RARE Thomas M. Connally Mushroom Decanter

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This is one of my newest rare finds, A GFC " Greenwich Flint Craft" art glass Decanter with mushroom stopper. I absolutely love this piece, It measures at 16" tall and is pristine." I guess my eyes lit up and I started foaming at the mouth and I must have gotten that adrenaline twitch, because I couldn't haggle the price down. But still got a fantastic deal on it"
Because of the blown work to each of these pieces the neck and openings are all different, the stoppers are unique to each piece and finding a replacement if your lucky enough is very difficult.As you can see the stub in the 4th photo, I'm sure many of the mushroom tops are long gone.
The decanter itself is pretty much non functioning for any type of liquid, as it sprays out like a ceiling fire sprinkler head when trying to pour.

This was created By Thomas M. Connally, Only from 1969 to 1972 in limited quantities. It is Piece number 1163 as shown in the catalog. If you are interested and want to see some of his amazing designs ,The Catalog and article can be seen here.
http://www.20thcenturyforum.com/t10918-greenwich-flint-craft-usa-tom-connally-designs

Greenwhich Flint Craft (GFC) was a line of glass, produced under it's own name but was under the umbrella of a larger glassworks called "Indiana Glass." GFC was a type of modern design/ art glass line, because Indiana Glass was known for more work aday practical glass and they wanted to expand into the art glass/decor market. At first GFC simply purchased molds and designs from the small WV Bischoff Glass Company to produce this line. Then they hired a man named Tom Connally as their new head designer.

(The following info. is excerpted from an article Tom's widow wrote for a newspaper,

Thomas M. Connally answered a job advertisement in the Muncie Press for an assistant glass designer position at IG in 1961. His only credentials were a Bachelor of Science degree from Ball State Teachers College (Ball State University), a burning desire to do art (he'd been a high school and middle school art teacher at Tipton, and a need for more money than his salary netted from the split assignments of set designer at the Shoe String Theater and Exhibits and Display at Ball State. When Arthur Harshman offered him the position, he accepted. He'd never designed a piece of glass but was confident that he could do so. His innate aesthetic sensitivity, boldless creativity, and appreciation of elegant design were his best tools for the job.

Vintage Greenwich Flint-Craft is the visual testimony. This Korean War era veteran from Fort Wayne, IN, artist, teacher, set designer, exibits and display creator, was now becomming a glass designer.

Tom loved good contemporary art whether in glass, furniture, painting (his favorite style was abstract expressionism), architecture, clothing, etc. He was very proud of GFC and its strong commitment to aesthetics. He was an admirer of Scandinavian Design. His GFC line was only in production for 3 years, beginning in 1969 and ending in 1972. It's our loss that he never had the opportunity to design another line of art glass.

In all Connally did 70 designs in 5 colors, for 350 pieces total. 27 of the designs required stoppers.