1907 dated Bohemian glass pitcher and goblet

Rookie

These both have names inscribed on them. The wine glass is inscribed Ernest J. Wright. The creamer is inscribed Hattie Pierce. Both have the year 1907 underneath the names. The wine glass is misshaped. It is leaning (not the photo). Does anyone know what they may be worth?

Rookie

Any info would be appreciated.

historic

You will find plenty of examples of such glass on ebay by searching on "Bohemian glass" or "ruby flashed goblet" or "Bohemian ruby flashed pitcher"

The terms "ruby flashed" and "ruby stained" are used interchangeably.

Bohemian glass was made in great quantities and is fairly common. There is a market for finer pieces, but much has only minimal value.

BobB

Your pieces are of 2 patterns from the type called "Early American Pattern Glass" (EAPG). Most pattern glass is just clear while smaller quantities of some patterns were also made in several transparent colors (standardly amber, sapphire blue, yellow, apple green and/or purple) and sometimes ruby "flashed" (or amber "stained"). See Bill Heacock's "Ruby Stained Glass from A to Z" which is Book 7 in his 'Encyclopedia of Victorian Colored Pattern Glass'. The goblet is the pattern RUBY THUMBPRINT, the red-painted version of KINGS CROWN, made by the Adams Company of Pittsburgh from 1891. The cream pitcher's pattern is very hard to distinguish from your pictures, maybe CORONA; scan thru some pattern glass books to find this pattern. Pattern glass collectors are dying off but back in the heyday (before 2000) most collectors preferred undamaged pieces and those engraved as souvenirs are imperfect. My price guide shows a RUBY THUMBPRINT goblet $45 and a creamer $35; whatever the pattern of your EAPG creamer it was probably no more valuable than that, -- back then & before the engraved souveniring was put on it. The souveniring of ruby glass became an overnight success when introduced at the 1892 Columbian Exposition and thousands of ruby souvenirs came out of every vacation destination and county fair from then through the 1920's. I would expect to get no more than about 50% for souvenirs -- even if the ruby has no more scratches or chips -- unless the painted-on ruby decoration has been done with exceptional flair & skill, or the inscription is exceptionally ornamental and well executed or the piece has local interest which adds value because items from the named event are scarce. In the case of your goblet, the RUBY THUMBPRINT patterns was heavily reproduced in the 1960-80's so having a dated inscription gives you some proof it's real.

historic

Bob

Thanks for setting the record straight on these pieces. I guess I need to stop writing everything ruby stained off to European origin ~

and I need to get that book!

Chris

BobB

The Americans had stolen the ruby technique from the "Bohemia" area, where the process & the use in souvenirs went back probably another 20+ years. The process consists of applying with a paint brush to specific areas of the cold glass item a finely powdered ruby red glass, the recipe for which includes gold oxide, held in a viscous liquid vehicle like mucilege or egg yoke. This is then quickly put through a hot kiln like an annealing muffle so the powder is melted, forming a fused glass-on-glass surface. Of course this painted-on version is only the cheaper mass production version of the more artful "cut-to-clear" cut glass, where a heavy parison of clear glass on a blowpipe is dipped into a pot of molten ruby glass, blown to it's desired shape and annealed; when cold, the cutting room cuts the design through the ruby with stone cutting wheels (cut glass) or the lighter copper disks (engraving). Americans produced a smaller quantity of yellow amber stained glassware, also following the Bohemians where the coloring is actually silver nitrate (don't know how its applied or whether reheating is part of the process). Again you will find some yellow cut-to-clear Bohemian ware ca. 1870-80s which was the predicesor of the cheap mass production type. All he best.