Candlewick Candleholders by Imperial Glass

Yesterday we showed depression glass by Imperial and today we're looking at a couple pieces of Imperial's Candlewick. Candlewick has beads - around the rim, on the handles, on the base - almost every piece has beads. It is one of the easiest patterns to identify and it also is one of the harder patterns.



Imperial made Candlewick for almost 50 years, from 1936 to 1984 when Imperial closed. It was their most extensive and popular line and no wonder. The simple beaded design is easy on the eyes and attractive.


This top candleholder is the three-light, beaded center oval candleholder 400/147 style. You may find other candleholders that are similar as Imperial made several styles. The one most alike has the same beaded oval center but is missing the top holder.





This next candleholder is the rolled rim style, meant to hold a single candle. To me it looks more colonial style. You can see why people like collecting Candlewick - they have a lot to choose among!

If you want to read more, these two candleholders are described in the store linked below. Many dealers offer extensive selections of Candlewick.

http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/

Diamond Quilted - Pink Depression Glass from Imperial

Even though we think of Imperial Glass as making Candlewick or Cape Cod, they also made several patterns of true depression glass. These were mass-produced, made in colored glass, came in full tableware sets and had the usual little mold marks that give depression glass its charm. One pattern is Diamond Quilted, shown in the sherbet to the left.

Look at the stem. It is not the photo that is off kilter - the sherbet really does lean! The plates that we have had all had little wrinkles in the rim. Yes, this is depression glass!

Diamond Quilted came in pink and green primarily, and my book shows blue, amber, crystal and black as well. It is a pretty pattern with nice shapes. The glass is decent quality, pretty colors and good clarity. Yes, there are little mold marks but you won't find lots of sharp edged rims that chip easily and the designs are crisp. This is glass you can enjoy for a long time.

Imperial's other well known depression glass pattern is Twisted Optic. Both patterns are sadly under-appreciated. Take a look at both patterns in our store, Cat Lady Kate's Elegant and Depression Glass, and see what we mean.

http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/

http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Elegant-Depression-Glass

Cambridge Rosalie Etched Stemware - Beautiful Floral Etch

Cambridge Glass' Rosalie etched pattern is even more beautiful in person than in the photos. We found a few pieces this fall and have been listing them slowly. The odd thing about our pieces is that the blanks are not the usual Cambridge shapes that Rosalie is usually found etched. The blank is the basic glass without the etching and usually makers used more than one blank for their most popular etches. My books show Rosalie on six different stem shapes!

The goblet shown here is the number 3051 blank, quite plain with a nice shape bowl, slightly tapered stem and subtle optic. It is very pretty. My books show this in the cordial size yet we have the water goblet. Not surprising given Cambridge's range of stems, but interesting.

Rosalie has a flower and leaf scroll and swag etch but the easiest way to tell it from the myriad other flower and leaf etchings is by the squarish spiral. I don't know of any other pattern that has that motif.

We have this goblet and a matching flat tumbler listed in our store in the TIAS online collectible mall. http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/

Metlox Poppytrail California Ivy Dinnerware - What a Difference 3 Years Make

In 2004 I bought a small set of Metlox Poppytrail California Ivy dinnerware that had no serving pieces and sold it all on eBay easily, fast and for a nice profit. About half of the pieces sold on auction and the rest in my store.

That first set had lunch plates and soup bowls, which turned out to be the most profitable items. Soup bowls are usually pricey and sell well but it's odd to have lunch plates be selling standouts. We were able to buy a second set in 2005 and of course were glad to do so, thinking it too would sell well.

Unfortunately that second set had no soup bowls or lunch plates. More, there were a lot of competing auctions on eBay. The serving pieces, like the vegetable bowl shown in the picture, were suddenly quite common. So far I have not even recouped my initial purchase price.

It's now late 2007; we still have most of the new set left and are trying once again to list it. Fall and winter have been my best times for china, so let's see how this goes. Several pieces are on auction and others will be in the store. Since eBay increased their store commissions store listings are less attractive financially but often buyers don't look for china every day and you need to have it listed when they wan to buy it. For me that means putting most pieces in the store and trickling something out on auction almost every week.

Wish me luck!

MacBeth Evans Monax - the Other White Glass

When is white glass not milk glass? Sometimes it is lovely monax depression glass from MacBeth Evans. MacBeth Evans was eventually bought out by Corning and you can recognize its legacy in the Corelle dinnerware. Monax is different.

The earlier monax white depression glass was thin, translucent with opalescent rims. MacBeth Evans used monax with its pure white to great effect with mold etched designs like American Sweetheart and Petalware. American Sweetheart is already quite ornate because the molded design is complex, but Petalware was a simple pattern that cried out to be decorated. And decorated it was!

We show two pieces, a salad plate with the red flower and green leaf spray handpainted design called Florette, and the saucer with a gold decal. Both are pretty and both look very different, hardly like the same pattern at all. Yet both are Petalware monax depression glass by MacBeth Evans!

Cat Lady Kate offers both of these in the TIAS store Cat Lady Kate's Elegant and Depression Glass, http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/

Leaf and Laurel Cuttings - Depression and Elegant Glass

One design that stays popular year after year is the simple leaf spray or band. Some of these are laurel cutting; usually these are bands of leaves such as the cordial pictured. This is Fostoria's Laurel cutting, which is classic and elegant. This sort of design has a formal feel to me.

A cute design that is much less formal is a stylized leaf band cut that is shown here on the Boopie wine glass. This simple band is from Anchor Hocking, from the 1950s or 60s and the pattern is Swedish Modern. By the way, Boopie glasses are not Candlewick. They were mass produced and are ordinary table glass, perfectly nice, quite cute and meant to be used. Candlewick is fine crystal.

Anchor Hocking made several pieces with the Swedish Modern cut, so if you like this you can choose among several pieces.

Lots of glass companies made leaf spray cuttings and it is often impossible to tell who made what. We have plates in clear, green and pink glass with almost the same simple leaf spray around the rim. They are all pretty!

You may find pieces sold as "etched" that were actually cut. Both of the pieces shown in our pictures were cut. Etched designs will feel different; if you find that the design feels like it is all the same depth, then it is probably etched. If the edges feel shallower than the center it is cut.

Regardless, these are pretty and remain classics! Come take a look at our TIAS store, Cat Lady Kate's Elegant and Depression Glass, and our eBay store, Vintage Elegant Depression Glass, to choose laurel leaf glass for you!

http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/

http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Elegant-Depression-Glass

Console Bowls - Elegant Glass Shapes from the Depression Era

Elegant glass companies in the 1920s and 30s produced patterns that included decorative pieces, stemware and dinnerware, but most people who could afford glass such as Fostoria or Cambridge used china dinnerware. Thus glass firms made many interesting bowl shapes for decorations and centerpieces. Often these decorative bowls matched stemware lines, extending the market appeal. Thus the console bowl was born!

Console bowls were wide, shallow bowls that were meant to display on a side table or in a hallway. They are usually 10 to 12 inches wide and are flared. Some console bowls are deeper than others, but they are usually not so deep as salad bowls. Console bowls were often flanked by matching candleholders, and if you see something called a console set, it would be the console bowl with two candleholders. Console bowls could be used to hold fruit or flowers, but were styled to have enough presence and size to look great empty as well.

The bowl in the picture at the top from Fostoria is the Baroque blank, with the Chintz etching. You can see that this is flared and quite fancy. It looks like it belongs on a table as a centerpiece. This particular bowl is referred to as a 12 inch flared round bowl. You might see these listed as console bowls, centerpiece bowls, or simply 12 inch round bowls.

One of my personal favorites is the rolled edge console bowl. Instead of flaring the rim to make a very wide, shallow opening, the rim gracefully arcs over to form a wide bowl with a much smaller opening. These bowls have looks! Usually the etching or design is on the rolled rim. Since the interior of the bowl is rolled to the outside, the design shows beautifully from any angle. These are meant to be fancy and are one of the signature pieces of the elegant era.

The green bowl is a classic shape console bowl also from Fostoria with the Vesper etch on the edge of the rolled rim. If you saw the profile you could see that the rim on this bowl does not roll fully over to touch the table top.

Fostoria Loop Optics and Drape Optics - Neat Effects in Glass

The green vase is from Fostoria, made in the late 1920s. It doesn't have any etching or other decoration so the pattern is from the optic pressed into the glass.

Optics are shaped on the inside; they are a molded design that makes the piece look shimmery. Some optics are vertical, like panels, others are spiral, or dots or like this example, look like festoons or drapes. Usually the optic will be named something you can recognize so they are not as difficult as some etchings to remember.

Fostoria used optics in several designs. Besides this vase, they used the loop optic in the stemware pattern Cellini, and the ice tea in that design is shown on the right.

Most glass companies used optics. Some are subtle and you will hardly notice them while others jump right out at you. Even depression glass patterns used optics. Block Optic, for example, has vertical lines on the outside and horizontal optic on the inside, making the design look like stacked blocks.

We have all of these listed in our eBay store and our TIAS store, linked on the left. Happy Glassing!

Glass and China – eBay Store vs. Auctions

You can get advice from lots of people, many who sell successfully on eBay and online. You need to decide what works for you, and that’s the hard job. I thought about this a lot and concluded I don’t know the answer. But here’s what I’m thinking today as I prepare my listings for next week.

It's rewarding when a customer says how glad they are to finish a set of dishes that they inherited. Until the internet if you broke something that was it, but now people can complete that cherished set and can actually use it. That is the plus side of selling glass and china!

We bought china at estate sales and sold quite a bit of it, but lately it has not done that well. People often know their pattern name and search for the pieces they need and will buy if the price and condition are right and the seller appears trustworthy. Most patterns appeal to a small number of buyers who may be in and out of the market; they don’t collect the dishes and they just want to augment their set.

I usually put my china in my eBay store. Most of the pieces are offered individually, so you can buy one soup bowl or one dinner plate, but I also try listing some in twos or fours, so you would buy two plate or four bowls. Offering in twos or fours helps keep the shipping cost more reasonable relative to the value of the china. No one likes paying $5 for a plate and $10 to ship, but china is heavy and bulky and has to be wrapped well and insured. Lately I have tried selling in place settings, say one each of the plates - dinner, lunch, bread and butter – cup and saucer. That has worked well so far. Checking my past years’ sales, though, most people bought one or more of a single item even when I had multiple pieces listed and combined shipping.

The cereal bowl is Harker China Godey Prints and we're starting a set of 6 tomorrow.

We'll see how it goes this winter.

Heisey Recessed Panel Candy Jar Etched with Wheeling's Pheasant and Stump

This gorgeous candy jar with lid is from Heisey Glass and it has the Pheasant and Stump etch with gold and cobalt blue. The candy jar is Recessed Panel which was made with a smooth band near the top. Wheeling Decorating Company would have etched the design on the broad band that is perfect for decorating. This is most unusual; I couldn't find any similar glass.

This was a common shape for candy jars during the depression era and most glass companies made something similar. The sizes were based on the weight of candy one would hold, so this jar, which is a little over 10 inches tall with the lid on, was a one pound candy jar.

I listed this today in my TIAS store, Cat Lady Kate's Elegant and Depression Glass and it is starting on auction tomorrow night on eBay. This is one of those pieces that I have mixed feelings about selling. I sell glass because it gives me an opportunity to see and hold and enjoy a lot of different pieces, but each one moves on to a new owner. I want to keep the most beautiful ones for me!

Romantic Holidays with Vintage Stemware

Beautiful stemware with a history! You can add romance and a touch of nostalgia to your holidays by using vintage stemware. Whether you enjoy goblets treasured by your parents and passed down to you or you purchase stemware to start your own family tradition, lovely stemware adds a touch of elegance and sets you apart from everyone else.

The goblet shown on the left is beautifully etched with open roses and flower blossoms. This is called a plate etching, with the design inset into the glass surface. The particular goblet shown is Secretaries Primrose made by Monongah glass sometime before 1931. The flowers and simple shape make this fresh and appealing even today.

Other stemware, such as the amber Georgian goblet by Viking, is more suited to family meals as it is heavier and comes in a huge range of shapes including the goblet shown, plus tumblers, ice teas, juice and sherbets. Georgian has a honeycomb look to it and I remember my grandma had a set of red tumblers. Many glass companies made this design and you can find a rainbow of colors. I like this rich honey amber color which is perfect for fall. It makes you feel warm all over!

If you like the idea of adding a touch of charm and tradition to your family, please check our store, Cat Lady Kate's Elegant and Depression Glass, for these and other vintage stemware.

Dogwood Pink Depression Glass - Large Flowered Beauty

Recently I got a large set of Dogwood by MacBeth Evans from an antique dealer. This is pink, thin glass with a design of large four-petaled flowers and leaves. It’s quite pretty. I thought long and hard about buying all this, as you can imagine, because it was expensive and because this came from the ex-dealer. After all, she couldn’t sell it, so why would I? Anyway, I took the plunge and now have a nice set of Dogwood.

The valuable pieces in almost any depression pattern are the cereal and soup bowls, tumblers and some serving pieces. I got the cereal bowls, larger serving bowl, and best of all, four tumblers! Dogwood sherbets are scarce and we got some of them too. The cereal bowl and sherbet are shown in the photos.

MacBeth Evans made Dogwood in pink and green from 1929 to 1932, so it is one of the earliest depression glass patterns. Sometimes people call this Apple Blossom or Wild Rose because of the open flowers with wide petals, but this design has four petals, not five as would an apple or rose blossom. Dogwood is mold-etched, which means the design was etched into the mold and not into the glass. This method allowed glass companies to mass produce fanciful designs with intricate patterns quickly and with no hand work. Dogwood looks a little like the gorgeous brocade etches with its all-over pattern.

MacBeth Evans is the same glass company which made American Sweetheart and Petalware. Dogwood may be slightly less well-known than American Sweetheart, but it shares the same thin glass, pretty shapes and beautiful design.

Good Books for Glass Identification - Stemware

Last time we showed how I identified a Lenox goblet we bought at an estate sale. We used online sites to find the matching picture, but only after going through our stemware identification book. Personally I find it easier to flip through books than go through a gazillion websites, so I start with my trusty shelf of books first.

The book I mentioned yesterday, Stemware Stemware Identification Guide, was written by Page and Fredericksen. It has line drawings or photos of goblets – 250 pages worth of goblets, about 20 per page. That is a lot of goblets! And that’s one of the downsides of this book, the sheer number to check. Also, the line drawings sometimes emphasize style points that are less noticeable when you hold the piece in your hands. For example, when I hold my Libbey Rock Sharpe’s Crystal Leaf stems shown in the photo, the cutting looks like cattails and the big design point are the little protruding nubs at the top of the stem. The drawing doesn’t convey this. This is minor carping, though, and I use the book a lot. You just have to be aware that you may look right past the exact piece the first 3 or 4 times you search.

Another stemware book is Cordials by Gene Florence. While I like Florence’s other books, this one hasn’t been as useful. It’s good for the overall shapes but not the design details.

If you think your stemware was contemporary – Royal Doulton, Waterford, Lenox, etc. – then you don’t have a lot of reference books to choose from. There is a Waterford book but I don’t have it. Other than that, if you cannot find in the Replacements stemware guide then you will probably have to either trudge through websites. The good news is that newer glass is often marked, which really helps.

If your glass is older, say pre-1984, then you may find it in one of the many books that cover elegant glass makers. For example, there are books about Fostoria, Seneca, Tiffin, and more that focus on stemware, plus others that are more general. I’ll share my experiences with these another time.

Researching Glass to Sell on eBay

Yesterday I identified a wine goblet we had as Lenox Crystal’s Hanover. This is contemporary crystal with a cut paneled bowl and molded stem; it’s heavy and the glass is beautifully clear. We had a good photograph of this already so I listed it to start later this week.

We’ve boxes upon boxes of glass that needs a name – if we can name it we have a better chance of selling – so it’s a happy event when we get one more piece identified. Here’s how the identification worked:
This goblet was marked Lenox which made it easy. First step, check the crystal stemware guide by Page and Fredericksen, Crystal Stemware Identification Guide. The stem shape wasn’t there.
Next step, try the Replacements online catalog. They have tiny pictures of many patterns and it takes time to go through the list, click and open any that look possible, then rule out and go onto the next. There it is, Hanover.

Now for pricing, there are several sources, including eBay listings, Replacements, TIAS stores, Ruby Lane stores, other stores through Google and my own best guess. eBay completed prices are reasonable guides if the same item sells consistently but is chancy if it’s uncommon. The downside to using eBay completed is if two bidders happened to find the same item and got into a bidding war the price may be too high, and if a seller listed with a low opening bid but only one person felt like buying, then the price is low.

I tend to use my judgment plus other retail sites for items like this. For this goblet, I looked at when it was made, 1985 to 1989, figured that people ought to want to complete their sets and am listing for $29.99 with buy it now of $32.99. This is not a super popular pattern so it will likely do better in my store where it can wait for a few months, but we’ll try the auction path first.

We’ll look at how this goblet did on auction next week after it closes.

If you would like to watch too, here is my eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Elegant-Depression-Glass and here is my store on TIAS online collectible mall: http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/