Inherited Glassware

mh60778

I am trying to identify glassware I recently inherited. The stems are rich red and the cups are a faded translucent yellow with a repeating fan inprint throughout. I was told both that they were Czech glass and also that they were depression glass. There are no markings at all on the glasses. Any suggestions about what i should do next?

mh60778

Here is a picture of the glasses.

BobB

I expected to see somebody offer you some suggestions before this, but not seeing any, here's my take. Rather than trying to prove or disprove these are Czech or depression glass, try analyzing the characteristics of the 2 pieces. The wine is tall, with gently curved lines, flared bowl, foot of smaller diameter than bowl rim, all features that suggest European. Rather than the Anglo/Irish/American propensity for less "leggy", sturdier, angular forms with feet the same diameter (or larger) than bowl, this being true until the period between the millenium (1900) and WWI (1914-1919), when the French/European & Art Nouveau fashions in stemware overtook the U.S. So these are 20th century. They are bi-colored (ruby & citrine), a quite uncommon construction because colors are more costly to produce AND fusing 2 different glass recipes together while still hot is more difficult (again, read costly) than you might think. Next, the bowls appear to be mould-pressed of a type referred to as "optic". An "optic" pattern is on the inside surface of the bowl rather than the standard pressed-glass methodology, where the outside receives the pattern from the walls of the iron mould it is being pressed into. The optic pattern is on the inside, imparted by the design being cut onto the plunger while the exterior mould is smooth. Optic patterns were seen extensively in American glass tumblers & stemware from about 1920. I have just flipped through some books about glass from U.S. makers Cambridge, Fenton, Fostoria, Tiffin (& others). Each of these made at least some stemware, leggy-European style, in some colors, with some 'optic' bowls. But I see no evidence that any of them made bi-color stemware (clear bowl on colored stem or vice-versa, but no two-color). Most of the colors coming out of these American glassworks were either pale transparent pastels or strong opaque colors, not the strong transparent colors of your pieces. The 'optic' designs illustrated are all most simple - verticle ribs or ribs twisted in a spiral, diamonds, waves. But these lesser examples all have some commonalities: they were in production ca. 1923-1940 in similar families of forms (wine, goblet, flute, champaign, cocktail, footed tumbler, etc.). Nowhere have I found pictured a stem like your pieces have, round in cross-section with widest bulge about in the center; in this era the stems are mostly hexagonal and most bulges or other decoration are in the top 1/3, just below the bowl. Finale: the closest I find (in Hazel Weatherman's "Colored Glassware of the Depression Era, 2") is stemware produced by the Old Morgantown WVa glassworks between 1923 thru 1930s which seem to be in brighter colors AND 3 quite advanced optic designs are illustrated ("Pineapple", "Palm", & "Peacock"); it is unclear from these 8 pages whether bi-colored glassware was produced, but I think we might be close. [These are not Depression glass -- they ARE Depression-era, better-quality glassware.] [The Czechs made all kinds of wonderful glass during the 1920's-30's, much of it for export, from reproductions of American whale-oil lamps -to- tableware made in any style the world would buy -to- crazy avante gard multi-colored Art Glass vases, etc. Your pieces might be Czech?] BUT in the past 5 years I have seen more and more bi-colored glass tableware, nicely made to emulate old styles of glass craftsmanship, and I suspect the Chinese -- I may be wrong -- it might be coming from Poland, the Czech Republic, even Egypt, but somebody is producing very convincingly made look-alikes of old collectible period glass. I am sitting here drinking soda from of dusky-hued 6 oz. footed-tumbler that appears to be hand-blown, the foot blown separately and shaped like the bell of a trumpet. The rim of the foot is rolled (a feature last used in production glass about 1830) for strength. The pushed-up foot and the 3 small cobalt-blue glass blobs ("prunts") applied around the waist say "German" pre-20th C.
I would think I had a nice antique addition to my goblet collection, except I bought this one 6 months ago at a Salvation Army thrift shop along with 2 others identically the same. Maybe they have been made to sell in the gift shop at colonial Jamestown or Williamsburg museums, but regardless, somebody is inexpensively making replicas of costly handmade antique forms. So, keep looking through catalogues for more clues, and take a very strong magnifying glass to the bottom edge (and top rim!) looking for minute scratches that can vouch for some years of normal usage wear (the top rim because after each washing they must undoubtedly by set upside down to dry on some kitchen counter, thus scratching on the rim). No matter who made yours, you can see they have some hallmarks of good style and quality workmanship of the Depression period. BobB