Colonial Block Candy Dish - Great Gift for Collectors!

Here's a wonderful gift for someone special (maybe you?) whether they already collect depression glass or simply enjoy beautiful items in their home. This is a covered candy jar from Hazel Atlas in Colonial Block green depression glass.

One great way to ignite someone's interest in glass is to give them a unique gift which has a history. Not only does vintage glass - which someone before us used and treasured - give us an intimate connection to the past, but it is an interesting insight into lives from years ago.

And from a purely practical point of view, once someone is hooked on depression glass you have a lifetime's worth of gifts you will know will be enjoyed and wanted.

Hazel Atlas made several patterns like that that get their looks from geometric motifs instead of the mold-etched fanciful designs. You'll find Colonial Block mostly in green and pink with a few pieces in clear and white. It's one of the less-expensive patterns, another reason to make it a starter design for the beginning collector. There were not great many pieces made, either, which also makes it easier to find and complete ones' set.

We offer this candy jar in our online store, Cat Lady Kate's Elegant and Depression Glass, http://www.tias.com/stores/catladykate/

Got the Georgian Lovebirds Green Depression Glass Listed!

Way back on St. Patrick's Day, about 3 weeks ago, my post was about our Georgian Lovebirds depression glass and how I needed to get busy and get it listed. Well, it's finally done. Today I got the dinner plates, smaller lunch and bread and butter plates listed, this nice serving bowl and saucers all listed on both eBay and TIAS.

That's a load off my to-do list!

Georgian is by Federal Glass and is notable for its charming design of triangular shapes joined with swags. Each triangle holds a basket of flowers or a pair of birds, thus the common name Lovebirds. This is mold-etched depression glass. Federal used metal molds that they etched the design into, then they could mass produce the pieces via pressing. Thus the design is raised on the piece, not etched into the glass as the fancier elegant glass has.
Take a look on our stores for these great pieces!

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

Fostoria Vesper Etch - Beautiful Flower Etched Rim Design

Vesper is one of Fostoria's older etched patterns, made 1926 to 1934 and in green, blue and amber. We've got two console bowls in different sizes and the candleholders you see here.

Fostoria made many different candleholders, sometimes several in a given pattern, and had a few that they used for many different designs. The one shown here is what I consider a generic candleholder, rather plain shape, similar to those from other companies. Being simple this shape works wonders when etched as in this Vesper candleholder. The design is just there and the etch gets the spotlight.

Fostoria must have had a design contest or something similar to have had three etches that were quite similar, Vesper, Royal and Seville. To me Vesper is by far the prettiest and you can tell it from the others by the flowers packed into the trailing V shape. Royal and Seville both have the etched band but lack the distinct flowers that trail into swags.

We offer this in our TIAS and eBay stores.

Georgian Green Depression Glass - St. Patrick's Day

Somewhere near the top of my endless to-do list is getting these plates listed. I bought several pieces of Georgian green depression glass last fall and so far have listed - and sold - exactly one piece. Georgian sells well and all my pieces are in great shape, so there's no reason not to get it done. (Except for the other bazillion things also on the list that clamor for time!)

This pattern is also called Lovebirds. You can't see it well in this photo, but those triangular designs alternate with baskets and two birds. The birds sort of look like parakeets, and it's a neat design. This is one of the mold-etched depression patterns from Federal Glass where the design was incised into the mold itself, which then could be used just like any other pressed glass mold to make pieces with fancy designs quickly and cheaply, with little hand work.

Check my store - oh, maybe this weekend - for my set of Lovebirds to fly in!

Cambridge Green Console Bowl Etch 727

Here is one of the less well-known etches from Cambridge Glass; this one is number 727. It reminds me of puffs of cotton balls or clover blossoms in a wide band with leaves and scrolls. It's a very appealing design that looks exceptionally good on a piece like this bowl that is big enough to show off the pattern.

Console bowls were made to be centerpieces, usually flanked by candles set in matching candle holders, on a table, or set on a side table. Side tables were called console tables, thus the name. Bowls with rolled rims, like this one, are dramatic pieces that are great settings for the wonderful etchings. You can even get glass frogs to set inside the bowl, yet the flowers and water will not obscure the beautiful etch.

Console bowls are a personal favorite and I hope to entice you to enjoy them too!

Sharon Cabbage Rose Depression Glass

Sharon, or Cabbage Rose, is one of the most popular depression glass patterns from Federal Glass. It has a mold-etched design of large open roses in an asymmetric spray on the center and more roses on the rim. Rose designs are always popular and this one is nice. The asymmetric design gives it a bit more punch than many patterns.

Sharon comes in pink, green and amber mostly and we have all three colors. Plates, like the dinner plate shown here, are thicker than many depression patterns.

Like several other patterns that are highly collected, Sharon has been reproduced. I worried about telling the repros apart but it really is pretty easy. The ugly, misshapen creamer shown next is a repro. I got carried away one evening on eBay and the photo was awful and I thought it might be Mayfair. The green Mayfair creamer is quite valuable so I took a chance like a dummy. You can tell that this is a bad repro by the strange color, lumpy shape, and poorly molded pattern.

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!