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.