McDonald's glasses have been a staple in many households, carrying a century of magic. These glasses, often emblazoned with characters from popular culture, have become collectibles for many enthusiasts around the world. They hold a nostalgic charm that transports us back to a simpler time, reminding us of childhood memories and the joy that came with a trip to the Golden Arches. Since their introduction in the 1970s, McDonald's glasses have captured the hearts of both young and old. Whether it was collecting a set of Looney Tunes characters or getting a limited edition Batman glass, these glasses brought a touch of excitement to every meal. They represented more than just a beverage container; they were a connection to our favorite movies, TV shows, and characters.
Sunrise in Sorrento was nice. Although I never saw it because I was busy sleeping 14 hours to recover from jet lag.
In 2012, Amazon reported that enough knock-off leg lamps had been purchased during that Christmas season alone that, stacked end to end, they could reach the top of Mt. One sold on eBay in 2014 for an impressive 60,800, while another, this one designed to be lighter and more pliable for action sequences, went up for auction at the Profiles in History auction house later that year.
They represented more than just a beverage container; they were a connection to our favorite movies, TV shows, and characters. The allure of McDonald's glasses goes beyond their association with pop culture. These glasses have endured the test of time, becoming coveted items for collectors.
10 Highlights from Art Basel in Paris
Oli Epp, Aspirin, 2023. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 78 3/4 × 70 7/8 inches (200 × 180 cm).
One of the international hotspots for art right now, Paris has seen its contemporary gallery scene grow exponentially over the past few years, with such art world powerhouses as Galleria Continua, Hauser & Wirth, Lévy Gorvy Dayan , Modern Art, Esther Schipper, Mendes Wood and David Zwirner opening branches in the city. It’s no wonder that Art Basel selected the City of Light to stage Paris+ par Art Basel , which opens its doors for its second edition October 20.
Presenting 154 leading galleries from 33 countries and territories—including 60 with an exhibition space in France— Paris+ (pronounced "Paree ploos") opened to a large crowd of critics, curators, collectors and international VIPs on October 18 at the Grand Palais Éphémère , where it will be on view to the public through October 22, 2023.
Image: © 2021-2023 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Dubai
Takashi Murakami, Together with the Flower Parent and Child, 2021-
2023. Platinum leaf on FRP, wooden pedestal. Sculpture: 184.9 x 123.1 x 59.1 cm, Pedestal: 12 x 90 x 90 cm.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that there is arguably no other city worldwide that captures the minds and imagination of artists and lovers of art more than Paris,” Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz told Art & Object . “This dynamism, however, is also materially reflected in France’s growing significance in the international art market. France today is the fourth largest market in the world and represents full half of the trade in the European Union. This is reflected in the remarkable continued growth of the local gallery scene and the strong demand globally for artists living and practicing in France.”
Perrotin , exhibiting a fantastic new figurative flower sculpture by T akashi Murakami at the front of its booth, and Gagosian , displaying a new, ironic screen-printed painting by Urs Fischer on its outer wall, are among the blue-chip exhibitors in the Galleries section, where visitors got their first look at the art the bustling fair.
Perrotin is presenting Murakami’s iconic Together with the Flower Parent and Child, a platinum-leaf-covered sculpture of a tall, smiling flower figure with an equally happy child-like character at its side, with mirrors behind the sculpture to highlight its dazzling surface and seductive forms. Urs Fischer ’s masterful work, Eternity , located a couple of aisles away, offers an enlarged vintage black-and-white image of a couple embracing, flipped on its side and overlaid with an uncooked strip of bacon, which seems to be ironically colorizing the lower half of the picture from the heated action being portrayed.
Courtesy the artist and Andrew Edlin Gallery, New YorkKarla Knight, Little Wheel 1, 2022. Flashe, acrylic marker, pencil, and embroidery on cotton. 34 x 33 inches (86 x 83 cm).
French artist Prune Nourry references Jean-Baptiste Lully’s baroque opera Atys , in which the protagonist is transformed into a tree, with her Mini Atys bronze sculpture, recently cast from root- and vine-like ropes, on view at Templon, while Jean-Michel Othoniel , who was just named Knight of the Legion of Honor—France’s highest public decoration—by President Macron , is showing one of his suspended mirrored glass and stainless-steel Noeud Sauvage (Wild Knot) sculptures, marvelously inspired by Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo’s research into knots and reflection theory, at Kukje gallery.
Zeno X—a legendary Antwerp-based gallery, which is doing its last art fair before closing this year after an impressive 42-year run—has an exceptional early Marlene Dumas painting of a female nude, titled Candle Light , which is from a series of works that she famously made after visiting nightclubs in the Red Light District of Amsterdam with Dutch photographer and filmmaker Anton Corbijn in 2000.
Image: Courtesy Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris and New YorkEvelyne Axell, La Sous-Préfete aux champs, 1967. Oil on canvas and cut panel. 59.1 x 64.6 x 2 inches (150 x 164 x 5 cm).
And Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois goes further back in history to the Pop Art and Nouvelle Realist era to offer a 1967 assemblage painting— La Sous-Préfete aux champs (The Sub-Prefect in the fields)—of a semi-nude figure reclining in a grassy realm by Evelyne Axell, a little-known Belgian painter and protégé of René Magritte who died at age 37 in 1972 but has more recently gained renewed interest for her erotically charged work.
Karla Knight has the whole back wall of Andrew Edlin Gallery ’s booth for a group of her diagrammatic, pseudo-scientific abstractions, which employ a personal hieroglyphic vocabulary, that are fascinatingly drawn, painted and embroidered on recycled materials. Her recent Little Wheel 1 tapestry is part of her new Universal Remote series, which feature 1950s television-like forms that can be read as receiver screens for communicating with distant realms. Nearby, Oli Epp energetically occupies the outer wall of Semiose’s booth with his larger-than-life portrayal of a glammed up, semi-abstract woman in his latest Post-Digital Pop painting, Aspirin.
© Urs Fischer. Courtesy the artist and GagosianUrs Fischer, Eternity, 2023. Aluminum panel, aluminum honeycomb, polyurethane adhesive, epoxy primer, gesso, solvent-based screen printing paint, and water-based screen printing paint. 72 x 96 inches (182.9 x 243.8 cm).
Courtesy the artist and Kukje Gallery, SeoulJean-Michel Othoniel, Noeud Sauvage (Wild Knot), 2023. Mirrored Glass, Stainless Steel. 39.4 x 39.4 x 39.4 inches (100 x 100 x 100 cm).
Courtesy the artist and Templon, Paris, Brussels and New YorkPrune Nourry, Mini Atys, 2023. Bronze, rope-effect painting. 35.4 x 24.8 x 22.4 inches (90 x 63 x 57 cm). Edition of 5 + 2 AP.
Courtesy the artist and Zeno X Gallery, AntwerpMarlene Dumas, Candle Light, 2000. Oil on canvas. 19 11/16 x 15 3/4 inches (50 x 40 cm). Photo: Felix Tirry.
Courtesy the artist and Bank, ShanghaiLu Wang, DOKU-Animal, 2022. Single channel HD digital video, 4.6 minutes. Edition 1/6.
Courtesy Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Paris and New YorkEvelyne Axell, La Sous-Préfete aux champs, 1967. Oil on canvas and cut panel. 59.1 x 64.6 x 2 inches (150 x 164 x 5 cm).
Courtesy Parliament, ParisCharlotte Dualé, Mismade (Yellow), 2023. Glazed ceramic, light bulb, electric cable. 17.7 x 20.1 x 7.1 inches (45.0 x 51.0 x 18.0 cm).
Courtesy the artist and Semiose, ParisOli Epp, Aspirin, 2023. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 78 3/4 × 70 7/8 inches (200 × 180 cm).
© 2021-2023 Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Dubai
Takashi Murakami, Together with the Flower Parent and Child, 2021-
2023. Platinum leaf on FRP, wooden pedestal. Sculpture: 184.9 x 123.1 x 59.1 cm, Pedestal: 12 x 90 x 90 cm.
Karla Knight, Little Wheel 1, 2022. Flashe, acrylic marker, pencil, and embroidery on cotton. 34 x 33 inches (86 x 83 cm).
Finally, two standouts in the Emerging Galleries ( Galeries émergentes ) section, which features 13 exhibitors presenting solo shows by up-and-coming artists, were Parliament, from Paris, BANK, from Shanghai. French artist Charlotte Dualé is showing ceramic sculptures—using an age-old medium in new and exciting ways—to beautifully craft stacked totem-pole pieces that looked like an accumulation of mechanical parts, two-dimensional works that simulated symbolic paintings and abstract lamps in odd, boxy forms, with such whimsical titles as Mismade (Yellow).
At the opposite end of the emerging galleries section and in a highly contrasting method of working, Chinese artist Lu Wang (Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year) employs digital technology to magically create a “Harajuku style” character with her face on a series of avatar bodies, such as DOKU-Animal , that go through a series of Buddhist incarnations—Heaven, Human, Asura, Animal, Hungry Ghost, and Hell—to explore the eternal cycle of birth, death and reincarnation in a completely 21st century way.
Some glasses from past promotions are now considered rare and can fetch high prices in the resale market. People search far and wide, scouring flea markets and online marketplaces, to complete their collections or find that one elusive glass. What makes these glasses even more special is their ability to evoke emotions and forge connections between generations. As parents pass down their beloved McDonald's glasses to their children, they share not only physical objects but also a tangible link to their own childhoods. The glasses become relics, preserving memories and stories that can be cherished and retold for years to come. When we hold a McDonald's glass in our hands, we are holding a piece of history. These glasses have been witness to countless family meals, celebrations, and moments of joy. They have sparked conversations, brought smiles to faces, and stood as mementos of a time gone by. They remind us of the power of nostalgia and the magic that everyday objects can hold. In a world that is constantly evolving, McDonald's glasses remain a constant, a symbol of a bygone era. They carry a century of magic, encapsulating the essence of childhood wonder and the joy of simpler times. Whether they grace the shelves of collectors or find themselves back in a family's kitchen cabinet, these glasses continue to bring smiles and evoke fond memories. So, next time you hold a McDonald's glass, take a moment to appreciate the history and magic it carries..
Reviews for "Preserving the Magic: Caring for and Displaying McDonald's Glass Collectibles"
1. John - 1 star
I was really disappointed with the "McDonald's Glasses Carrying a Century of Magic" collection. The glasses look cheap and poorly made. The designs are also very tacky and unappealing. I expected better from McDonald's, especially considering they advertised it as a collection that carries a century of magic. Overall, I would not recommend buying these glasses.
2. Sarah - 2 stars
I was excited to add the "McDonald's Glasses Carrying a Century of Magic" to my collection, but I was let down by the quality. The glasses feel flimsy and fragile. The designs are also quite generic and lack creativity. It's a shame because I thought this collection would be a unique and fun addition, but it ended up being a disappointment.
3. Michael - 3 stars
While I didn't hate the "McDonald's Glasses Carrying a Century of Magic" collection, I also didn't love it. The glasses are decent in terms of quality, but they lack the charm and nostalgia that I was hoping for. The designs are too simplistic and don't truly capture the magic of the past century. Overall, it's an average collection that didn't live up to my expectations.