The Houston Museum Antiques Show & Sale returns this Friday through Sunday, bringing a wide and varied selection of jewelry, furniture, rugs, African art, art pottery and glass from some of the country’s top antiques dealers and glass specialists.
“This event is like a ‘gathering of the tribe’ or a family reunion, because it draws art glass lovers, glass professionals and both experienced and novice antique collectors from all over the Southeast,” said Amy Autenreith, executive director of the Houston Museum.
“The Houston Museum has held an antique show uninterrupted for 45 years. We see old friends we’ve known for years and fresh faces that are just beginning to explore this field that we love. It’s a very special time.”
This year’s special guest is Dean Six, vice president and general manager of Blenko Glass and former executive director of the Museum of American Glass. He has authored or co-authored hundreds of articles and dozens of books, scholarly monographs and special topic booklets about art glass. Mr. Six will make presentations on mid-century modern art glass and the history of Blenko Glass, one of America’s oldest and best-known makers of artistic hand-blown glass. He will also make verbal identifications of glass pieces brought by Show & Sale attendees.
Event Details:
The three-day Antiques Show and Sale will be held at Stratton Hall, 3146 Broad Street in Chattanooga, and hosted by the HoustonMuseum of Decorative Arts, a boutique museum in Chattanooga’s Bluff View Arts District.
Admission is $10 and covers all three days of the show: Friday, Feb. 22, 10–6 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 23, 10–6 p.m., and Sunday Feb. 24, noon–4 p.m.
On Thursday, Feb. 21, the Show & Sale kicks off with a preview party that is not included in the general admission price. Preview party tickets are $75, which includes unlimited access to all three days of the event.
For lecture times and verbal appraisals by Dean Six, visit
www.thehoustonmuseum.org.
About Dean Six and Blenko Glass:
Dean Six is a friend of the Houston Museum, who knows its collection well.
“Overwhelming is the single best word to describe the Houston collection,” says Mr. Six. “The glass in the collection is stellar in diversity, rich in quality, engaging in it's presentation, and a true joy for students of antique glass. I suggest it is a must see for those wanting to acquire a strong working knowledge of American Decorative Arts.”
Dean Six began collecting glass as the tender age of nine, starting with soda pop bottles that were considered too old for the grocery store to pay the usual three cent redemption fee. When a co-worker of his father offered $15 for one of those rejects, a collector was born. Over the last several decades, Mr. Six has collected and written about many different types of glass and once had over 7,000 pieces on display in the large loft living room where he lived. His current passion—and focus of one presentation at the Show & Sale—is American and international mid-century modern glass.
“Items from that period must exhibit the breakaway characteristics that set it apart from all that came before—big, bold, orange glass vases, amoeba-shaped giant ashtrays, oversized floor vases in dramatic forms and colors,” he says.
After serving as executive director of the Museum of American Glass for 20 years, Mr. Six is now vice president and general manager of Blenko Glass, which produces very popular hand-made functional art glass, including household items, such as lamps and tableware, as well as architectural glass, such as large decorative panes, slab glass, glass bricks, and custom glass pavers. Blenko has been featured in Southern Living and Garden & Gun magazines. Mr. Six will also speak about the history of Blenko glass, which began in 1893 as a stained glass studio. The company expanded its product line during the Great Depression to produce the glass tableware products that have made Blenko a household name around the world.