Prior to this weekend, my best thrift find was a set of Georges Briard Pick Your Poison highballs at (what is now my favorite) Goodwill. They were saran wrapped together and priced at $3 … and I couldn’t stop shaking as I FaceTimed my mom to share the shock.
I kinda hate to say this because I’m a diehard Briard collector and fan, but this weekend’s estate sale find blows those PYPs out of the water.
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To set the scene …
I was late-night scrolling estatesales.net on Thursday night because I’m obsessed and can’t help myself. I’ve had terrible luck at estate sales recently and had basically stopped going until two weeks ago when I decided to give ’em another chance — but the bad luck had continued. I had no intention of going to any sales this weekend, I was really just idling scrolling out of curiosity.
Then I stumbled onto the two photos below and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
[pause while you panic zoom in like I did]
I woke up early Friday morning, at this point still unsure if I wanted to go to the sale or not. I half wanted to try my luck, half felt like it would be wasted time. If I’d seen the pictures, then so had someone else — I told myself that either someone would get to them before me or they’d be priced outrageously expensive (as they rightfully should be). I ended up deciding to chance it, knowing that I’d regret it if I didn’t at least try. And omg, I’m so thankful I did.
So I get to the sale about 15 minutes after it opened. It was far less crowded than I’d expected, but the house was small so it was hard to navigate through quickly. I made a couple frantic-but-trying-to-seem-calm circles through the house with no luck, but then I realized that none of the rooms I’d been in looked like the room in the pictures. Just as I was about to ask if it was a one-level house, I saw a sign for a separate basement entry accessible via the driveway. Again, I frantic-calm walk-sprinted out of the house, down the driveway and into the basement. And there they were — untouched, sitting right where they’d been in the pictures: 7 super rare Elixir Fixer highball cocktail glasses.
When I first saw the price sign, I thought it said “All glasses $100” and I was sold. I wasn’t interested in the Hazel Atlas Antique Car set but I would’ve happily paid the $100 and taken them all if I needed to. Then I realized I’d missed a decimal point, and the sign was actually saying that the glasses were all $1.00 each. WHAT?! I started picking up glasses, realized I couldn’t hold them all and that I needed to take a breath – there was no one around me trying to take them from me lol. I found an empty box under a nearby table to load the glasses into, and during that hunt also spotted the matching ice bucket with a price tag of only $4. No brainer, it was coming home with me too.
All-in, this set cost me $11 and a 1-hour round trip drive. Shook.
What I know:
The Elixir Fixer pattern features a “label” with a humorous “elixir” to a common “ailment” and gold symbols including a pharmacist’s mortar & pestle for a whimsical play on the medicinal qualities of alcohol. I believe these are from the 1950s, though I’m unsure who made them.
My set is missing the “Love” elixir glass.
This pattern also came in a double old fashioned glass and a 4-piece condiment set (pictured below).
image credit: DaisyandLuLusVintage
That’s about all I know about this set currently; I haven’t been able to find much information online. If you have any info you’d like to pass along, please comment below!
Adding a couple screen grabs of sold comps for reference. (I know, I know 1stdibs isn’t a great standard to follow for pricing)
The set of 7 Elixir Fixer highball glasses and ice bucket I found are staying in my personal collection, at least for a while. I may decide to sell them at some point, but for now I’m going to “foster them” as my mom would say.
In the meantime, although these don’t hit the market too often, you can find a few for sale on Etsy at $110+ per glass and one on eBay that’s cheap but has pretty severe gold paint loss.
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