Showing posts with label blue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blue. Show all posts

Friday, July 2, 2021

It's All About the Patterns

 

QUESTION: When I was a little girl, I used to sleep over at my grandmother’s house. While there, I used to stand in front of her china cabinet looking at all the beautiful china. Each piece had some sort of scene, usually a landscape with people. Most of the dishes were blue but some were pink and one or two were lavender. After my grandmother passed, I got her china collection. I just love it but don’t know much as these beautiful pieces. The name Spode is either stamped or impressed on the bottom of most of the pieces. Can you tell me who made them and where they got the ideas for the scenes on them?

ANSWER: What your grandmother collected and you now have is Spode china. All those with scenes and borders are what’s known as transferware, a technique for transferring prints to pottery.

During the early years of the 18th century, Spode achieved success because of  his mastery of transfer printing.  An Irish engraver named Brooks invented the process. It involved first, engraving a copper plate, then inking it and applying to it to thin tissue paper. The impression on the paper could then be transferred to wares of any shape.

Spode produced a variety of pottery wares, often imitating those of Wedgwood, including creamwares, basalts, stonewares, redwares, Jasperwares, and of course blue-printed pearlwares and early experimental porcelains.

In 1784, Spode began printing under the final glaze in blue on earthenware. He copied the early patterns from Chinese porcelain imported wares. By that time, London customers who had originally purchased Chinese porcelain dishes needed replacements. The engraver Thomas Lucas brought with him to Spode’s pottery the knowledge of designs from his previous employer, Thomas Turner at Caughley. 

Most of the early blue transfer-printed patterns were Chinese in style.  As Spode's production advanced and its customers' tastes evolved, the variety of patterns grew. Interest in Chinoiserie patterns later gave way to patterns that depicted rural scenes, exotic places, literary themes, as well as floral and botanical examples.

The earliest pattern produced by Spode around1790, was “Willow,” now known as “Blue Willow,” printed examples of the Willow pattern, commissioned by Josiah Spode and made around 1790, and its copperplate, engraved for Spode by Thomas Minton. 

In June 1805, there appeared the first of 20 monthly issues of a publication called Oriental Held Sports, Wild Spurts of the East, published by Edward Orme of Bond Street, London.  Each issue included a printed story and two large aquatint prints engraved from drawings by Samuel Howitt, a distinguished animal painter. Spode adapted the prints to his dinnerware depicting various hunting scenes with animals and birds. Some views show mounted hunters carrying spears with native bearers on foot. The ’Indian Sporting’ series alone had 21 different hunting scenes.

Another popular series formed a travelogue of views in the Eastern Mediterranean. Spode based these on engravings in Mayer's Views in Asia Minor, Mainly in Caramania, published in 1803. "The Castle of Boudron;" The City of Corinth" and “Antique Fragments at Lissimo” were all part of this series. 

From around 1800, most of the patterns painted by Spode's artists were recorded in Pattern books.  These books contained watercolor paintings of tens of thousands of patterns made from about 1800 up to the end of production. Many are beautiful works of art in their own right, but they also acted as a historic document of changing design styles over two centuries. Georgian simplicity, Regency opulence, Victorian Naturalism, sentimentality, Pre-Raphaelite styles, Japanese Revival, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, and 1950s Modernism.

Spode introduced his more famous pattern, “Blue Italian,” around 1816. It became immediately popular and remained a best seller. Over the years, the company produced it on a wide variety of earthenware shapes. One Spode catalog from the 1920s and 1930s records over 700 different shapes available. 

Unlike many of the other classical scene patterns on Spode wares of the early 19th century, the origin of the view for the Italian pattern isn’t certain. Some experts believe Italian artist G.P. Pannini, well known for his painting style, inspired pictures of ruins and quiet pastoral Italian scenery fpor Spode pieces. The Spode engravers derived many of their pictorial subjects from scenes which had appeared as prints. Publications of prints of scenes associated with the Grand Tour became the inspiration for many patterns. Merigot's Views Of Rome and Its Vicinity, published in 1798, was the source for several Spode patterns, including Tower and Castle, but experts agree that none of these views inspired the Italian pattern.

Furthermore, there is no one location in Italy that seems to correspond to all the features included in the original “Blue Italian” scene. It seems to be a composition made up of several elements. The ruin on the left, although architecturally incorrect, might have been based on the Great Bath at Tivoli, near Rome. The row of houses along the left bank of the river is similar to those of the Latium area near Umbria, north of Rome. The castle in the distance is of a type which occurs only in Northern Italy in the regions of Piedmont and Lombardy.

Could it be that a traveling artist from Northern Europe made sketches of the scenes he encountered as he made his way through Italy? Upon returning home, did he combine his sketches into an attractive scene which, later, Spode used and chose to call the Italian Pattern? Unfortunately, there is no proof of this. The inspiration for the Italian scene may have even come from a print of a painting and then another painting taken from the print by a different artist.

In the early 19th century, most of the pieces Spode produced in the “Blue Italian” pattern were on dinnerware items used by the rich---asparagus servers, huge meat dishes, enormous soup tureens with ladles, cruet sets, foot baths, and more. Wealthy households set their dinner tables with Spode’s Italian. And there were many variations of the pattern. 

“Blue Italian” was an immediate success from its introduction. Though it’s impossible to say what created this strong appeal, it’s perhaps due to the unique combination of a classical scene with a Chinese border which had been directly copied from pieces of Chinese export porcelain, dating from around 1785.

By 1822, Spode had developed other colors, in addition to blue, that could withstand high-temperature firing.  The production of these additional printed colors enabled Spode to expand his line of wares.  While not nearly as popular as Spode's various blues, these new colors included green, brown, manganese purple, Payne's grey, and black.  

Soon afterwards,  in 1824, two-color underglaze printing began.  Spode also employed other methods to add color.  One method was to transfer print outline patterns and then paint in or between the lines of the pattern in other colors. Other methods included enameling with additional colors and gilded decoration over the glaze to further expand the variety of offerings.  Near the end of the early Spode period, the pottery also began producing wares in pink.

Spode introduced about 150 patterns a year.  By 1833 Spode, they numbered nearly 4,000. Most Spode wares bear a pattern number, as well as the name Spode printed, painted, or impressed on the bottom or reverse side.

Some Spode collectors collect just the “Blue Italian” pattern while others specialize in collecting only the oldest pieces dating from 1816 to 1833. Since Spode china continues to be made, newer pieces are often passed off as older ones. It’s important to check the provenance if possible. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Ancients" in the 2021 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

The Delight of Bristol Blue

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased a piece of what was described as “Bristol Blue” glass through an online antiques auction. I collect antique glass but this vase struck me as something unique. Although it looked like Victorian enameled glass, it resembled porcelain and the description said it was made in England in the late 18th century. I would really like to know more about this piece. I didn’t think glassmakers produced enameled glass that early Was it produced in Bristol, England, and thus the name, and who made it? And just how far back does Bristol Blue glass go?

ANSWER: Those are all very good questions. Let’s begin with the name. Even though this type of glass has Bristol in its name, glassmakers throughout most of England produced it. The blue in the name refers to the coloring used in the glass.

In the first half of the 18th century, near Redcliffel Backs, Temple Meads, Bedminster and other suburbs of Bristol, England, the squat chimneys of glasshouses and potteries silhouetted the landscape like giant beehives. But it was the age of porcelain, and anyone who could afford to buy it did so. Porcelain factories enjoyed the protection of kings, and European elite emptied their purses for priceless porcelain treasures. The arrival of an affordable substitute in decorated rnilch glass from Germany delighted Bristol glassmakers. For the first time, they had a perfect porcelain substitute  within their reach. 

The Venetians first made glass as an imitation of porcelain prior to 1500. Experts believe they used tin oxide as the agent to produce the white opacity in their glass. Eighteenth-century English white glass, called enamel glass in advertisements of the 1760s, was an intensely white, brittle material, generally a potash-lead mix, rendered opaque by the addition of lead arsenate. The porcelain-like, opaque glass  produced by the glassmakers of Bristol, was soft and smooth to the touch yet retained the fine heaviness of English crystal. It was an instant success, forcing the Bristol glassmen to borrow decorators from neigh-boring potteries to keep up with the public's demand.

England's glass excise tax of 1746 raised the duty on clear glass but didn’t tax opaque and colored glass because there was so little of it being made. This offered an excellent economic incentive for its increased production.

Chemists long knew that a powdered coloring could be premixed and supplied to glassmakers for addition to clear glass of their own making. But it was 18th-century German chemists from Saxony, who refined impure oxide of cobalt to produce a blue powder of unparalleled purity and uniform consistency. They exported their product, called “smalt,” to England, where a British merchant distributed it under the name "Bristol Blue."

The Bristol glassmakers quickly added the new deep-blue color to their already successful line of opaque white glass. Vigor & Stevens, of Thomas Street and Lazarus Jacobs, and later his son Isaac, of Temple Street, produced pieces primarily in deep Bristol Blue.

By the end of the 18th century the manufacture of blue glass became fairly common throughout England and continued to be marketed under the name of Bristol Blue. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to identify glass made in Bristol from a piece manufactured elsewhere. The original term “Bristol Blue" referred simply to the coloring agent sold to glassmakers rather than to their finished products.

The early shapes, manufactured around 1770, emulated Chinese and English porcelain—pear-shaped covered vases, trumpet-mouthed beakers, and cruets—all   produced in sets. Glassmakers also produced scent or smelling bottles and snuff boxes, often facet-cut, with enameling and gilding, in both white and blue glass.

Early Chinese porcelain painters greatly influenced the 18th-century Bristol designs. The Chinese artists working at the Imperial Porcelain Factory excelled in delicate miniature enameled decoration on their opaque white glass. They often employed motifs of figures, birds, and European flowers much admired by the Emperor Chi’en Lung, who ruled from 1736 to 1795. Since most English glasshouses made their opaque white glass in competition with porcelain, most used the same styles and even the same artists to decorate both.

Glass decorator Michael Edkins linked the white and blue glass under the mutual name of "Bristol." At first, he apprenticed to an enameling firm in Birmingham, England, but at the age of 20, he took up residence in Bristol and settled down to decorate pottery dishes and tiles. At that time, artists painted the pieces with pencils made of bristles from the noses and eyelids of oxen. Graduating to glass, Edkins began decorating "enamel and blue glassware." He worked both independently and for Isaac Jacobs, Little & Longman, and Williams, Dunbar & Company from 1782 onwards. Instead of using enamel paints that needed to be fired, Edkins used standard oil colors, or plain gold gilt motifs, applied with unfired varnish, which he called "cold" decoration. 

Generally, artists decorated Bristol Blue ware with unfired or lightly fired gold varnish. Cruets and decanters often sported the name of their contents as well as intricate garlands and wreaths of plain gold. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "The Ancients" in the 2021 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.


Thursday, August 13, 2020

As a River Flows, So Does Flow Blue



QUESTION: My mom loved collecting odd pieces of old china. She died recently and now I have her collection. Among the many pieces are some with designs that are all dark blue and blurry. Are these mistakes or are they some sort of china I’ve never heard of?

ANSWER: No, those blurry pieces are not mistakes. They’re what’s known as Flow Blue. And while many people call this type of ceramics “china,” it’s actually pottery not porcelain. Beginning in 1820, potters in Staffordshire, England, began making it as a way to provide a more affordable alternative for middle-class people who coveted the fine blue and white porcelains being imported from China. As dinnerware, it enjoyed its greatest popularity between the mid-19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. And as an antique, it has gained popularity in recent years.

Potters used cobalt oxide pigment to create the darker hue of flow blue. The porous earthenware absorbed it and blurred when the pottery glaze fired. Although it blurred by itself, potters discovered that it could be made to really flow by the addition of a cup of lime or chloride of ammonia during glaze firing. This had the additional advantage of covering over printing faults, bubbles, and other defects in the pottery. As a result, some flow blue is so blurred that all details are invisible.

Josiah Wedgwood first produced Flow Blue around 1820. But it wasn’t until 15 years later that mass production began. Since flow blue was a decidedly Victorian era phenomenon, its production fell into three time periods.—early Victorian from 1835 to 1850, mid-Victorian from   1860 to 1879, and late Victorian from 1880 to 1900. During the early Victorian period, the most popular styles imitated the Chinese porcelains. But they were largely inaccurate depictions of the Chinese designs, mixing Chinese, Arabic and Indian motifs. Scenics and florals were also  popular during this time.



The mid-Victorian period brought greater creativity to Flow Blue wares, as potters mixed styles and ornamentation became elaborate and varied. Also during the mid-Victorian period, styles began to mix and merge with one another. So, there were things like Oriental-style plates with floral, Gothic, or scenic borders. Other elaborate motifs, like scrolls, pillars, columns, urns and wreaths became quite common. The pieces themselves included toilet wares and teapots, plates and platters, vases and garden seats, and even dog bowls.

Flow blue designs of the late Victorian period exhibited a marked Art Nouveau influence, with stylized florals and beautiful symmetry.

By the end of the Victorian Era, there were thousands of Flow Blue patterns. Though most Flow Blue wares came from English potteries, those in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United States all made it as well. The most noted English potteries included such names as  Wedgwood, Grindley, Davenport and the Johnson Brothers, while in the United States, Wheeling, Mercer, and Warwick. 
By World War I, U.S. potteries were producing most of the flow blue for the domestic market, causing English potters to close up shop since these wares had never been popular in England. The desirability of the ware waned in both countries between the wars, but interest picked up again in the U.S. in the 1960s.

Antique dealers determine the price of Flow Blue wares mostly based on their pattern, color, and rarity. Patterns range from Blue Danube to Iris and Classic Willow. Especially sought after ones include Amoy, Cashmere, Scinde, Shell, and The Temple, as well as the La Belle pattern by American maker, Wheeling Pottery Company.

Collectors are always on the hunt for the early patterns from the 1840s. Unusual items such as rare shapes, egg baskets and egg cups, large sized platters and early tea and coffeepots command high prices. Egg baskets with eggcups will fetch over $1,000. A single eggcup in a rare pattern can fetch over $400, whereas a not so rare one would fetch maybe $65. Rare coffeepots could he worth over $2,000, and large turkey platters from the 1890s, $600 to $800 if the pattern is right.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about  world's fairs in the 2020 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.




Thursday, December 5, 2019

Onions Galore




QUESTION: I have several plates by Meissen with what I believe is called the Blue Onion pattern. Can you tell me more about it?


ANSWER: The Blue Onion pattern is the Meissen company’s most popular and has been for over 250 years.  Because Meissen never copyrighted it, more companies have copied it than any other ceramic pattern. But the pieces made by Meissen, itself, stand above the others because of the way its workers meticulously hand painted the design on each piece.


After Marco Polo introduced Chinese blue and white porcelains to Europe, the demand rose until by the beginning of the 18th century, Europeans clammered for more and more of the finely painted pieces. To satisfy this demand, the East India Company established trade with China and brought to Europe as much of the blue and white porcelain as it could.

But try as it might, the East India Company couldn’t keep up with the demand, so in 1710 Augustus the Strong formed a new porcelain company to produce blue underglaze decorations like those of the Chinese. Johann Gregor Höroldt, a talented porcelain painter who had worked for the Du Paquier Porcelain Company, a competitor of Meissen’s, perfected the blue underglaze paint, which the Meissen Company used to decorate its wares with the Blue Onion pattern, in 1739.

The model for this unique pattern most likely came from a flax bowl from the Chinese K'ang Hsi period, dating from 1662-1722. Originally, Meissen called it the “bulb” pattern. However, since Europeans were unfamiliar with the fruits and flowers shown on the original Chinese pieces, the Meissen artists created hybrids that were more familiar to the company’s customers. The so-called "onions" really aren’t onions at all, but stylized peaches and pomegranates modeled after the original Chinese pattern. They made the flower in the design a cross between a chrysanthemum and a peony and wove the stems of both the fruits and the flower around a stalk of bamboo.

As production continued, Meissen changed the pattern slightly. Originally, the fruits on the border pointed inward with the stem on the edge. But they altered this design by pointing the fruits alternatively inward and outward.

Not only did the Blue Onion pattern become Meissen’s most popular, but it also was its least expensive to produce. The company made money by using lower-paid “blue painters” as well as   apprentices to do the decorating. In addition, the pieces decorated with the pattern didn’t need a third firing which was necessary to fix the enamel decoration on Meissen’s other wares, plus the company decided not to add gilding to the standard pattern.

The Blue Onion pattern achieved popularity again during Victorian times when home furnishings became darker and heavier. It complemented the more elaborate Victorian furniture styles preferred by the new wealthy middle class. Immediately after the Civil War, the pattern took off. Everything from napkins to tablecloths, utensil handles to enameled cooking pots featured it. By the 1870s, the Meissen Company had adapted it to fit nearly every shape of porcelain ware it produced. To distinguish its Blue Onion pattern from those of its competitors, the company put its now famous emblem of Blue Crossed Swords at the foot of the design’s bamboo trunk in 1888.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.


Monday, August 29, 2016

The Mystique of Cobalt Blue



QUESTION: I’ve always loved objects made of cobalt blue glass. The shimmer of the deep blue glass as the sunlight filtered through it used to fascinate me as a kid. So it’s no accident that I began to collect various glass objects made of it. But even though I have a modest collection of glasses, pitchers, vases, and the like, I really don’t know much about cobalt glass. Can you please give me some background on it and perhaps tell me what’s really collectible and what isn’t?

ANSWER: Cobalt blue glass offers something for everyone. It’s color is distinctive and the variety of pieces available is great. People often associate cobalt glass with 19th and early 20th-century medicine bottles, as well as ink bottles. But the number of different objects made of it goes well beyond these two mundane things.

The addition of a small amount of cobalt to molten glass turns it a deep blue. Its use goes back thousands of years. It was the Egyptians who first developed a process to color glass using impurities found in raw materials. The Romans copied and perfected this method. In Mycenae, around 1400 B.C.E., the production of cobalt glass reached its peak. The large amount of jewelry and dishes made of cobalt blue glass found at archaeological sites show how popular it was. However, today’s collectors look to more recent times and the glass objects made during the Great Depression.

While not all cobalt glass is Depression Glass, a lot of it is. This is the most fertile area for beginning collectors because so much of it appears on the market. Besides being known as “cobalt blue,” Depression glassmakers also referred to it as Deep Blue, Dark Blue, and Ritz Blue.

Depression glass collectors particularly like to collect the Royal Lace Pattern, made by the Hazel Atlas Glass Company in the 1930s. They continued to produce this elegant pattern until 1941.

Many companies created Depression-Era cobalt glass. In the late 1920s, the Diamond Glassware Company offered cobalt blue pieces in the Victory pattern. Hazel Atlas Glass Company introduced cobalt blue glass pieces in its Aurora line, New Century, Florentine No. 1, Florentine No. 2, Hairpin, Ships and Sailboats, and Starlight. The Fenton Glass Company added cobalt blue glass to its Lincoln Inn pattern. The Moondrops and Radiance patterns by New Martinsville Glass Company provided cobalt blue pieces. Paden City Glass Company's offered cobalt blue glass pieces in their Orchid and the Peacock & Wild Rose patterns. Westmoreland Glass Company showcased cobalt blue glass in the English Hobnail line. Everyone, it seems, got in on the act.

Many companies also made beautiful cobalt blue glassware for more formal dining and entertaining. For example, Morgantown Glass Company created a line of elegant glassware in the Golf Ball pattern. The Cambridge Glass Company, on the other hand, created glassware with overlay designs.

Many companies have produced eye-catching decorative items made of cobalt blue glass. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Fenton Glass Company, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, began including cobalt blue glass pieces in its line of eggs and slippers as well as baskets. Another company that created distinctive looking slippers and other decorator pieces was the Degenhart Glass Company. Animals in every shape and size have remained popular with collectors. The Imperial Glass Co. was only one of many companies producing animals in cobalt blue.

Avon Products Inc. took advantage of the popularity of cobalt blue glass and offered a variety of items, including cruets, cologne bottles, and salt and pepper shakers, to its customers over the years, To reach those looking for more elegant items, Avon had the Fostoria Glass Company, long known for its quality glass, produce glassware in the George and Martha Washington pattern.

Lastly, some people collect cobalt blue glass kitchenware, including mixing bowls, rolling pins, refrigerator boxes, and measuring cups, produced by well-known glass manufacturers.

While some people collect cobalt glass for its value, many collect it for its beauty, especially when displayed in a window so the sunlight can shine through it, giving the room a mystical blue glow.







Monday, November 23, 2015

Stretched for Beauty



QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautiful plate at an antique show. The dealer said it’s stretched glass, but I don’t see how that’s possible since it’s a round plate. Can you tell me why my plate is called ‘stretched” glass?

ANSWER: Ever since it’s inception, the term stretch(not stretched) has confused people. It appears mistakenly on price tags in antique shops and in online descriptions. Because of the word “stretch,” People imagine a piece from the 1950s or 1960s that has been stretched to make it taller or wider, but stretch glass is entirely different.

Some people believe stretch glass is swung back and forth on a rod to make it stretch outward. Or, they think it looks like a strange type of Carnival or art glass, so it must be that. Neither is correct. Most of the time, people's first reaction is how beautiful the glass is, but they don't know anything about it.

On eBay there are over 28,000 listing for stretch glass and most are far from it. To collectors, stretch glass is iridescent stretch glass. It differentiates the glass from the common mistake of being considered swung glass. Forty to 50 percent of people think swung vases are stretch glass.

Created by several American glass factories from 1916 to the early 1930s, iridescent stretch glass is a pressed or blown molded glass. It’s shaped and formed—pressed or blown into molds—reheated and then sprayed with a metallic salt or dope, a procedure called  doping, while the piece is still hot. The glass blower then reheats the piece and this is when the stretch marks occur. The glass expands faster where the dope blower applied the dope, which causes a crackled, web-like appearance on the glass. Further shaping emphasizes these stretch marks. Some blowers often shape or "work" the glass a lot which emphasizes the stretch marks in the iridescence while others don’t work their pieces as much, resulting in finer stretch marks and are only satiny.

Collectors consider true carnival, stretch, and art glass with a shiny iridescence doped ware. The difference between them is when the glass blower applies the metallic salts to the glass. While glass blowers shape and form Carnival glass first and then dope it  to create a shimmering to slightly satin iridescent surface, they spray stretch glass  while the glass is molten hot, then reheat and reshape it to make the stretch marks. Another difference is that Carnival glass has a distinctive pattern in the glass mold, such as grapes, butterflies, or geometrical patterns on the inside, outside or on both sides of the glass. Stretch glass has little or no pattern and is very plain.

Confusion seems to set in when people are searching for stretch glass, especially since art glass also has both iridescence and stretch effects. Although art glass is from the same period as stretch glass, the chemicals in the glass make the difference. Additional stretch effects may be from doping the pieces and further shaping. Art glass is also much thinner and more delicate than stretch glass.

People also confuse freeform art glass, produced from the 1950s to the present and commonly posted on eBay, with stretch glass.

Companies that produced stretch glass included Central Glass Works of Wheeling, West Virginia, Diamond Glass-Ware Company of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Jeanette Glass Company of Jeanette, Pennsylvania, Vineland Flint of Vineland, New Jersy, and United States Glass Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The true difference between the stretch glass that different manufacturers produced was the unique colors. Tangerine is a popular color among collectors, along with red and ruby, which each cost more because of their popularity. Wisteria, a purple-colored glass is also popular. Opaque colors of stretch iridescent glass are rare and can be pricey.

The most common stretch glass color that can be found is celeste blue, as well as the topaz and pink. Blue was the  dominant color though, along with topaz, both of which were good selling items when they first appeared. Topaz was a good seller in the 1910s and 1920s because not everyone had electricity. This color catches the light and reflects it very well. There’s also a lot of Florentine green stretch glass out there as well and crystal stretch glass, which has a frosty white iridescence. With so many stretch colors out there including aquamarine, blue smoke, coral, custard, pink and white luster, beginning collectors are sure to find a favorite of their own.

Iridescent stretch glass not only comes in a variety of colors, but also a range of prices. Pieces that once sold for 25 cents to $1 can now be picked for $25 to $50, and even $10 to $15 for more common pieces.

High-end pieces, such as a Fenton No. 604 punch on a red stand, can sell into the thousands. One sold on eBay for $4,200. While the price may seem high, anyone can acquire a decent collection of stretch glass if they buy pieces in the $25 to $100 range.

Monday, July 29, 2013

The Master of Inks



QUESTION: I recently began to collect old bottles. I found and bought an old blue glass bottle with what looks like a spout at a flea market. Do you happen to know what this might have been used for?

ANSWER: It sounds like you discovered a master ink bottle. Master inks could be found everywhere—at universities, in town halls, in schools, and even at Civil War campsites, to record the horrific events and write letters home to loved ones.  Without masters, much of history wouldn’t have been recorded.

People used master inks to fill smaller ink wells. Many survived because they could be reused. People often threw smaller ink containers away after use. Unfortunately, there’s little information about them available.

Prior to the 18th century, ink came in the form of a cake or powder, which the user would mix with water. It was only in the late 18th century that liquid ink in wide-bottomed bottles became widely available. This was a black or blue-black writing fluid that the user dipped a pen made from a goose quill into a small container. Different makers used a variety of recipes, but the most common types were Gall ink, deep black Indian ink  and blue-black ink. P& J Arnold of London was one of the pioneering companies in the ink industry in Great Britain. Other well known English ink companies included Stephens, Price and Hyde, and Cochrane. In the U.S., Sanford and S.S. Stafford were two of the earlier companies. As the ink industry grew, so did the need for ink containers.

Ink bottles differ from inkwells in that makers designed the bottles to serve a purely utilitarian purpose—to hold ink. Inkwells, on the other hand, were often more decorative, the sort of thing you’d want people to notice on your desk. Consequently, inkwells were more expensive than ink bottles.

No single manufacturer had the monopoly on ink bottles. Indeed, just about any company that produced glass dabbled in ink bottles at one point or another. Generally, manufacturers made master inks of glass, ceramic, or pottery. They came in several varieties , including “pourer” inks, used to top off ink wells, and the bulk type used for filling the inkwells.

Master inks are highly collectible. Their larger size allows collectors to display them more prominently than the smaller inks. They also came in a wide variety of colors, and as with all glassware, color is paramount to collectors. The most valuable colors are unusual ones like yellow and purple, while colors like aqua and clear are more common. Embossed bottles or ones with intact labels also increase an ink bottle’s value.
Signs of wear and color variants affect the quality. Some examples carry the residue of stains that still remain. Collectors usually categorize master inks by makers, countries of origin, and age.

Prices for master inks vary greatly from a few dollars for the more common ones and to hundreds of dollars for some of the rarer ones. Great examples from different ink makers can be found from $50-100.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Fiesta Fun



QUESTION: My aunt had a large collection of Fiesta dinnerware which she left to me. I added a few pieces that I found at flea markets over the last few years, but now I want to sell it. Is this pottery worth much and where would be the best place to sell it?

ANSWER: Depending on what pieces you have, your collection of Fiesta dinnerware could be worth a small fortune. But before you get dollar signs in your eyes, there are a few things you should know about it.

The style and bright colors of Fiesta dinnerware look very 1950s. But actually it appeared during the Great Depression in the mid-1930s. Englishman, Frederick Hurten Rhead, designed the simple Art Deco shapes while chief engineer Victor Albert Bleininger fabricated the colorful signature glazes. Both worked for the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell, West Virginia.

Originally, the company offered 37 different affordable pieces, ranging from candle holders and ashtrays to large serving dishes, each in five bright colors: red-orange, yellow, green, cobalt blue, and ivory. It added turquoise in 1939 for a total of six basic colors..

Homer Laughlin pioneered a whole new concept in dinnerware with Fiesta. When it first introduced the dinnerware at the annual Pottery and Glass Exhibit held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1936, its line was the first widely mass-marketed, solid-color dinnerware in the country. It was also the first dinnerware that consumers could purchase by the piece instead of in complete sets, as was the custom at the time. This allowed customers to mix and match, perhaps choosing a different color for each place setting, or have all their dinner plates one color, their cups and saucers another, and so on. This concept became instantly popular with the public, and soon Fiesta dinnerware became a runaway hit.

At its introduction, Fiesta dinnerware consisted of the usual place settings of dinner plates, salad plates, soup bowls, and cups and saucers, plus occasional pieces such as candle holders in two designs, a bud vase, and an ash tray. A set of seven nested mixing bowls ranged in size from five to twelve inches in diameter. The company also sold basic place settings for four, six and eight persons. But the idea from the start was to create a line of open-stock items from which the consumer could pick and choose based on their personal preference.

The Homer Laughlin Company quickly added several additional items to their line and eliminated several unusual items—a divided 12-inch plate, a turquoise covered onion soup bowl, and the covers for its set of mixing bowls. The Fiesta line eventually consisted of 64 different items, including flower vases in three sizes, water tumblers, carafes, teapots in two sizes, five-part relish trays, and large plates in 13- and 15-inch diameters.

But with the onset of World War II, the company was forced to reduce the number of items in the Fiesta line as public demand declined and companies cut back non-war related production. By the end of the war, Homer Laughlin had reduced the items in its Fiesta line by one third.

The design of the original dinnerware pieces remained unchanged from 1936 to 1969. However, the company did change its colored glazes to keep up with home decorating color trends. It introduced four new colors—rose, gray, dark green, and chartreuse, replacing the original blue, green, and ivory. Yellow and turquoise continued in production.

By the end of the 1950s, sales again dropped, so the company reduced its offering of items and changed the glaze colors once again. This time, it introduced a medium green, to distinguish it from other green glazes which the company had produced. This shade of green is in high demand by collectors, and certain pieces in this color command extremely high prices.

Homer Laughlin removed the original red-orange color, the most expensive glaze to produce, before 1944 because it contained uranium oxide which the government needed to construct the atom bombs. Therefore, red pieces also usually command a premium price in today’s collectible market.

By 1969, the company restyled the finials on covers, handles on cups, bowl contours and shapes to give them a more contemporary style.

Fiesta dinnerware became popular once again as baby boomers began establishing their own homes. Not long after Homer Laughlin discontinued the brightly colored dinnerware line in January 1973,  collectors began buying up what remained at garage sales and second-hand shops. Prices for it hit the roof and by the mid-1980s, prices of Fiesta items reached $100 for scarcer pieces.

Generally, serving pieces such as casserole dishes, carafes, teapots, and water pitchers almost always have higher values than normal place setting pieces. As mentioned earlier, certain colors are also priced higher, no matter what the piece.

It’s also important to look on the back of each piece for the familiar “Fiesta” backstamp,
followed by 'HLC USA', 'MADE IN USA' or 'H.L. CO. USA.' You may also discover some pieces with the word 'GENUINE' stamped near the Fiesta signature.

As far as selling your collection, you might do better selling off the pieces individually. If the pieces are from the 1930s and 1940s, you might want to consider sending them to a good auction house where you'll most likely get a better return on them.