The Queen Of Green Jadeite Collector Karen Capillupo Has Left No Doubt About Her Favorite Color
Visitors stepping into Karen Capillupo’s South Hill kitchen may find themselves turning green with envy. From the shamrock hue of her Depression-glass cabinet handles to the creamy green vintage icebox, this kitchen is a vibrant Emerald City.
But it’s the hundreds of green jadeite dishes that cause mouths to gape and eyes to bulge. Jadeite plates and pitchers, butter dishes and bowls, canisters and cups are stacked high in the cupboards and displayed on every shelf, counter, windowsill and table. Even Emma, Capillupo’s standard poodle, drinks water from a jadeite bowl.
Jadeite is a magnet that pulls the Spokane woman to antique stores and glass shows nationwide, searching for yet another dish to add to her collection.
“It’s just such a fabulous color,” Capillupo says. “Green is so refreshing. There are blue people, there are purple people. I’m just a green person.”
A green goddess is more like it. Capillupo, whose collection was featured in the Better Homes and Gardens spring/summer 1998 Country Kitchen magazine, estimates she owns about 350 jadeite dishes.
Capillupo started collecting jadeite in 1984 when she and her husband, Frank, lived in Fairfax, Va. She needed a replacement for her everyday dinnerware and settled on jadeite primarily because of its color, but also because it was affordable and easy to find.
“It was so cheap,” she exclaims. “That was attractive to me: it was cheap and I liked it. There were so many things to choose from.”
When Frank retired from the Air Force in 1987 and the Capillupos were preparing to move to Spokane, Karen’s extensive jadeite collection just might have caused one professional mover to seek another career. By midmorning on moving day, the man assigned to pack the kitchen dishes had disappeared from the house.
His co-workers “found him in the van, screaming,” Capillupo says with a laugh. “He said every time he opened up a cupboard there was more glass, and he would pack and pack and pack, and it was still there.”
Unfortunately for Capillupo, or anyone else with a penchant for green, finding abundant and affordable jadeite is now a thing of the past.
Jan Richart, owner of the Vintage Rabbit Antique Mall in Spokane, has watched jadeite’s popularity and prices steadily rise over the last 10 years.
“When I first started selling (about 11 years ago), I picked up some canister sets back East and they sold (in Spokane) right away, but for about two-thirds less than what they’re selling for now,” she says. “They’re next to impossible to find now.”
When asked to name the primary reason why a jadeite craze is sweeping the nation, local collectors and dealers alike point to decorating doyenne Martha Stewart, who often displays her jadeite collection on her daily TV show. Stewart also featured jadeite in the July/August 1996 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.
Richart equates Stewart’s impact on jadeite sales with Oprah Winfrey’s ability to create best-selling authors simply by mentioning their books on her talk show.
“If Martha Stewart writes about it, that automatically sends people out looking for things, and there it goes,” Richart says.
She also attributes the recent jadeite market explosion to the increasing use of the Internet to buy and sell antiques, as well as a return in the popularity of certain shades of green used to decorate many homes in the 1940s.
“People are using the ‘40s green in their kitchens,” Richart says. “It complements dinnerware, pots and pans and lots of other collectible-type things they can get from that era.
“Part of it may be that people who grew up in the ‘40s and ‘50s are going back to their childhood and wanting it in their kitchens.”
The few jadeite dishes that do appear on her store shelves don’t sit long enough to collect a speck of dust.
“It stays a very short period of time - a day or two tops, unless it’s very, very high-priced,” Richart says. “I personally think it is getting over-priced for what it is. It was mainly made as utility-ware for restaurants and home use, so it doesn’t compare to a fine bone china or porcelain.”
Ruth Giesler, a manager at the Coeur d’Alene Antique Mall, agrees.
According to Giesler, prices are peaking and should fall to a more affordable level, in part because buyers are beginning to refuse to pay large sums of money for dishes that once sold for a few dollars.
“It’s getting a little radical,” she says. “Dealers are gouging (the price). You have to draw the line.”
For those undaunted by the cost and scarcity of jadeite and wanting to start a collection, long-time enthusiasts are quick to offer advice.
Capillupo, who paid about $200 for a prized rolling pin in 1987 and recently saw a similar one advertised for $795, advises collectors to “have a bucket of money and a lot of patience.”
Richart says collectors should not buy dishes that are chipped, cracked or stained, unless they are very rare, and should expect to pay in the hundreds of dollars for unusual pieces, like rounded ball pitchers or canister sets.
“If you find one for less than that, it’s probably a good deal and you should pick it up,” she says.
Giesler recommends new collectors use glassware reference books for an idea about prices and patterns, and only purchase pieces that will appreciate in value.
“You should buy what you love, but buy the best you can afford because it is an investment.”
As for veteran collector Capillupo, the hunt continues for two coveted and very elusive dishes - a vinegar cruet and a batter pitcher, which features a pour spout and a lid. She knows they are somewhere in America, perhaps hidden on a store shelf in Spokane or a dusty attic in Ohio.
If it’s green, Capillupo will find it.
Jadeite glassware scarce, expensive Dubbed jadeite, jade-ite, jade green or Skokie green by various manufacturers, the opaque glassware was produced from the mid-1930s until the mid-1970s. Made with several patterns, its color ranges from a light green with faint white swirls to a darker blue-green. Jadeite was first made by Pennsylvania’s Jeanette Glass Co. in 1936. In 1940, the Anchor Hocking Glass Corp., based in Lancaster, Ohio, started a line of jadeite, and in 1945 began producing huge quantities of the popular blue-green Fire King Jadeite. Other glass companies, such as Jeanette and McKee, also manufactured jadeite pieces, but in smaller quantities. Intended for utilitarian use, jadeite was inexpensive and plentiful. Dishes were given away at movie theaters and gas stations as promotional freebies, sold at five-and-dime, department and hardware stores, and used by restaurants to serve and store food. Unlike fine china, if a jadeite dish was broken, it could be cheaply and quickly replaced. Merchants paid $5 or $6 for a barrel of 144 pieces of the green glassware. Unfortunately, the days of finding dime-store shelves stacked with cheap jadeite are long gone. Today, it’s as scarce as it is expensive. Coffee mugs that sold for 50 cents or a dollar 10 years ago now cost $15 to $18. For enthusiasts who don’t have the time or inclination to hunt for the old dishes, Martha Stewart has begun producing her own line of jadeite, using vintage molds and traditional methods. For a free Martha By Mail catalog that includes her new jadeite dishes, call (800) 950-7130, or visit her Web site at www.marthabymail.com. Other reference guides and sources to buy Jadeite include: The Daze (800) 336-9927 Web site: www.thedaze.com E-mail: dgdaze@aol.com A monthly newspaper, The Daze is a marketplace for glass, china and pottery. “Kitchen Glassware of the Depression Years” by Gene Florence (Collector Books, Schroeder Publishing, 5th edition, 1995). “Anchor Hocking’s Fire King and More” by Gene Florence (Collector Books, Schroeder Publishing, 1998). Both the Coeur d’Alene Antique Mall and Third Avenue Antique Mall in Spokane have glassware reference books for sale. Area bookstores, such as Auntie’s and Barnes & Noble, also have glassware reference books in stock or can order them. According to local antique dealers, today’s jadeite sale prices will be higher (almost double) than values listed in reference books.