After 35 years of collecting, Gay Fad enthusiast sells collection
RUSHVILLE – Before 1987, Donna Mcgrady had no idea what Gay Fad Studios was, or that she'd end up buying thousands of their glassware products over the years.
But after she found a set of luncheon plates decorated by Gay Fad at a Pataskala business that year, she was hooked.
Gay Fad Studios was founded by Fran Taylor in Detroit, Michigan in 1939 before she relocated the business to Lancaster in 1945. The studio painted glassware by hand, with various designs.
It remained in operation until 1963 when it was sold to Santa Claus Inc., an Iowa company.
The first set of glassware Mcgrady bought came with an article about the studios, and she “fell in love.”
“At the time Fran founded Gay Fad, it was just so unusual to see a woman entrepreneur with so much success. I wanted to know more about the company, so in 1989 I posted an ad to see if any former employees would share more about the company's history,” Mcgrady said. “I got some responses, and they helped me learn what the Gay Fad pieces looked like, and what kind of company it was.”
She added she found the designs “interesting and mesmerizing.” Taylor was an intriguing woman, and there was beauty in the designs, along with humor.
“I kept finding more and more of her art. A friend of mine goes to a lot of flea markets and they had a connection to someone with catalogs detailing Gay Fad work, so I got a better sense of the range in their products,” Mcgrady said. “I don't think they were all that popular until the retro or vintage look came back, but there were all kinds of things for people to buy, like the bar items.”
Mcgrady said she found pieces in her trips across the country, from West Virginia
up to Michigan and even all the way to Illinois. She started collecting pieces as she found new ones. When asked, she said she could never choose a favorite design or dish.
“Every time I thought I had one settled, I'd find something new, and then there was another new piece after that. It was the same for my family when I asked them to choose some for themselves,” she said.
Mcgrady and her collection were featured in an episode of “Home Matters” on the Discovery Channel in 1997. She had about 6,000 pieces of glassware at that time.
When Mcgrady moved from the Lancaster area to western Indiana, where she's living now, she sold about half of her collection.
Now, as she's set to turn 90 this summer, she has decided to sell the remainder of her collection.