Bea Morgan has devoted a lifetime to accumulating and selling glass salt shakers, resulting in a collection of between 400 and 500 of the dining essentials. Through the end of the year, Ms Morgan is sharing a small portion of that collection with Newtown residents.

Fifty of her vintage glass shakers, some close to 150 years old, are on exhibit at C.H. Booth Library, in the glass case located near the Large Print Room.

“I started collecting [glass shakers] in 1968. I’m not sure why. I was just attracted to them. I went to an auction and bought a salt shaker collection of about 25 pieces,” Ms Morgan said, using the Peterson Salt Shaker Book, “the bible of shaker collectors,” to guide her selections. Shortly after, she began selling, continuing to collect glass shakers wherever she happened upon them.

Within 20 years, she had become a founding member of the Antique Glass Salt and Sugar Shaker Club, a national club of shaker collectors encouraging the collection of late 19th and early 20th Century glass shakers.

She followed the antiques market circuit for many years, but in recent years has made the trek only to Shupp’s Grove, near Adamstown, Penn., an outdoor antiques and collectibles venue.

“I only go three times a year now,” she said, selling — and adding to her collection — at the “extravaganzas” in April, June, and September.

“I specialize in Victorian pattern and art glass salt shakers,” she said, explaining that Victorian pattern means that the shakers were part of a set, not necessarily that they were patterned.

“Every Victorian table had matching sets of creamers, sugar bowls, waste bowls, toothpick holders — and salt shakers,” she said. It was not until after the Civil War, though, said Ms Morgan, that shakers became an everyday accessory to most people’s tables.

“After the Civil War, they discovered an economical way to produce glass, and shakers became more common. Before that, only the wealthy had shakers,” she said.

According to this collector, there were approximately 294 glass companies in the United States between 1870 and 1890, with only a few in New England. Reliant on high heat for manufacturing glass, the glass industry went where fuel was cheap, she said, so many companies migrated from Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Ohio and Indiana. Very few glass companies exist today, and most glass objects are now created by artisans.

It is not the modern glass shakers or items, however, that fascinate Ms Morgan, but rather the opaque homogenous glass shakers, the colored clear glass, and pattern glass from the late 19th Century. Years of collecting and selling have given her the expertise to know which shakers are ones she wants for her collection.

Some are hand blown pieces, others are blown molded glass, but few in her collection are pressed glass, said Ms Morgan. She has her favorites among the hundreds of shakers in her possession.

“I like the pattern glass ones, for the designs and colors,” she admitted, appreciating the brilliant colors imbued by the addition of various minerals to the glass.

A cherished find was a sugar and salt shaker set by Findley Onyx that she discovered at the Pier Show in New York City, years ago.

“Findley Onyx have a floral pattern, with a silvery or gold look, and are blown mold,” she said, referring to the glassmaker’s technique of blowing melted glass into a form. “I knew right away when I saw them what they were, and they were a good price,” Ms Morgan said.

The most expensive shakers she ever bought, she said, not divulging the price, were purchased in a phone auction.

“They were clear glass, called Bohemian glass, with glass appliqués of snakes and bugs and creatures winding around the shakers. They were so beautiful,” she recalled.

Other shakers “I would never part with,” said Ms Morgan, “are the Washington ones.”

Crafted by Washington Glass Company of New Bedford, Mass., she admires the delicate hand painted images and smooth opaque glass and shapes. One egg-shaped shaker, in particular, is unusual and a personal favorite of hers, she said.

Unexpected treasures come her way, Ms Morgan said, as gifts and sometimes from other vendors who know her love of the antique shakers.

Ms Morgan is happy to share her collection with the people of Newtown.

“Maybe I love salt so much,” she mused as she prepared the display November 9, “because one of my ancestors, a Heugonot persecuted in France, was a salt maker there before he fled. It must be in my genes.”

Ms Morgan sells and buys shakers from her home during the winter months, and can be contacted at superbee35@gmail.com.