Green Valley Sells the Duff and Molly Allen Glass Collection

Green Valley Auctions, Inc., Mt. Crawford, Virginia

by Walter C. Newman

Photos courtesy Green Valley Auctions

On October 18, 2008, Green Valley Auctions of Mt. Crawford, Virginia, held a single-owner glass auction. In and of itself, that was not an unusual occurrence. Where this sale differed from others is that it was not simply the liquidation of a collection, but rather a celebration of the collecting life of the collectors themselves, Duff and Molly Allen. Over the past 30 years the Allens assembled what was arguably one of the country's outstanding collections of 19th-century glass.

Partly because of Duff Allen's failing eyesight, the couple decided that now was the time to give up their role as self-described "caretakers" of the individual pieces and allow others to experience the enjoyment they had felt over those decades. The Allens chose their close friend and Green Valley Auctions owner, Jeffrey Evans, as the person to handle the sale and subsequent redistribution of the collection.

Evans and the Green Valley staff produced a detailed color catalog for the 530-lot sale. The catalog contains a personal dedication from the Allens' friend and fellow collector Joan E. Kaiser. Evans himself wrote a lengthy personal introduction. Both the dedication and the introduction may be found on the Green Valley Auctions Web site (www.greenvalleyauctions.com).

Neither Duff nor Molly Allen came from families of collectors, but when they purchased their first piece of collector glass in 1981, they dove into an exciting world and never looked back. Duff Allen admitted that when they began their collecting, he knew "a little about Sandwich glass," and that everything grew from there. "Molly," he added, "caught on to it very quickly."

As novices, the couple took over the Westchester Glass Club show as a "hobby." During the decade that they managed the show, they built it into what is arguably the premier glass show in the country. The Allens moved to Cape Cod to enjoy their retirement, and four years later they left the Westchester show behind. Soon, however, they were back into show management, as cofounders of the annual Cape Cod Glass Show & Sale.

The depth and breadth of the Allen collection becomes clear as one leafs through the Green Valley catalog. The collection was a soup-to-nuts representation of the glassmaking craft, focused almost entirely on 19th-century technical and artistic developments and containing examples from free-blown to pattern glass and everything in between. Although the collection is dominated by items manufactured by the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co., it includes pieces from most of the glass manufacturers of the period.

The item that emerged as the high lot of the sale was a Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. deep fiery opalescent openwork fruit basket constructed of 16 vertical staves terminating at a rim with 32 decorative points, 8 3/8" diameter x 7¾" high overall. Evans opened the bidding at $4000 from the book, moved rapidly past the $8000/12,000 estimate, and ultimately sold the fruit basket for $18,080 (includes buyer's premium) to dealer Ian Simmonds of Dobbs Ferry, New York, who was bidding in the room.

High lot from the free-blown category was an aquamarine bulbous-body urn-form sugar bowl attributed to the Mountain Glass Works, Saratoga, New York, 1845-65, and ex-collection George S. McKearin. It sold to a telephone bidder for $15,820 (est. $5000/8000). Although the sugar bowl found a new owner, it will be remembered forever as part of the Allen collection. It exemplifies the style, craftsmanship, and fun associated with the collection and was the item selected as the icon printed on the collection sticker affixed to each item.

Several weeks after the sale, the Allens agreed to a telephone interview. When asked whether they each had a different collecting style or objective, they were hard pressed to come up with significant differences; theirs was a collaborative collection. Duff admitted that he does view glass from what he calls the "historical and technical" point of view, while Molly confessed to having an eye toward color, style, and rarity.

They stated that they were thrilled with the sale but admitted that it is difficult to look at "all of those empty shelves." When asked to reflect on their days as collectors, they said that glass collecting has "opened up a wonderful world [for us]; we hope that by selling the collection, the pieces we collected will do the same for others."

There is no doubt that the Allens' glass collecting IQ is off the charts. They could talk about the technical aspects of the glass for hours. Duff even admitted to having read McKearin's American Glass from cover to cover. But one recurring comment stood out during our conversation, and it put their collection and them into perspective. On several occasions Duff and Molly repeated a single statement that ran through the discussion: "It's not the glass that is important. It is the people-the glass collecting family-that made it worthwhile. We just met the most wonderful people."

Duff and Molly Allen assembled a wonderful collection. They put it together one memory at a time.

For more information, contact Green Valley Auctions at (540) 434-4260 or visit the Web site (www.greenvalleyauctions.com).

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