Rinker on Collectibles

RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1544

Forgotten Giants - Part II

Forgotten Giants is about our roots, those pioneers whose contributions laid the foundation of the antiques and collectibles business. These individuals blazed the trail and shaped the course of this fascinating hobby turned industry. The goal of the series is to resurrect these pioneers from obscurity and return them to their rightful place of honor by introducing them to contemporary appraisers, auctioneers, collectors, dealers, and others.

The initial columns will focus on the authors of reference books that were instrumental in establishing and defining major collecting categories and tradecraft philosophy. Part I honored Henry J. Kauffman and George Michael. As the series progresses, individuals from other aspects of the trade, such as editors and dealers, also will be honored.

[Author’s Aside: I had the privilege of knowing many of these individuals. Some served as my mentors. When appropriate, I will share my personal remembrances.]

I never met Marion T. Hartung. I did have an enjoyable phone conversation with her shortly after I assumed the editorship of “Warman’s Antiques and Their Prices” in 1981. When Stanley and Katherine Greene, the new owners of the Warman empire purchased from the estate of E. G. Warman, delivered the two cartons of reference books they received as part of the sale to me, I was introduced to a series of Carnival Glass books written by Marion Hartung.

Marion Hartung was born on July 22, 1916 in Emporia, Kansas. Her parents owned a jewelry store during a period when a jewelry store sold fine ceramics, glassware, leather goods, and decorative accessories in addition to clocks, jewelry, watches and providing repair services. Trained as a teacher, she married Dr. Arthur William Hartung, also an educator.

The couple moved to North Carolina in 1942. Originally a pattern glass collector, Marion soon became fascinated with the beauty and intricate patterns found in iridescent glass. As she attempted to learn more about Carnival Glass, she discovered the scarcity of printed material. By the late 1950s, Marion and her husband William had accumulated a wealth of information that they wanted to share with the collecting community.

“The First Book on Carnival Glass” appeared in 1960. It became the foundation for collecting Carnival Glass. The spiral bound book examined 100 patterns in the Hartungs’ collection. The Hartungs focused on pattern. Whenever possible, Marion used the manufacturer’s name for a pattern. If the pattern did not have a name, Marion created one. Today’s Carnival Glass collectors and writers continue to use the names Hartung created.

After Arthur Hartung died in 1961, Marion Hartung moved back to Emporia. Marion continued to research and release information about Carnival Glass patterns. Each of the ten books that comprised her encyclopedic work contained 100 patterns. When Dick Bulla, who did the drawings for the first book, was not available for the second, Marion did the drawings herself. Each drawing was based on a piece she owned or had personally handled.

Marion’s strength came from her willingness to understand her pioneering research role. She was aware that future researchers would find information that contradicted some of her initial assumptions. One example is her false attribution of the Farmyard and Jeweled Heart patterns to Northwood instead of Dugan/Diamond. The error was not confirmed until 1981.

Marion Hartung was a purist and nationalist. She opposed reproductions and later iridescent glass copycats (stylistic copies). She focused exclusively on American patterns, ignoring patterns from Australia, Canada, and other countries, albeit a few slipped into her work. Marion wrote a column for “The Mid-American Reporter” from late 1971 to early 1972. She also published a price guide to Carnival Glass in 1973.

On April 24, 1974, Marion Hartung’s home experienced a home invasion. In May 1974, Los Angeles detectives recovered 35 of the stolen pieces. Marion Hartung died on May 11, 1983. Woody’s sold more than 400 of the top pieces from her collection in September 1983. More than 200 Carnival Glass collectors attended the auction.

“Learning is a continuous process, one which never stops. On the day that any individual comes to the conclusion that he knows all there is to know about a subject, on that day he is in error” – Marion Hartung, “Seventh Book of Carnival Glass.”

[The above is a summary of an article written by Glenn & Stephen Thistlewood in 1991. Retrieved from: http://www.carnivalglassworldwide.com/marion-hartung.html]

A conversation with Richard (Dick) Bueschel, a coin-operated machine historian and researcher, was as stimulating an experience as the machines he studied. He was one of those rare (a term I do not use lightly) individuals who had the ability to see the crossover commonalities between his collecting focus and other antiques and collectibles categories.

After every conversation with Dick, I had a list of more than a dozen things “to check out” and/or “think about.” If I was forced to make a list of the top five people I miss most in the trade, Dick Bueschel’s name would be on it. He was a mentor and friend to me and to hundreds of others in the trade. His research set standards of depth and quality that I continue to use as guideposts for my writing. Legendary Dick Bueschel stories still are swapped among those who knew him.

Dick Bueschel was born in October 1936 at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois. I was unable to find what attracted Dick to coin-operated machines. His commitment was in place by the mid-1960s. He conceived the idea for writing a book about slot machines in 1967. His “An Illustrated Price Guide to the 100 Most Collectible Slot Machines” was published in July 1978.

In preparation for his first of many books relating to arcade machines, pinballs, slots, and trade stimulators, Dick wrote numerous articles for coin-operated trade periodicals, such as “Coin-Slot.” Dick quickly became the coin-op guru during the Coin-Op Golden Age, the 1970s through the 1990s. Shortly after the publication of his first slot machine book, Dick began issuing a series of smaller volumes in a series entitled “Coin Slot Guides,” published by Bill Harris. The series of thirty-four titles focused on slot machine manufacturers and machine type.

In May 1992, Dick became the editor of “Slot-Box Collector,” thus beginning a relationship with Eric Hatchell. After changing its name to “Classic Amusements” in late 1992, it ceased operations in January 1993. Dick’s editorship resurfaced in March 1994 when he became the editor of “Coin-Op Classics.’ When Dick became ill in 1997, the owner of “Coin-Op Classics” ended publication with the winter 1997 issue, recognizing the periodical could not go forward without Bueschel’s guidance.

Dick’s curiosity was unquenchable. “Illustrated Price Guide to the 100 Most Collectible Trade Stimulators” followed closely on the heels of his slot machine guide. Dick was a leader in sharing knowledge in an age when knowledge was held close to the chest by collectors and dealers who understood its marketplace advantage. Dick’s annual appearances at 1990s Pinball Expo seminars showed the depth of his knowledge, whether talking about coin-op ephemera or history.

Richard Bueschel died on April 19, 1998 at the age of 71. I made a special visit to “say goodbye” to this giant of a man. At the time of his death, Dick was working on a set of volumes devoted to arcade games. Lest one should think Dick was obsessed by coin-operated machines, he also wrote books on Communist Chinese Aircraft, World War II Japanese Aircraft, and saloon and bar goods.

[The above is a summary of “Tribute to (Another) Coin Machine Great” written by Russ Jensen that appeared in “Coin Slot,” Volume #15, No. 1, 1998. Retrieved from: http://archive.ipdb.org/russjensen/dicktrib.htm]

Each Forgotten Giants “Rinker on Collectibles” column focuses on two to three individuals. Future columns will cover the important roles played by Dorothy Hammond, William Heacock, Ruth Webb Lee, Richard O’Brien, and Albert Christian Revi.

Do you have someone you would like to nominate for my Forgotten Giants series? Email your recommendations to harrylrinker@aol.com.

I also welcome any personal remembrances you wish to share about your interactions with one of these Forgotten Giants. Again, email them to harrylrinker@aol.com.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Selected letters will be answered in this column. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time. If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

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