Untitled Document

A Letter from James H. Rose

I recently purchased an old copy of American Glass Cup Plates and inside this pristine book was a folded letter, also in pristine condition: Dave McDonnell, Needham, MA email

Dear Mr. Stoepel:

Thanks. Your check came yesterday and I rushed a copy of the AGCP to the post office, hoping against hope that it might reach you so you'd have it over the week-end. Chances are it won't.

Below is a list of errata. Will you please add these corrections to your copy.

In the tables on pp. 13, 14, 15 and 419. Change 564-B to 564
p.37, 6th line up, should read "records" not "record."
No.34 ...........inadequate description..has sheaves with, variously, 6 1/2 , 6, 5 1/2, 5 and 4 1/2 stalks and a domed shoulder.
p.119, 10th line down, should read "conventionals" not "historicals."
No. 258-A is not the same design as 258. Its pattern varies slightly.
No. 271.........The cut shows 271-A, not 271
No. 272.........Has 43, not 42 serations
Plate 61 lacks marginal note "325 described in text"
No. 328 should read, "The dots between the shoulder arches are fainter than on 327."
No. 376 should read..."..has 2 more, a total of 32 bulls-eyes."
No. 447-B......Has extra shoulder rings outside the line of hearts.
No. 580-B......diameter is 3 7/8, not 3 3/4.
p.388, last three lines, it is 817 that has the "D" but 818, without the "D" is much the rarer of the two.
p. 400, 4th line up, should read "Plate 122" not"121."

In addition to the above, there are, of course, a number of errors of judgement, 459-Q comes to mind where neither Mr. Marble nor I had ever seen a clear glass example. There are "millions" of them.

Collectors are always interested in prices and I wish I had a big list to send you. The best I can do in this respect is the enclosure. It went out in December and even then is incomplete. It lacks its last page, eagles, semi-historicals, etc. The mimeographer didn't run enough of the last sheet.

Sincerely,
James H. Rose
March 6th, 1959

The update on his enclosed price list is EXTREMELY INTERESTING from December 1958 reads as follows:

There is no news in the cup plate world. No really big collections have come onto the market since my last list ( May ) and no spectacular finds have been reported. Prices are steady but a trend is developing......the great rarities are going to go up. To some extent this advance is likely to be offset by small reductions in the prices of very common plates such as the Sandwich Star, the sunbursts, the 12 and 13-heart border plates and on the plates where a foreign origin is suspected. From the dealer's point of view this is an unattractive prospect. His stock is built up by the purchase of collections. Each collection will have its top rarities and its middle-grade plates but, unfortunately, it will also have a residue of very common ones. These last pile up and, believe me, take much of the bloom off even a fortunate purchase. Nevertheless the trend is a sensible one. For many years the specialists without any fanfair have undersold the roadside shops on the more common plates but unfortunately this hasn't helped the beginner. he, poor guy, drives out on Saturday's and Sunday's and pays through the nose. By the time he is wise enough to write or visit a specialist, he has several hundred plates for which he has paid two and three times their real value. Another sensible change is that the top collector is no longer insisting quite as emphatically as he did on having all his plates in immaculate condition. He is beginning to realize that there are certain plates that are unobtainable in good condition. This, of course, is not a new thing nor is it a trend....it is just that a new group of top collectors has grown up. The giants of fifteen, twenty and twenty-five years ago were never as fussy about condition. In the present list, prices of rarities remain substantially as they were, but plates in the lowest brackets have been reduced. In many cases the latter are now below cost.

James H. Rose December 1958