’s concerned, the more heavily used the thermos, the better.
“I love the ones that have been heavily used because they tell a story,” he says. “My oldest one is a Universal from 1914 with a cork stopper and full glass thermal. It’s amazing that after all these years the glass has not broken! What stood out to me at first were the neat colors and graphics on the older models.”
Eric Jean’s thermos collection includes one from 1914 with its glass insulator still intact. Submitted photo
Jean puts the thermoses on display above his bed. Once in a while, he’ll take one down if he happens to need a thermos that day.
“I use a few of the newer ones for ice fishing and camping,” says Jean. “Mostly coffee or soup.”
So far, he has collected 14 thermoses. Some are short and fat. Some are tall and sleek. Some are a solid, no-nonsense colors, others are ornate and fancy. Jean loves them all.
And that’s the thing about collections. An item one person would toss aside without a thought might be coveted and avidly sought by another, to the point where he’s willing to spend entire weekends scouring flea markets and garage sales just to find one. One man’s trash, as they say, is another man’s treasure.
And with that in mind, we asked our readers to tell us about their collections. We were expecting to hear all about stamps and coins and baseball cards, but what we got instead was a delightful variety of things.
By way of example, consider that one particular item some of us have never even heard of is collected eagerly by not one, but two people who responded to our query. Uranium glass, that is, which you may have deduced is antique tableware with so much uranium in it, it glows.
Some people are into that kind of thing.
“I’ve just been really obsessed with this recently,” Joseph Felix Graziano says of his collection. “I love radioactive stuff.”
He’s only been collecting for three months, but already Graziano, of Bowdoin Center, has pulled together more than a dozen uranium glass pieces – which are, in fact, radioactive., but only just a little bit.
Joseph Felix Graziano of Bowdoin Center also collects uranium glass, using a black light key chain fob to find it at yard sales and thrift shops. Submitted photo
“It was made during the early 20th century and pretty much died down by the Cold War,” Graziano explains. “Many are considered antiques. Once you shine a black light on them they glow bright green like you would see in a cartoon almost. I’ve found some pieces at Goodwill. I carry around a small black light on my key chain and just shine it on everything in the glassware section.”
We thought the idea of carrying around a black light to see if your glassware glows was just a hoot. Where else are you going to find a person who does such a thing?
Dixfield, as it turns out. There, Nancy Townsend Johnson enjoys her collection so much, she puts it on display in her home. Like Graziano, Johnson carries around a special ultraviolet flashlight so she can quickly identify pieces she might want to add to her personal set.
“I fitted a couple of hutches with mirrored glass and black lights so I can enjoy the glow,” Johnson says. “I just love it. The patterns are so striking under UV.”
Johnson is so fond of uranium glass, she’ll seek it out, and like Graziano, she knows just how to hunt the stuff down.
“Yard sales, thrift shops, antique places,” Johnson says. “I have a flashlight with UV so I can spot it.”
And since we’re talking about the Cold War here, let’s have a look at David Vincent’s collection.
“Soviet mechanical wristwatches,” says Vincent, of Lewiston, sending along a photo of that very thing.
At first glance, they look like ordinary watches. But these are not items one is likely to track down at Goodwill or at a flea market – not a flea market in the U.S. of A., anyway. But Vincent finds them quite easily online and they don’t hurt his wallet much, either.
David Vincent’s Soviet mechanical watch is one of 17 in his collection. Submitted photo
“They’re cheap,” Vincent says of his 17 Soviet watches. “Incredibly, the sellers in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, etc. all have delivered as promised, and properly declared for customs. Various makes and models; mostly circa late 1950s to late 1970s. The ones from the ’80s were declining in quality and the ones from the ’90s are junk.”
Some of our readers reported keeping perfectly ordinary collections. Duke Harrington, of Sumner, collects comic books and has amassed over 25,000 of them. Thomas Kazimer, of Lewiston, collects rocks and gems, which are among the most common items to collect, according to some surveys.
Monika Grillo collects snow globes. But not just any snow globes.
“My collection of JCPenney Black Friday globes is complete now,” the Lewiston woman says, “but it was fun collecting them all those years.”
Sally Townsend Theriault collects all things related to “Lord of the Rings,” because she happens to be a charter member of the movie fan club. Kimberly Leonard Greton, of Ellsworth, collects all things Mickey Mouse or Disney and even has a Mickey Mouse engagement ring since her boyfriend proposed at – where else? – Disney World. Christine A. Zucatti Doyle, of Poland, collects bells and those solar gadgets that will dance if you put them on the windowsill. Jamie Pitcher collects snow globes and spoons.
OK, spoons are a little bit strange, now that we think of it, but for Pitcher, of Poland, collecting them is a tradition.
“They were my grandmother’s,” he says, offering up a photo of a dozen of his spoons. “She would collect them when she traveled and when my grandfather would travel he would bring them home to her if she wasn’t with him. When we go somewhere new, if I find a spoon I don’t have, I buy it to add to the collection.”
Tradition is also important to Kevin Bennett, of Mechanic Falls.
Monika Grillo’s collection of JCPenney Black Friday snow globes. Submitted photo
“I collect wheat pennies,” he says, “because my dad did it, and it’s a way to keep his memory alive. Every time I find one, it makes me smile and, for a minute, I remember good times.”
Joseph Carro, of Portland, collects just about anything connected to the Civil, Revolutionary or Star wars. Books, currency, letters, stamps, ammunition, you name it, Carro will scoop it up for his collections.
“I collect any Civil War books I can get my hands on at bookstores I find all over,” he says. “A friend of mine sent me some bullets used during that era and they are encased in a frame with a red velvet backing. My ex-wife’s grandfather wrote books dealing with the history of various places in (New Hampshire) and they gave me a box of his research materials, which included real letters and currency.”
Perfectly ordinary, Carro’s collection. Janet Malia Descoteaux’s acquisitions, on the other hand, are more off the beaten path: She collects eyewash cups – roughly a dozen of them so far – that she finds mainly at flea markets.
“I like glass/art/functional/vintage stuff,” says Descoteaux, of Rumford. “If you have something in your eye, I’m your girl.”
Drew Desjardins kind of startled us when he first responded to our query. What does the Lewiston animal handler known locally as Mr. Drew collect?
This is a portion of Joseph Carro’s collection of Revolutionary and Civil war era artifacts. Shown here, old bank notes and currency from the time of the American Revolution. Submitted photo
“Dead things,” he said. “I collect dead things. Or at least parts of dead things.”
To explain his morbid response, he sent along a photo of several animal skulls – a coyote, fox, raccoon and opossum among them – representing only a few of the 30 dead animal parts Desjardins keeps at his home.
“Reptiles, rodents, birds, furs, fur faces, tails,” Drew tells us. “All in a nice cabinet.”
A few people responded said they collect shot glasses, which seems perfectly normal to us – not that we’re here to judge, mind you.
“I don’t drink but I have a small collection of random shot glasses,” says Michael Edgecomb, of Lewiston. “Started out as just ones from states I’ve been to and then sports teams and then colleges, and then just random ones I like, to a few oddball comics-related ones like the Turtles ones – well, three out of four of those, anyways.”
Bonny Gonya hears that. She collects shot glasses too, and so far has more than 400 of them. Most she found at antique stores, yard sales and airport shops. That seems like a lot, but Bonny has been collecting since the late ’80s and she gets a lot of help.
“My friends bring them back from trips for me,” she says. “And yes, every one has been drunken from – but not by just me.”
Drew Desjardins’ cabinet of skulls and other dead animal parts. Submitted photo
And while we’re on THAT subject, let us introduce Tizz Crowley, of Auburn. She could have just collected shot glasses like the others, but no. Tizz actually collects the shots themselves, in a manner of speaking. Lots and lots of shots.
“How about a collection of Irish whiskey?” Crowley boasts. “Last time I checked, about 80 bottles. I know there are at least seven cases (12 bottles/case) in my primary storage area. My special ones are in another case, and I currently have eight open Irish whiskeys, one French whiskey, a Mark Twain bourbon and a Diceros Grog 349 open on the bar in the hall. Not sure what’s in the closet or under the bar.”
Bringing home that much hooch at a time might raise eyebrows among the neighbors. But Tizz Crowley doesn’t sweat those things. She’s just planning for the future.
“My son has said ‘Mother you have bought more Irish whiskey than you can drink in a lifetime’ as I brought home three new bottles,” she tells us. “My reply: ‘So, after serving lots at my wake, give everyone a bottle as a party favor for coming.'”
Nobody who responded to our query said anything at all about the monetary value of their collections. For most, that kind of thing is just not part of the process. They collect for the joy of it, they tell us, or to uphold traditions. Some of this stuff, though, you have to suspect that the eyes of a roving antique dealer would light up with dollar signs at the sound of it.
A portion of Tizz Crowley’s collection of whiskey and liquors. Submitted photo
“I have quite a few vintage sewing machines,” says Rachel Rodrigue Nadeau, of Lewiston. “When my mother was alive, I think we had 14 between the two of us. I sold a couple after she died. There are three at my dad’s house. One is a treadle I’ve never used, one is a green Singer Featherweight, and one is a Singer Touch and Sew.
“Here at my house,” she continues, “I have a Singer 201-2 made in 1938 that belonged to one grandmother, a Kenmore Model 54 that belonged to the other grandmother, my mother’s black Featherweight made in 1949, a White brand portable, a Kenmore model 158, a Viking Husqvarna 6460, and my newest machine is my mother’s Bernina 440QE from 2005. It’s my only electronic machine.”
Nadeau is not one to keep her collection a secret. She likes to reach out to other collectors and compare notes.
“I have a blog about them, but haven’t had much time to work on it,” she says. “I also belong to a vintage sewing machine group on Facebook with collectors from all over the world.”
Early on in this collection of collections, we talked about Joseph Felix Graziano and his collection of uranium glass that is both growing and glowing. But uranium glass is not the only thing Graziano collects.
Joseph Felix Graziano’s collection of African masks. Submitted photo
“African masks!” he says, using no less than four exclamation points to emphasize his enthusiasm in an email. You can see why: Graziano also sent along a photo with so many masks hanging on his wall, we were unable to count them all. Three dozen? More?
Doesn’t matter. The collection is darn cool, that’s all we need to know. Whether it’s African masks, dead things or eyewash cups, our readers find plenty to get excited about and we’re glad that we went about collecting their stories.
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