At Sea in a Bottle

 

QUESTION: My grandfather was a merchant seaman for most of his life. From his work, he developed a passion for historic ships and out of that for models of historic ships in bottles. Sadly, he’s recently passed on but before he died, he gave me the ships in bottles, about a dozen of them, that he had collected. I’m curious to learn how long people have been building models of historic ships in bottles. And exactly how did they do that?

ANSWER: Historically, the first mention of objects placed in bottles dates back to 1719. A German artist, musician and magician, Matthias Buchinger, built models, although not necessarily of ships, inside bottles. This was remarkable since he was born without arms or legs.

The oldest surviving ship in a bottle, a Turkish or a Portuguese three-masted warship, dates to 1784. Instead of laying on its side as most do, the maker placed it in an egg--shaped bottle, which hes placed upside down over a wooden stand. 

The idea of putting a model of a ship in a bottle became very popular after the fast sailing ships like the clipper came into service. So most of the antique ships in bottles found today appeared after 1840.

Ships in bottles became more popular as folk art in the second half of the 19th century, after the introduction of cheap, mass-produced bottles made with clear glass. They also became a very popular nautical gift during the late 18th and the early and mid-19th centuries in both Europe and the Americas.

Historians believe that monks living in monasteries spent tireless hours working on the earliest examples of these intricately carved models. The emergence of putting ships inside bottles can be followed back to the mid to late 19th century.

Ships in bottles were a unique way for anyone to connect with maritime history even if they weren't a sailor. By the 20th century, with the creation of new, faster ships on the seas, so ships in bottles became more diverse in design. 

Antiques experts classify a ship in a bottle as an impossible bottle—a bottle containing an object that does not appear as if it would fit through the bottle's mouth. It’s the most iconic type of impossible bottle. Other common objects often inserted into bottles include fruits, matchboxes, decks of cards, tennis balls, racketballs, Rubik's Cubes, padlocks, knots, and scissors. These may be placed inside the bottle using various mechanisms, including constructing an object inside the bottle from smaller parts, using a small object that expands or grows inside the bottle, or molding the glass around the object.

Over the centuries, many people probably asked themselves just how the model ships got into the bottles. There are two ways to place a model ship inside a bottle. The simpler way is to rig the masts of the ship and raise it up when the ship is inside the bottle. The maker built the masts, spars, and sails separately and then attached them to the hull of the ship with strings and hinges so the masts could lay flat against the deck of the ship. He then placed the ship inside the bottle and pulled the masts up using the strings attached to the masts. However, the hull of the ship must have still been able to fit through the neck of the bottle. Ships bottle makers often chose bottles with minor distortions and soft tints to hide the small details of erecting the ship inside the bottle, such as hinges on the masts. Some used specialized long-handled tools to build the entire ship inside the bottle.

Since ships of the past came in different shapes and sizes, the size of the bottle and the extent of its flat-base shape when placed horizontally mattered immensely to the makers. 

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 "Pottery Through the Ages" in the 2022 Winter 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.

Christmas Way Back When

 

QUESTION: Visiting historic sites around the holidays reveals a wealth of beautiful decorations and old-fashioned charm. But just how charming were those old-fashioned Christmas celebrations? What did people do before Hallmark Christmas movies?

ANSWER: While what you read and see on T.V. about how the Victorians celebrated Christmas is often exaggerated, many of the holiday traditions we still practice today began back then thanks to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. But one of the greatest influences on modern Christmas traditions was none other than Charles Dickens.

While he wasn’t the first writer to write about Christmas, and certainly not the last, he, nevertheless, brought a myriad of already popular traditions together in his novella A Christmas Carol.  

With luck,  there was snow. Twinkling, sparkling, clean, white, heart-warming old-fashioned snow. Nothing reminds everyone of an old-fashioned Christmas like snow—Dickens’ Christmas Carol had plenty of it, for this was the essence of a Victorian Christmas.

During the Victorian era from 1837 to 1901, people celebrated Christmas with special family gatherings, feasting, embellishing the home with decorations, and gift giving in increasing abundance. Victorians loved to decorate for the holidays. A giant fir tree, adorned with dried hydrangeas in shades of rose and pale green, lacy fans, white silk roses—a symbol of the Virgin Mary—German glass balls, and delicate handmade paper ornaments, held  together with lace garland, woven with ribbon and strung fresh cranberries, stood in the parlor. Many people believe that the Christmas tree evolved from the Paradise tree, a fir hung with red apples and wafers, representing the host, which represented the Garden of Eden in a medieval miracle play about Adam and Eve performed on December 24.

Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol during a period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Both Dickens’ experiences of his youth and writings on Christmas by other authors, including Washington Irving, influenced A Christmas Carol. Dickens had written three Christmas stories prior to the novella, and was inspired following a visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, one of several establishments for London's street children. The treatment of the poor and the ability of a selfish man to redeem himself by transforming into a more sympathetic character are the key themes of the story.

Arrangements of fresh greens and holly, a pagan custom adapted by Christians, decorated Victorian homes. The color green came to symbolize the Christian belief in eternal life through Christ. Legend says that Jesus' crown of thorns was plaited from holly. It's said that, before the crucifixion, the berries of the holly were white, but afterward, they turned crimson, like drops of blood.

Greens hung from chandeliers. Pine roping, wrapped with  pearls and pink moire taffeta bows, draped the grand staircase.  Perhaps a small wooden tree covered with prisms stood on a marble-top  table. Another, covered in intricate origami birds, might have stood on a hall table. The crowning touch was a large welcoming wreath that hung on the vestibule door flanked by alabaster urns filled with gold tinged twisted willow and red poinsettias. But the most important part of the Victorian celebration was the family's creche, which featured carved figures of Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child set in a miniature village, complete with meadows, fences, windmills and ponds. flanked by poinsettias. Many believe St. Francis of Assisi created the first creche using live animals in 1223.

Gift giving played an important role in Victorian celebrations. The lady of the house would smile as she peeled back the tissue covering a heavily embossed sterling silver dresser set or opened a box in which a pair of gold and amethyst earrings nestled. On the more practical side, she might have received a steel chatelaine, a chain which clipped to the waist and held keys, a pencil, and a button hook. For a special evening out, she might have been given  a dress cape of black silk velvet trimmed with jet beads and ostrich feathers.

All of the above was fine and dandy for wealthy Victorians, but for the majority of people who worked long hours for subsistence wages—not unlike Bob Cratchet in Dickens’ beloved story—life was a daily drudgery and Christmas, for many, was just another day of the year, albeit one they had off.    

A Christmas Carol captured the essence of the mid-Victorian revival of the Christmas holiday. Dickens had acknowledged the influence of the modern Western observance of Christmas and later inspired several aspects of Christmas, including family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games and a festive generosity of spirit.

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 "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday 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.

Keepsakes, Not Throwaways

 

QUESTION: Sometime ago I purchased a box of colorful decorative holiday cutouts and imprints. Many of the designs feature St. Nicholas and have a definite British Victorian look to them. What were these called and what were they used for?

ANSWER: Believe it or not, the cutouts you purchased are known as scraps. While the word “scraps” has now come to mean parts that are left over, such as scraps of wood, fabric, and paper, back in the 19th century it meant something quite different.

The Victorians loved decoration—the more the better. They also were very romantic and loved sentimentality and keepsakes. This led to a phenomenon popularly known as scraps. 

Also called die cuts or chromos, scraps were small, colorful, embossed paper images that were sold in sheets by stationers and booksellers and used in various decorative, entertainment, and educational applications. Their diverse subject matter included flowers, trees, fruits, birds, animals, pets, ladies and gents, children, historical people and events, angels, transportation themes, and occupational motifs. 

People pasted them into albums and used them to make greeting cards and decorated boxes. They also pasted them on folding screens and pieces of furniture. Scraps served as extra learning materials to teach young children the alphabet, counting, natural history, and geography, as well as teaching tools for learning prayers and Bible stories and in the enjoyment of nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

The first scraps originated in German bakers' shops as decoration for biscuits and cakes and for fastening on wrapped sweets. The earliest ones were printed in uncut sheets in black and white, then hand colored. Scraps appeared in Britain in the 1850s and soon became popular as decorative additions to Christmas cards. They were also used to illustrate historical as well as events of the time.

By the mid-1800's, chromolithography had been invented. This made a wide variety of  colored scraps available to an ever-increasing market. But chromolithography required a lengthy process. Each color had to be applied separately and needed to dry before the next color could be applied. However, the process made up to 20 printed colors possible. Printers made Victorian and Edwardian scraps in sheets that contained small chromolithographs designed to be cut out in the same manner as the first penny postage stamps. After printing and before embossing, they coated the sheets with a gelatin and gum layer that resulted in a glossy appearance and helped the paper stretch without cracking the print. Steel cutters, powered by foot treadles, punched out excess paper and left clean, sharp edges. Thin paper sheets, imprinted with manufacturers’ trademarks and called "ladders," held the cut sheets together.

The elaborate use of stamping can often be seen in uncut scrap sheets. Optimum use of space, required minimal cutting and lead to the intricate and ingenious design of the cutting die. 

Early in the 20th century, young ladies and children of the middle and upper classes began keeping scrapbooks that contained collections of commercially produced scraps. They organized them thematically with a single subject for the entire book or with several themes arranged by section. Sometimes, they added lines of poetry, personal notations, inscriptions by family and friends, and drawings. 

Stationery stores sold scrapbooks with tooled leather covers, elaborately embossed bindings, engraved clasps, and brass locks. Some scrapbooks contained printed decorations on their pages, as well as centered oval, circular or square sections into which people could paste items. Other albums held printed pages with theme-setting embossed decoration-like flowers or birds. Many scraps keepers made their own albums by pasting scraps over catalog and magazine pages.

Scraps production continued through the 1920's, but changes in popular taste, the effects of World War I, and the economic limitations of the Great Depression all contributed to their decline. Over time, newspaper and magazine pictures supplanted scraps as the "cutouts" of choice. 

Today, sheets of uncut Victorian scraps and single scraps of good design, color, and condition are prized by ephemera collectors. Die cuts by celebrated manufacturers like Raphael Tuck and Sons, which produced a series of scraps to commemorate Queen Victoria's 50th jubilee in 1887, are especially prized by collectors. Values vary from $5 for common scraps up to $50 for unusual and sought-after images. 

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 "Antiques of Christmas" in the 2021 Holiday 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.

The Mysterious Peach Blow Craze

 

QUESTION: My grandmother collected antique glass. Of all the pieces she had, which I inherited after her passing, one stands out. It’s a small multi-colored vase that fades from a rose pink at the top to a white toward the bottom. It’s devoid of decoration, has a simple shape, and a matter finish. Can you tell me what type of glass this is and a bit about its history?

ANSWER: It seems that you’ve inherited a piece of Mt. Washington “Peach Blow” glass. Of the three distinct types of Peach Blow, pieces produced by Mt. Washington are the rarest.

Peach Blow glass was a craze in the third quarter of the 19th century. The sale of a single 8-inch porcelain vase in 1866 changed the glassmaking industry for the 20th century and beyond. It belonged to Mary Jane Morgan, widow of shipping magnate Charles Morgan. Mary Jane lived a frugal life until her husband’s death in 1878, but she then began a shopping spree that lasted until her death in 1885. The media and the public at the time focused on a single porcelain “Peach Blow” vase that sold for $18,000.

The glass industry was quick to embrace the fad. A new craze developed for anything Peach Blow in color. Unlike most categories in glass collecting, Peach Blow isn’t characterized by color, transparency, the number of layers or decoration. The term was nothing more than a gimmick to sell the glass. Peach Blow glass had no single identifying characteristics, thus its appearance could vary widely. It can be pink, peachy, red, lined or unlined, decorated or undecorated. Plus, it came in just about all ceramic shapes.

So what makes it Peach Blow? The only way to tell is by the original maker’s name. Peach Blow is Peach Blow only if a manufacturer called it that. So collectors must learn who made this type of glass,  and learn to recognize each company’s product.

Public demand for this glassware led to the production of souvenir interpretations for major public events like the 1893 Worlds Fair. The Libbey Glass Company of Toledo, Ohio, successor to New England Glass, set up a working glass factory at the Fair to make Peach Blow souvenirs on site. These pieces shaded from rose pink to white and isn’t lined. Pieces were either matt or glossy and decorated or undecorated and is paper thin.

There were 17 different makers, thus 17 different types of Peach Blow.  They include Mt. Washington, Hobbs, New England, World’s Fair, Webb, Stevens & Williams, Carder/Steuben, Gundersen, Pairpoint, Guernsey, Italian, Pilgrim, Kanawha, Fenton, L.G. Wright, Imperial, and Intaglio. If a piece didn’t originate from one of these lines, it isn’t Peach Blow. And while all of them differed from one another in the colors that fade, the number of layers, and whether they’re lined or not, all can be generally classified into three groups— Wheeling Peach Blow, Mt. Washington Peach Blow, and Webb Peach Blow. 

Made by Hobbs, Brockunier & Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, starting in 1886, it shaded from a rich, mahogany red to a deep golden orange and had a creamy white lining. It came in both matt and glossy finish and its was only decorated with a band of amber found on some pieces. Prices can range from three to four figures. A Hobbs Morgan vase with its amber glass stand can sell for $500 to $2,500. 

Like Wheeling Peach Blow, Mt. Washington Peach Blow was produced from about 1886 until 1888 in both matte and gloss finishes and was originally called "Peach Blow" or "Peach Skin." Unlike Wheeling Peach Blow, Mt. Washington Peach Blow wasn’t lined. Paper thin, it looks as if someone dusted it with rose and blue powders from opposite ends. Due to the very limited production, Mt. Washington Peach Blow is the rarest of the three distinct types of Peach Blow glassware with the average price being around $2,000. But a rare decorated cruet can cost $10,000.

In England, Thomas Webb & Sons produced an English Peach Blow reminiscent of the Hobbs Brockunier production, lined on the inside and shading from a deep red to a lighter yellow. Webb Peach Blow is also referred to as "Peach Bloom" and has more reddish hues than the Hobbs version which is more orange by comparison. This is the only Peach Blow not technically called “Peach Blow” by the manufacturer. It can be found in both satin and glass finishes and can be decorated or undecorated. Most pieces sell for an average of $400 each.

To identify period Peach Blow and the three major variations, pay close attention to the shading of colors from top to bottom and whether the piece is lined or not. Pink satin glass is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Peach Blow as well. 

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 Sears Catalogue and the items sold in it in "Sears' Book of Bargains" in the 2021 Fall 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.

Going to the Dogs

 

QUESTION: I bought these little white match holders from an antiques dealer in northern France, just across from Dover, England, so it’s quite possible they’re English. I’d like to find out their origin and date if possible. I have a collection of match holders but have never seen any like these before.

ANSWER: These match holders are quite unique and seem to be made of Parian, a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble that was made in England and the United States in the 19th century. Designed to imitate carved marble, it had the advantage that it could be prepared in a liquid form and cast in a mold, enabling mass production.

Parian became popular with middle and upper middle class Victorian women who desired to own the marble statuary and china of the upper classes but couldn’t afford them. Parian filled this need at an affordable price. And while people normally associate Parian with grander sculptural forms and statues and items like water pitchers here in the U.S., it seems that as it’s popularity began to wane that some companies began making smaller less expensive items such as match holders. 

Because Parian had a higher proportion of feldspar than porcelain, makers fired it at a lower temperature. The increased amount of feldspar caused the finished body to be more highly vitrified, thus possessing an ivory color and having a marble-like texture that’s smoother than that of biscuit, or unglazed, porcelain. In its Victorian heyday, potteries produced hundreds of thousands of pieces of Parian ware annually. 

Though the Great London Exhibition of 1851 gave Thomas Battam credit for inventing Parian, indicating that he succeeded in producing a very perfect imitation of marble, there seemed to be controversy about who actually invented it.  While Battam may have invented it, several English factories claimed credit for its development. But the Staffordshire firm operated by William Taylor Copeland and Thomas Garrett was the first to produce and sell it in 1842, and went on to become one of its major manufacturers.

Several potteries marketed it under different names. The Copeland firm called it "statuary porcelain" because of its resemblance to the fine white marble of neoclassical sculpture. Wedgwood named it "Carrara," after the Italian quarry patronized by Michelangelo. But it was Minton which coined the word "Parian" to suggest Paros, the Greek isle that furnished much of the stone used in the classical period. Thus, it quickly became the medium's generic name.

Ultimately, potteries produced two varieties of Parian ware—Statuary Parian, used in the making of figures and reproductions of sculpture, and Standard Parian, from which they made hollowware. 

Standard Parian, with a greater proportion of feldspar in the composition but no frit, was hard porcelain. The presence of iron in the feldspar without iron silicate caused early Parian statuary to appear ivory tinted. Both English and American potters either obtained details of the original formula or worked out their own, resulting in enormous production of Parian wares on both sides of the Atlantic. Plus the invention in 1844 of a patented machine that allowed scaled reproductions of larger bronze or marble originals made replicas of figures and busts by noted sculptors widely available.

Though Minton produced several small Parian statues of dogs, it seems far more likely that Copeland-Spode produced these dog match holders since they produced a wider array of Parian ware, including match holders. They probably date from the 1890s. As time went on, Parian ware went from a less expensive substitute for marble in statuary to the material for inexpensive knickknacks.

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.

Links from the Past to the Present

 

QUESTION: My dad was a snappy dresser. When I was a kid, I remember him buttoning up his shirt sleeves with fancy little things which I later learned were called “cuff Links.” He was a manager in a big company, so he always had to dress well for work. He had quite a few sets of cuff links which I now have. And although I don’t wear shirts that require cuff links, I like the varied designs and styles that he left me. I was wondering if cuff links are collectible. And if so, are just the old ones collectible or the newer ones, also?

ANSWER:  Cufflinks are one of the few accepted and collectible items in a limited line of men’s jewelry. A search through virtually any antiquing site attests to the seemingly endless styles, shapes and designs produced in the last two centuries. 

Ever since they first appeared, cufflinks have mirrored the fashions, the economy, the manufacturing, and the art of their era, usually larger and more colorful in good times and smaller and more conservative in bad times.

They originated long ago as removable buttons for shirts and jackets. When buttons became mass-produced and cheap enough to sew onto the material itself, men used these little studs only at the cuffs. The variety of cufflinks increased dramatically with mass production techniques. Every member of the peerage, as well as every business man who wanted to socialize in high society, had to wear "tails" at every dinner party and evening activity. And tails required a shirt with French cuffs—double folded-over ones with slits on each side, linked or held together by “cuff links,” thus the name.

The earliest cuff links date from the same period as the cuff-fastening slit. Handmade of various metals, usually gold and silver, and set with gemstones, they became a luxury for the wealthy.

Hand-casting and other manual jewelry-making techniques continued until 1840 to 1870 when three mechanical developments—the tour a’guilloche machine, the steam driven stamping machine, and electro metallurgy—opened up men’s jewelry to a much wider clientele. The French or double-cuff shirt sleeve also became a popular fashion accessory in the 1840s.

After 1840, cufflinks became more affordable. Victorian lucky charms, hearts, flowers, love birds, ivy, love knots, angels, snakes, even babies found their way to cufflinks of the era. As did the horseshoe. Horse racing was a passion of Edward, Prince of Wales and many commoners apparently liked the idea of linking themselves and their shirt sleeves to royalty through this symbol.  Cufflink makers employed free-flowing whiplash lines, organic motifs and stunning, romantic feminine figures and faces during the Art Nouveau period.

The publication of Alexander Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers in 1844 stimulated this new elegant touch in fashion, as detailed descriptions of the turned-back sleeves of the men guarding King Louis XIII inspired European designers to modify the single cuffed, link-holed shirtsleeve that had been the mainstay of English fashion since 1824.

The English middle class adopted cuff links during the reign of George IV, toward the end of the Industrial Revolution. Unable to afford gemstones, they turned to replicas of the real thing. Designers used “rhinestones” and pastes to represent diamonds, pinchbeck, a copper and zinc alloy, as a substitute for gold, and cut steel and marcasite as a substitute for silver.

Late Georgian and Victorian jewelers favored a rose or flat cut for real or fake gemstones. They typically used foil or paste, a type of leaded glass, for backings. 

Reverse intaglio was also a popular way of embellishing 19th century cuff links. After carving a figure or scene in great detail into the back of a cabochon crystal, an artisan would carefully fill in the work with paint and apply a mother of pearl backing. Manufacturers used this elegant process almost exclusively for jewelry worn by men.

Cuff link makers used this same process to carve designs, often of classical gods, into carnelian. a brownish-red mineral, which gets its deep rust color from impurities of iron oxide in the silica mineral chalcedony, commonly found in Brazil, India, Siberia, and Germany. Used as a semi-precious gemstone, its color can vary greatly, ranging from pale orange to an intense dark rust. 

Although men favored enameled cuff links during the late Georgian period of the 18th century, it wasn’t until the Art Deco period of the 20th century that enamels reached their peak of popularity. Metal decorated with baked enamel— colored lumps of glass ground into a powder with a mortar and pestle—has been an art form since the 13th century.

Manufacturers of the 1950s arid 60's frequently marketed cuff links in a series, for example pairs featuring cars, sports themes, and so on. Various caricature cuff links, images of sports, political and theatrical celebrities were also popular during that time. One interesting category of cuff link is the "do-ers" category. As. the name implies, cuff links in this category do something in addition to fastening. Nail clippers, thermometers, music boxes, and watches have all been built into the links.

But the front design on cuff links is only have of the story. Fasteners on the backs have their own intriguing history. Late Georgian fastening devices featured wire loops, curb chains and string. Makers introduced the dumbbell form earlier in the mid-Georgian period in the late 18th century. Small and in one solid piece, craftsmen carved the dumbbell from ivory in the early part of the 19th century and by mid-century, from pearl. Carved dumbbells had a slightly curved shank. They looked like exercise weights whose ends were too heavy for the bar. Dumbbells of glass, coral, gold, gold plate and various hard stones became fashionable by the 1890s.

A metal button fastener, circa 1880, looked like an oversized shirt stud. Another, the "one-piece link" from the 1890s, continues to be produced today. It has a metal face, slightly curved fastening device and a metal oval to hold it fast to the inside of the cuff. 

The patent, dated 1884 on the back of these cuff links, most likely refers to the closing mechanism. By that time celluloid collars and cuffs were popular. And since they were stiff, cufflinks with that mechanism would have been very compatible. 

Generally, cuff links backs can be classified into the following groups—flipbacks on English and Scandinavian ones from the turn-of-the-20th-century, chain-backs dating from the 18th until the 1920s, and spring-backs dating from the 1930s, 1940s, and later.

Many collectors tend to specialize in cuff links from a particular era such as Art Deco, Victorian, or contemporary. Some prefer to concentrate on a theme like animals, sports or automobiles, while others look for novelty pairs incorporating watches, music boxes or other devices. With so many styles to choose from, most collectors concentrate on one particular type. Some look for a particular material, like silver, Bakelite, wood or brass, while others look for military issue, fraternal emblems or a particular era. Still others search for unique fastening devices like snaps or springs.

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 "Celebrating an Olde Fashioned Holiday" in the 2020 Holiday 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.

The Mysterious Glow of Vaseline Glass

 

QUESTION: My aunt recently died and left me several things, including two beautiful twin yellow-green glass vases. I don’t know much about them but someone said they’re made of Vaseline glass. Does that mean they use Vaseline to make them? Can you tell me more about this beautiful glass?

ANSWER: No, your vases aren’t made of Vaseline. The most common color of this type of glass is pale yellowish-green, which in the 1930s led to the nickname "Vaseline glass" based on its resemblance to the appearance of Vaseline brand petroleum jelly as was formulated and commercially sold at that time. 

The addition of uranium dates back to Roman times. Professor R. T. Gunther of the University of Oxford discovered a piece of glass containing one percent uranium dating to 79 C.E. in an excavation of an imperial Roman villa on Cape Posillipo in the Bay of Naples, Italy in 1912.

Starting in the late Middle Ages, workers extracted pitchblende from the Habsburg silver mines in Joachimsthal, Bohemia. This was then used as a coloring agent in local glassmaking. Austrian druggist Franz Xaver Riedel experimented with pitchblende and obtained a yellow substance later identified as uranium dioxide. He added it to glass and became the first major producer of items made of yellow-green uranium glass, which he named "annagrün" (annagreen), in honor of his daughter Anna Maria. By the middle of the 19th century, this new coloring agent became popular in both Europe and America.

Vaseline glass is also called "uranium glass." This mineral added to glass is what makes it glow bright green under blacklight. The normal color of uranium glass ranges from yellow to green depending on the oxidation state and concentration of the metal ions, although this may be altered by the addition of other elements as glass colorants. That bit of uranium in the glass also makes it slightly radioactive.

With improvements in mass-produced, affordable glass, the popularity of vaseline glass rose. During the second half of the 19th century, interest in the glowing glass peaked. The fashionable glass was appealing both in sunlight and in the evenings. Victorian homes were lit by gaslight, kerosene or candles, which produced soft light-The human eye sees yellow-green most easily since it is in the center of the spectrum of colors, so under flickering light con. lit ions, the Vaseline glass seems to glow.

Large glass companies like Fenton Glass and Mosser Glass made vases, tableware, tooth-pick holders, clocks, whimsies, shoes, hats, parasols, inkwells,. compotes, and more in Vaseline glass..But between 1890 and 1910, the middle class became more interested in pottery and porcelain. With the development of Incandescent lighting, the steady light frequency made Vaseline glass appear plain.

The government confiscated all supplies of uranium during WWII for the Manhattan Project and halted all production of vaseline glass for from approximately 1942 until the ban was lifted in November 1958. From 1959 onward, glass companies began making vaseline glass again. However, because of the expense to obtain uranium dioxide, production was and is still very limited.

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 "Celebrating an Olde Fashioned Holiday" in the 2020 Holiday 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.