RED Matthews
Well-Known Member
I got started in this category of collecting a good fifty years ago, because I purchased one and read about the fact that these were made as a whimsey sort of thing in a lot of Early American Glass Houses for use in patriotic parades. In my searching I found that the Clyde Glass Company in Clyde NY made a lot of them. I also bought one that I was told by a local Horseheads NY owner that it was made in an early glass house in Elmira Heights, NY. Later on I ended up with some more that were made by a man named Schmidt. I ended up with some canes that he had made, in a purchase from the Wheaton Museum. I was told about them being quite common and found a man in Ohio that had a collection of several hundred of them which hung on the ceiling of his collection building. I thought it was scary to walk around under them kept in that area. One of my canes has a cork finish. I was told that they often did have this, so the cane could be filled with whiskey before the parade, and then drank it after the parade, and threw against a building after that.I found a really long ( almost 20 ft long hanging over a bar in Port Alleganey PA. I was told it was also made by a man named Schmidt. I also heard that this man ended up in northern Texas. If anyone knows any reference to these early canes, I would appreciate hearing about the reference.RED Matthews