Collectors' Favorites From Jon and Maria Ramberg

A very nice and unsuspected surprise...






Happy New Year Tom!

It is a beautiful thing to see all the sharing by float collectors around the world that has been inspired by your blog.

Our favorites always seem to be changing but here are a few to share.

Best wishes, Jon & Maria


I've just begun to share with Jon and Maria. After receiving their email, and even though I wanted to go to bed, had to answer their email...


Hi Jon,

What a nice surprise! I just came to my emails to write Stu Farnsworth, to say that his favorites post was finished, and here you are. Thank you for sharing. It makes me very happy.

A question: Were any of these floats added to your collection in 2011? If not, that is just fine. Every collector should have the opportunity to see the incredible floats you have. I am totally taken by the Neversink. I knew that there was a Milk Glass Neversink, but had only seen one, 12 years ago.

Jon and Maria answered the next day...

Good evening Tom,

The 5 floats we chose were added over many different years.

Just for clarity's sake, I asked the question whether the floats had been found during the previous year, but knew after seeing the photos, and feeling very fortunate to have had Jon and Maria's willingness to share, that the answer was not going to determine whether or not I posted during this year's collectors' favorites. I sent the following email to them...

Hi Jon, Hi Maria,

I am truly amazed at the wonderful examples that you have in your collection, and can only imagine what other treasures must be with you. Thank you for sharing your history. I'm so focused on gathering as much existing glass float history...their makers, uses and users as well as collectors and collectors' stories as possible. Every contribution gives me great happiness. I truly believe we are all saving an almost lost and relatively unknown history - just in the nick of time.


A few of Jon and Maria's beautiful Glass Floats


1) Doughnut Float
In his pioneering book, BEACHCOMBING FOR JAPANESE GLASS FLOATS, Amos Woods wrote that less than a dozen of these floats were manufactured. The picture of the rare doughnut float in his book captured my imagination and was an inspiration for float collecting.















2)Twisted Spindle In the BEACHCOMBERS GUIDE TO THE NORTHWEST, page 33, author Walt Pich says “the rarity of a spindle may be measured by the number of twists that are caused by rolling prior to cooling.” One of our most unique spindle floats has a twisted spindle with 30 twists! Is anyone else counting their twists?









3) White Neversink
As we add more colors to our float collection, this white Neversink GB 6 stands out. It fits the "Sea Hermit's" latest research on the origin of Neversink floats. The history on this one is that it was found with a group of other floats that “hung in the barn of a Down East Maine fisherman.”




4) TO (Toyotomi Glass Factory)
What makes this one unique is the color contrasts. Very fine burgundy swirls throughout the clear float give the ball a lighter overall color. This is contrasted with a solid, dark burgundy seal button bearing a heavy and distinct diamond TO mark.








5) Compass and Stranne Oresten Compass Group
The blue compass trademark is amazing! Our colors include cobalt blue, dark forest green and emerald green. Our sizes range from 3 inches to 8 inches.







I wanted to show you a close up of the wonderful Stranne Oresten Compass marking.










Thank you Jon and Maria. It was a pleasure to see and share some of your remarkably beautiful floats!

I would like to end this post with something a very nice British Columbian woman wrote to me a few days ago. Her name is Marlena. We started trading emails, and learning about our shared passion for glass, after I noticed a wonderful Dog Neck float she had for sale to the highest bidder. I wrote her to find out more, and as good fortune would have it, I've chanced to meet a kind and sincere person. Marlena is a collector of glass, and especially very old Persian bottles, known by bottle collectors and bottle sellers as the "Lady Who Buys The Persian Stuff"

Marlena wrote:

"Hmmmm...I don't know what it is exactly about old glass that captivates me and others so deeply. I suppose it's many things all combined. But I know that the pleasure of caring for something that is beautiful and precious and at the same time so curious, delicate and vulnerable is a part of it. Each handblown bottle or float seems to be a self contained and unique universe all its own. When you hold it in your hand or into the light it seems complete...needing nothing more than being exactly what it is...and being enjoyed by the person who cares for it."

I enjoyed reading and identifying with her thoughts. Here are a couple of Marlena's Persian bottle photos: