A am a new member looking for information on Ric Iorio Fairy Lamps

Good evening.

I am writing a book about 20th Century New Jersey Glass. (Volume 2 actually - the first volume is about Clevenger Brothers glass.) Among the glassmaking operations I am covering is Iorio Glass Furnaces, run by Ric Iorio out of Flemington, NJ.

I have seen the article on Iorio Furnaces by Pat, Bob, and Jim (last names?) in the Fairy Lamp Club Newsletter, Issue XXVII, from May 2003, as well as another article written in the 1970s (Glass Digest, I think.).

I tried writing to Mr. Iorio with the hope of interviewing him, but I have never heard back from him.

I have acquired about a half dozen of Ric's pieces over the years, but never a fairy lamp.

Two questions for you all:

1) Does anyone know Ric well enough to ask him if he would share his story with me for my book?

2) Does anyone have any of the Iorio fairy lamps for sale, or know the authors of the May 2003 article that I might get permission to use some of the photos shown?

Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Tom Haunton
Wilmington, MA
tchaunton@comcast.net

Tom,

Welcome to the Fairy Lamp Forum.

I have had a few leads to Ric over the years but to the best of my knowledge, no one has been able to contact him.

As for the photos of Ric's fairy lamps: I have the images used in the 2003 article. I do not, however, own the catalog they were extracted from. Bob and Pat, authors and presumed owners of the catalog, are now deceased, however, their family may still be in posession of the catalog. That said, it is not clear if permission to publish the images in a book could be granted by the catalog owner. However, there may several collectors on this forum who may have Iorio lamps in their collections and may be willing to share photographs with you for publication.

As for Iorio lamps for sale: There may be someone on this forum willing to part with a Iorio fairy lamp, but they are increasingly difficult to find. You rarely see any Iorio glass on eBay any more. There is, however, a large fairy lamp auction coming up in October. There may be one or two Iorio lamps in that auction. I'll try to find out for you.

Jim.

Thank you Jim.
 
I do have an address for Ric that I tracked down a couple of years ago, but did not get a reply to a letter I sent. I will probably try again.
 
If you have any knowledge of how to contact Bob and Pat's family, I can try to contact them about whether they still own the catalog. To use the images, I would need to contact the original author or book publisher to get permission to use the photos. (If you know the catalog's author or publisher, I can try to contact them directly.)
 
In the meantime, I would welcome any photographs of Iorio fairy lamps owned by forum members or leads on any Iorio fairy lamps coming up for sale or auction.
 
Not looking to corner the market on these lamps, but would appreciate finding a nice example.
 
Thank you for your help.
 
Tom