Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Remembrance of Bob Rockwell from Rande Bly a/k/a “Cowboy” of Birmingham, Alabama

Over time I have heard the stories many of you tell about your experiences with Mr. Bob Rockwell and today I am compelled to tell mine. We had an antique store in Denver in about 1974. I was about 20 years old. I had been in a thrift shop and purchased a set of 5 of the Stevens and Williams Jade series wines with different colored bowls and Alabaster stems. They were beautiful beyond belief and I set about to find their maker. Soon after I was in Phoenix Arizona and swung through an antique store that carried Art Glass and had them with me. The owner told me if I wanted to be good at art glass I needed to study gemology. I nodded my head like I understood as he reached below the counter and pulled out
a very technical book on colored gem stones. He gave me the book and told me he thought the wines were Steuben. I went on to study the book on colored gems and GIA courses and also bought Gardner’s book. As far as I recall it cost about a million dollars back then.

After about a year of buying Steuben and meetings with pioneer Eric Erickson (he was in Denver also) we decided to make “The Trip” to New York. We found ourselves in the Department Store handling the glass when Mr Rockwell showed up to supervise the handling of the Rouge Flambe. He could easily see my love for the glass so invited me upstairs. I think I was about 20 years old and destined to be the “New Generation” Steuben collector so he was taking special interest in the new blood.

We chatted and handled the glass for what seemed to be well over an hour in the very room I imagined Bob sat with Mr. Carder doing the same thing. Near the end of our meeting Mr Rockwell went to a case and somewhere from one of the bottom shelves he removed a vase. A few select pieces were sitting by themselves separated from the rest of the collection. Right beside the vase was the set of Stevens and Williams wines from the jade series with the alabaster stems! I looked at him with obvious disappointment in my eyes and and exclaimed ” so these are just Stevens and Williams and not Steuben huh”? Yes was his kind reply.

Our attention soon shifted to the vase he was holding. It was kind of ugly and had big black and white stripes on it. Sensing that I had the “touch” he handed me the vase with outstretched arms and said “Whadda ya think? Do you think this is Steuben?” The spark quickly returned to my eyes as excitement rushed through me. I blurted out with a near shout” I know what this is”! I sent him scrambling for the Gardner book and quickly turned to page 72 and read to him the small excerpt of text that gave a description of a variation of striped cintra method Gardner was calling Lace glass. No photos were provided. We quickly came to agreement that this was what we were holding. When Mr Rockwell returned to the case he reached in and rearranged some pieces on a much higher shelf making room for the Black and White Lace Glass vase and placed it in it’s new spot. Funny thing, it just wasn’t as ugly anymore.He did not reach in his pocket and pull out a silver dollar but we did leave with our nicknames and a great memory. As time passed and we did not return I am
sure our real names slipped from his mind. He never forgot us nor his nickname for us. He stoped by once when he was in Denver to see us and our meager collection of 100 simple pieces and what did he buy? Of all things it was our Durand Blue Aurene vase with white leaf and vine decoration. Go figure?

We were known to him simply as ” the Cowboys from Denver”……that is what he called us. So that is what I have to remember him by. That and my cobalt commemorative medallion.

Want to know something weird? I too am in the habit of giving out silver dollars throughout my life. Probably about 20 to 30 of them total. Last two I gave away were about three years ago to the two salesmen that sold me my new
car.

Rande Bly
Cowboy

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