Sparkle Plenty Glassware began in the Fall of 1986 through the efforts of Susie Thompson and her husband, Rick Hirte.  Susie is a registered nurse at Bar Harbor's Mt. Desert Island Hospital, and  a long-time collector of Depression Glass.  Rick, a former school teacher, and lifelong Collector of Everything quickly caught the Glass Fever --  After more than a dozen years, the company's glass inventory is over 5000 pieces.

For the first few years, Sparkle Plenty's selling efforts were made in local antique stores.  However, Maine's largely seasonal antiques industry came to a near standstill every Winter.  While waiting for the return of the summer tourists a few exploratory ads were placed in the Depression Glass Daze, a glass collector's trade paper.  Sales began to pick up.  For several years afterward, Daze ads were the sole conduit for Sparkle Plenty Glassware sales.  Then, in 1996, everything changed.

The World-Wide Web, still unknown to 90% of the American public, was showing tremendous potential for growth as a sales medium and appeared to be ideally suited to our business.  Under the tutelage of Rick's older brother Bob, the web site you see today had its beginnings.  From a handful of small web pages, the website has grown to more than eighty pages --some of them very large -- with over four thousand photos and a wealth of information.

Now we have added this site for collectors and dealers of Fire-King glassware. 

Welcome to Fire-King.Net.

Rick and Susie