Time for Glass - Once Again. Elephants on Parade

I've been unable to do much with my glass this summer due to a family emergency that required me to be out of state for two months. Now that things are settling down I can get back into my glass which is a lot of fun.

This is one of my favorite things, a small decorated tumbler. It is in the same style as the Swanky Swigs, same size and shape, but I've not seen this particular design in the swig listings in my reference books. This little glass almost certainly originally held cheese or whatever and is cute as can be with the red elephants on parade.

Recently I bought several boxes of glass from one of my favorite eBay sellers and am looking forward to getting home and looking through it. Selling glass gives me a chance to hold and touch and enjoy glass without having to find a place to show it and then I can turn around, make someone else happy by having this available, and oh, yes, make a small profit on the way.

American Sweetheart - Beloved Pink Depression Glass

American Sweetheart, by MacBeth Evans, is one of the most popular patterns in depression glass. You can see why - the light delicate glass, the intricate scrolls and floral-like design - all combine to make this a very pretty and choice pattern.

You'll find American Sweetheart in pink, as shown here in this cereal bowl, and in a light, translucent white glass called Monax. Some of the Monax pieces were decorated with rim treatments but to me the plain Monax is the nicest. You can find a few pieces in other colors, but they are rather rare.

Old English Depression Glass aka Threading by Indiana Glass

Yes, this is depression glass, but it has a lot of looks and is stylish even today. The pattern is Old English and it has narrow, fine ribs running horizontally. The element that makes this pattern pop is the handle shape - notice the double curlicue on this comport. Some pieces have open clover shapes, very nice and sharp.

Indiana Glass made Old English in the late 1920s. Many of Indiana's depression patterns have only numbers, but this one is different as the pattern name appears to be original with the manufacturer. This has the appearance of finer glass, partly due to the style, but also the colors and shapes. It comes in green with some amber and pink and the amber is deep and rich, very nice.

We have this piece and the matching candle holder listed in our TIAS and eBay stores.
http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/
http://stores.ebay.com/Vintage-Elegant-Depression-Glass

Find the Hidden Chips - Buying Depression Glass

Pretty cup, no? It is Adam by Jeannette, one of the mold etched depression glass patterns. Adam is a pattern that is hard to find in mint condition. Many of the pieces, plates, bowls and so on, have squared off rims that just beg to get inner rim roughness. I posted about my cereal bowl eBay purchases a while back that all had tiny nicks on the inner rim.

Here's a tip when buying glass. Don't just run your finger around the top of the rim. Go around the sides of the rim, both inside and outside. If there is a squared off portion or a ridge, check that out for nicks. Another place to check is the seam around the outside of the base and on the handle. Some patterns are just so prone to nicks, such as Adam, Queen Mary, Tea Room. All these patterns have sharp corners. Queen Mary has sharp vertical ribs that get nicked and Tea Room has stair stepped blocks.

So where's this mysterious nick? This particular cup has a tiny nick on the inside of the top rim and a gouge on the back of the handle. When I list this, I'll describe both nicks and give dimensions, plus show the pictures. Some nicks don't photograph and these were pretty challenging. It took several attempts to get the top rim nick to show up at all.

Help! I Bought More Depression Glass!

This is Adam pink depression glass by Jeannette and the particular piece shown is the dinner plate. I have four of these, have had them for several years, yet I just bought three more.

I'm sitting here questioning whether this was the smart purchase it seemed just a little while ago, so I'm going to write down my thinking and maybe that will help me.

Depression glass has gotten hard to find. Our local flea market and antique stores, garage sales and estate sales all have super high prices on colored glass whether it's depression or dollar store imports. The only pieces we've gotten lately have been elegant glass and clear depression and that's only because few recognize it as depression when it is not colored.

My stores are called --- Elegant and Depression Glass for a reason: That is what I sell, depression glass and elegant glass. It's hard to stay in business when you can't buy what you want to sell. The last year I've bought glass on eBay for this reason, but only a few pieces of depression since I'm looking for bargains. Elegant glass seems to go for 25-35% of book value, while depression glass is 50-60% of book. Throw in shipping and it's gotten really hard to find quality depression glass at prices reasonable enough to allow a profit. The plates I bought were not cheap, but they were 40% of book value including shipping. There. Now I feel better!

Amber Glass - Warm and Rich and Getting Popular!

When I first started selling glass in 1999 you could hardly give amber depression away. People wanted pink; they wanted blue; they like green. Amber sat there. My sales of amber glass started picking up noticeably in 2007 and this year have gone better than any other color.

I don't think it's just because I have a little more selection or different patterns as the choice seems to be across the board. In fact one customer told me she didn't want any pink Sharon because she could find it anywhere. She wanted amber or green. Until this past year I hardly ever came across pink Sharon - or most other pink patterns - at reasonable prices, but there are more auctions for pink or green and it's been available other places too.

Personally I've always liked the richer amber colors, like this Old English footed bowl by Indiana Glass. Both Fostoria and Cambridge have incredible amber colors, rich, deep, not a trace of brown or green. I'll show some amber glass later this week.

Rose Point Creamer - Pretty Pieces to Grace Your Table

Rose Point was an extremely popular etching and Cambridge Glass made it for a long time. Probably the most common blank you will find is the 3121, which has three nubs around glass spheres in the stem. However, Cambridge used many of their most popular etchings on many different blanks, and Rose Point was made on several. The creamer we show here is the 3900 blank. The handle is fairly plain and the pieces lack the extra curlicues of other shapes.

This is also a little larger than some creamers, holding about 6 ounces when filled to overflowing. The matching sugar, which is also listed in our store, is the same size and holds 8 ounces.

We have a few other pieces of Rose Point to list this next week, including a small bowl and candle, and have some stems on order. Come check us out!

Janice - New Martinsville's Elegant Depression Glass

Janice is one of New Martinsville's elegant glass patterns that is often classified as depression glass. You may find it with various etches and in colors like blue or red. This bowl here is crystal and one of the less common shapes. It is about 11 inches across with a ruffled rim.

Janice is a molded design with a prominent drape design on the lower portion. The base is ground and formed by little scallops. It's a nice pattern that deserves more appreciation!

Inner Rim Roughness - Bane of Rimmed Depression Glass

You'll probably find listings online for depression glass with IRR, inner rim roughness. While only you can decide how important this is to you, many of the patterns with squared off rims are plagued with this.

The bowl shown here is the cereal in pink Adam depression glass by Jeannette. Adam is one pattern that is very difficult to find mint, with no damage whatsoever. You can see that the rim is square with the vertical sides of the bowl, making a fairly sharp corner. When pieces with these sharp corners are stacked, they get tiny nicks. Often the nicks are not visible and you will find them only by zealous checking. But it's more common in my experience to have nicks that don't show up easily to the eye but are easily felt.

This bowl is a case in point as the seller assured me it and the other three with it were free of any nicks. Unfortunately all four bowls have IRR, ranging from minuscule to quite evident. Needless to say the value is far less, anywhere from 25 to 75% of what a mint bowl would be.

I recommend that you always ask sellers to recheck pieces. While this is no panacea, it is one more chance for them to find problems. Personally I check when buying, when washing, when listing and when wrapping and it is simply amazing how easy it is to discover a problem only when wrapping! It is disappointing and embarassing to find a problem only after the sale!

Newport Cobalt Blue Depression Glass

This is the footed sugar bowl in Hazel Atlas' cobalt blue depression glass. The pattern is Newport and also called Hairpin. You can find Newport in cobalt and amethyst depression glass.

Hazel Atlas used these molds with their colored Platonite opaque glass during the 1950s but it is apparently not common here in mid-Michigan as we've never seen it!

Newport is a neat shape with the design causing small scallops in the rim that are echoed in the foot of this sugar. The blue is especially attractive; to me the amethyst lacks sparkle.

If you like blue or amethyst glass, consider Newport as your pattern of choice!

Burple - Horrible Name for Nice Depression Glass!

This nice pattern with an icky name has curved ribs between rows of dots in ascending sizes. It is quite attractive and has a vintage look. The pattern name? Burple. Isn't that an awful name for something nice?

This is from Hocking Glass during the depression. All we have ever seen here were the bowls, usually the larger bowl, about 8 inches across as shown here. Replacements shows two sizes of plates and a cup and saucer in addition to this larger bowl and small individual bowls. You are most likely to find this in clear but Hocking also made Royal Ruby and Forest Green. We had the green and it is quite attractive but to my mind doesn't show off the deco style as well as the clear.

Guarantee and Return / Refund Policies on eBay

I buy glass on eBay and so far have had mixed results. Some pieces have been far more worn than described, some have had big chips or came broken due to poor packing. And some have been wonderful purchases, just as described, shipped quickly and carefully.

I only started buying glass in 2007 and it gave me a new appreciation for a good refund / return policy and careful descriptions. Now when I find appealing glass I email the seller to confirm condition. Sellers respond almost always, although a few don't bother, and most of the time they report everything is fine. About 1 in 4 comes back with a damage report. It's interesting to see whether they update their listings - some do and some do not.

Even with the extra checking there have been some unpleasant surprises. Since those experiences I have liberalized my guarantee policy and now offer full refund on return, including shipping both ways, if the piece does not match the description. A few pieces with damage that is described in the listing are specifically restricted to item price only with shipping not refunded. That's in case someone doesn't read the description (yes, it happens) or doesn't realize how something looks in person. Buyers do have a responsibility but sellers need to be reasonable and accurate.

Despite this liberal guarantee a recent buyer left me a neutral due to a scratch. I checked the piece over before shipping and didn't see anything wrong, but he must have been disappointed. He didn't contact me to complain or ask for a refund. That puzzles me since I always complain if pieces are not as described, but we're all different.

So sellers, if you want to see why buyers are fussy, go be a buyer yourself.

Fostoria Contour and Raleigh - Less Known Elegant Glass

Almost everyone who enjoys glass has heard of Fostoria - makers of fine elegant glass they had many gorgeous etchings on colored and crystal glass. Here are two of their less known plain designs, Contour and Raleigh.

Fostoria's Contour has the space-age lines of the early 1950s, perfectly fitting the mid century mode and style preferences. Contour is line number 2666 and you are able to buy a full line of stylish serving pieces. There is no plain dinner or lunch plate although there are canape and snack plates that have an interesting upwards twist, and a plain lunch sized plate that is cupped. Fostoria used Contour for several of their most popular decorations, notably Holly and Nosegay cuttings.

You can find this same shape in a heavier glass that was introduced a couple years earlier; the heavier pieces are not as readily found nor are they available in a full line of dinnerware. This heavier line is number 2638.

The second pattern we'll show is Raleigh, which is very different from Contour, with its squared shapes and log handles. Fostoria made Raleigh from 1939 to 1965 and used it for many of their Colonial styled etchings, such as Sampler and Colonial Mirror. You can tell Raleigh easily by the rounded facets and the little log shaped handles.

We have pieces of both these patterns in our store, which is linked below. Recently we bought some of the sherbets in Contour which have really neat stems, but we'll show them another day.

Block Optic Depression Glass Creamers and Sugars

Block Optic is a neat depression glass pattern from Hocking Glass that has an art deco style. It combines rounded shapes with square blocks and has a lot of looks. Hocking made Block Optic for only 4 years, from 1929 to 1933, although it comes in a wide range of shapes and pieces. It is one of the most popular depression glass patterns because of its looks, the fact that is is moderately available and moderately priced and the huge collecting appeal.

One point to be aware of is there are Five different creamers and sugars! There are three basic shapes, cone shaped as with the green creamer, rounded, as the yellow sugar bowl and a flat squarish shape that I've not seen. Then there are three different handle shapes, plain, which the creamer has, fancy scroll as on the sugar, and pointed. You can find the angled and plain handles on the cone shaped pieces, and the plain and fancy handles on the round pieces. Now that is a lot of collecting opportunity!

Plus Block Optic came in green, pink and yellow, plus some was satinized and decorated, and you can find clear pieces, too. Wow! That is a lot of pieces for the depression glass lover!