[CarltonHendricks]

Here's my latest greatest...Now this would be a perfect example of you just don't know what's out there...never would I have imagined such a piece...it's my first stained glass in 35 years collecting..I'm waiting to discuss cleaning it with a stained glass expert...very tempting to start in as it was sitting in a basement 35 years or so..came out of Detroit...I bought the 1987 book "Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit"...to see if I can ID who made it...it's on the way...

The three biggest names in early powerboats in the United States were Chris-Craft…Hacker Craft…Dodge…and Gar Wood…all from the Great Lakes/Detroit region…There were some very formidable Canadian boat makers on the other side the lake as well… Ditchburn…Greavette…and Minett to name a few…not that I know much about them…Horace Dodge Jr was the son of Horace Dodge Sr. who with his brother John started Dodge Brothers Automobiles…Jr. was a party animal with a life that reflected it…Jr.’s Dodge Boat company was killed off by the depression in 1936…his father was one of the biggest yachtsmen of the day…had a whole string of huge ones….

At this point we can only speculate the who what why this stained glass panel was produced…Horace Jr. could have had it made but seems like someone of his means would have ordered something bigger…Perhaps it was a gift someone had made for him…and it hung in his den…The art quality of the boat and faces are so well defined I would almost bet it was done by a professional artist…As well the details of the boat are too exact…I see two air intake cowls above the engine compartment area…I clearly see two tie down cleats…a cooling water discharge port of some sort…what looks like a bow light at the front…between the tie down cleats is some kind of object I can’t make out…almost look like a fishing rod holder…but seemingly in the wrong place…The shadowing of the coats the two men are wearing is so well done I would speculate it would take a professional artist to execute…If it was given as a gift…it would likely have been from some wealthy playmate who would have likely had it made at the top stained glass shop in Detroit…which appears to have been the Detroit Stained Glass Works on West Fort Street…Once that book Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit by Nola Huse Tutag arrives perhaps will help I.D. the artist…

The best Dodge Boats history site in the world is http://www.thatoldboat.com/Dodge-Boa...-Factories-Det ...there are tons of photos of the boats and factory from back in the day. The operator/owner Steve Martini has done a great job of preserving the history of the company...along with first hand accounts of pioneer research trips on foot to locate the buildings...don't miss it...