Candlewck Crystal Cup and Saucer

This elegant crystal cup and saucer is Candlewick from Imperial Glass.  Candlewick was Imperial’s mainstay for years and was issued in several lines, each a slightly different shape.  The beaded rims or handles were the common thread among the myriad pieces.

You may have a piece or two of this pattern even without realizing it because it was a common gift.  My mom had the salt and pepper shakers for years.

The reason to show Candlewick tonight is that a lucky customer bought several cup and saucer sets today from me, leaving only a few pieces left.  If you like Candlewick we have it on sale in our store and when it’s gone, it is gone.

These sets are exceptionally pretty.  The simple design lets the beautiful clear crystal take center stage plus the shapes are attractive.  You’ll like how it displays in a china cabinet.

Shopping Information:  We have Candlewick in our store Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass.  It’s even on sale for you.

Art Deco Decorated Green Center Handled Server

Last week I showed one of my most interesting center handled servers, my Imperial ebony black one with heart-shaped handle.  This week let’s see another unusual one, my luscious Paden City green cupped server with art deco decoration.

I found this at an estate sale and couldn’t resist.  I identified it as by Paden City from the handle although the design was probably put on by a decorating company.  We don’t carry much Paden City in our store but I make an exception for center handled servers (And console bowls.  And candle holders.  And…)

Wouldn’t this be fun this summer for your potato chips?  It’s deep enough and big enough to hold a good amount and imagine the conversations when your friends see your neat bowl.  You can tell them about Art Deco and Paden City and elegant depression glass while they munch on chips or pretzels.

Art Deco is all angles and shapes and Egyptian-influenced motifs.  The designs on this server remind me of cattails in the fall yet they have the angles and curves of the deco era.  That contrast of nature and industrial-strength geometry is fascinating and one reason I enjoy Art Deco designs so much.  Glass companies put imagination and design into their center handled servers, almost as fantasy pieces, and when you add Art Deco decorations, wow.

Post about Ebony Heart Shaped Handle.

Candlewick Crystal Cup & Saucer from Imperial Glass

Every once in a while I will find glass listed as Candlewick that is anything but.  When I started in business my first purchase was a set of Candlewick plates and tumblers – I bought it because I remembered the beaded design.

Imperial Glass made Candlewick for a very long time and it’s their best known and most popular pattern.

Imperial’s Candlewick is elegant glass made with quite a bit of hand work; for example the base rim on this saucer is ground.  Seams are quiet and the glass is high quality.  There are  patterns with beaded stems or rims from other elegant makers – Libby’s Knob Hill – but most of the confusion comes from lower grade mass produced patterns.

Anchor Hocking made glass with beads on the base called Boopie.  If you saw Boopie next to Candlewick you would see Candlewick is better glass, greater clarity and the seams aren’t real noticeable.  The Boopie pieces that confuse people are footed tumblers or stems.

The other glass that’s confusing is a snack set with beaded handle on the cup.  The snack set cup is more rounded than the Candlewick one and the beads are smaller and set in the handle.  You can see how the beads on the Candlewick cup decorate the outer curve.

This website has many more examples of patterns with beaded rims that can confuse you. but please don’t be alarmed since the vast majority of Candlewick shapes have nothing similar.  You aren’t likely to even come across most of the beaded glass.

At one time I had a large selection of Candlewick but have sold most of it.  It’s a pretty pattern that looks great on a table and the huge selection of accessory pieces means you can find just the right piece for what you want.  It’s fun to collect for that reason, too, plus it’s available and not terribly expensive.  (My cup and saucer are $19.99 with free shipping, considerably less than many patterns.)   The simple design is appealing and perfect to show off the beautiful clear crystal.

Laurel Leaf Band Cut Crystal Dessert Plate

So why show this?  I have several unidentified patterns of cut dessert plates in my store, including this one.  These range from high quality elegant crystal from one of the top glass houses to these, which are good, not great.  I think they are neat pieces and have so many uses.

You can use these as-is alone for dessert and have something special, or serve with sandwiches; you can combine them with other patterns, use them as under plates, or mix and match.  The plates are pretty by themselves and look great as go-withs.  None of these sets is expensive – unlike some high end etched plates.

Break the tyranny of “all matching” and give your best dishes a break from the knife and fork by including cut crystal plates with simple designs.

Shopping information:  Plate shown is sold in a set of four in our eBay store Vintage Elegant Depression Glass and Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass.

New Martinsville Glass Radiance Hughes Cornflower Cut Crystal Sugar Bowl

No, it isn’t Mickey Mouse.  Those wing handles sure look like big ears, don’t they.  This is the Radiance glassware from the depression era made by New Martinsville Glass and with the luscious Cornflower cutting.

New Martinsville made several patterns like this one during the depression era that had lots of style and pizazz.  Some popular New Martinsville designs are Radiance, shown here, and Janice.  Radiance has those neat looking vertical little raindrops on the sides and those retro solid handles.

Depending on who you listen to and what book you read, Radiance is elegant glass or it’s depression glass.  It is good quality with some hand finished details like ground base rims which qualifies it for elegant glass status.  New Martinsville made Radiance in colors plus crystal.

The Cornflower cutting is a design from Hughes in Canada.  It’s distinctive with cross-hatching in the flower centers and feathery flower petal edges.  It’s a great combination with this snazzy Radiance shape.  The photo below shows this cutting up close so you can enjoy.

Hughes Cornflower Cutting Detail on Radiance Crystal

Elegant Glass: Early, Depression, & Beyond by Coe & Coe

Welcome to Book Report Sunday.  Tonight is my favorite reference book for elegant glass, Elegant Glass: Early, Depression, & Beyond by Coe & Coe.

Elegant glass is “good glass”, the sort that people bought at jewelry and high end department stores, by makers like Fostoria, Cambridge, Heisey.  It took skilled artisans to produce this glassware because it took quite a bit of hand work.  Seams were minimized by fire polishing and bottoms were ground.  The etching and cut decorations were done on each piece individually.

If you want detailed coverage of one specific manufacturer you can find books that cover only one company.  I counted at least nine books about Fostoria Glass and there are about that many about Cambridge too.  This book covers patterns from many companies from the 1920s through the 1970s.

Good Points about this Book:

• Excellent clear photos
• Comprehensive lists of pieces.
• Dimensions are given for almost everything.  For example goblets are given in terms of the volume they hold and height which is very helpful
• The value guide is realistic.  Of course it is too high sometimes and too low for others but in general this is reasonably good and very useful.
• I like the way it shows the different colors and gives values for those.
• It makes no pretense to try and put a dollar price on extremely rare pieces especially on very popular patterns
• The book includes glass from the depression era through the 1970s.  Other general elegant books limit themselves to certain eras only

Could Be Improved:

• Of course more patterns would be even better.
• I would like to see more descriptive information.  For example, Cambridge etched Rose Point on at least five different blanks and it would be great to see them photographed together so you can get a feel for the distinctive characteristics of each.  The price list includes the blank numbers but you have to hunt around to find a picture that will show the blank.

Overall this is a superb book that you need if you intend to collect, enjoy or sell elegant glass.  I rely on this book as one of my primary reference tools.  The link above is an affiliate link.

Tiffin Glass June Beau Cut Crystal Cocktail Stem

Tiffin Glass survived until 1980, outlasting so many of the American glass houses.  They operated as Factory R, a unit of the U.S. Glass company.  Tiffin was known especially for their beautiful stemware.  The piece shown here is a good example.

This is cut crystal, not etched, and the name is a pun.  You can just see the bow like a ribbon in the front of the bowl, thus the name June Beau.  Once you stop groaning from the pun you can agree that it’s a clever name that fits the design.

What I like most about this stem is the shape.  The wide section near the top of the rim is a rounded wafer studded with little beads like a collar.  The blank is sometimes called Pearl Collar, most appropriate and something you won’t have a problem remembering.

I like the graceful flare of the bowl and the ribbing on the stem that makes this easy to hold.  This particular stem is the liquor cocktail; it’s a little small for a sherbet and a nice size for a small after dinner drink or cocktail.

It’s fun to have a variety of stems to use for drinks.  You can mix and match and not feel like everything has to match since it’s not on a formal table setting.  Go ahead and have fun with Tiffin stemware.

Cambridge Glass Etch 727 Green Elegant Depression Console Bowl

Recently Bill of Affordable Accoutrements, who writes the most enjoyable blog posts about his imaginative tablescapes, mentioned that he prefers elegant glass to depression glass.  That got me thinking.  Which do you prefer?  Which do I prefer?

For me it’s not as easy a choice as it once was.  When I first started with glass my top 1, 2 and 3 would have been elegant glass.  I appreciated the handwork that went into making these, the skilled craftsmanship, high quality and great clarity and the gorgeous designs.  How can you beat an etched pattern like the Cambridge green bowl?

The more I worked with depression glass the more I liked it.  Here’s why.

Depression glass is colored and the transparent greens, blues, ambers, yellows and pinks are beautiful spots of color.  Glass looks wonderful when it catches the light and depression glass adds its charming colors.

Depression glass has some truly beautiful patterns.  The piece below is a simple sherbet from Hazel Atlas, Florentine Poppy 1 green depression glass.  The pattern is mold etched so it can be mass produced, but isn’t this a pretty design?

Florentine Poppy 2 Green Depression Glass Cup

But I keep coming back to the colors.  It’s the colors in depression glass that have the siren call.

What about elegant glass?  Isn’t there elegant glass that is colored?  Yes, of course.  Top end glass makers like Fostoria, Cambridge and Tiffin went headlong into the colored ware during the early 1930s.

In fact, that’s why this post started off with the Cambridge green console bowl, elegant colored glass of the depression era.  Wow, what a great compromise!   We can have beautiful colors, high end workmanship, gorgeous design and great quality.   That’s what you call a happy ending.

Duncan Miller Sylvan Crystal Leaf Shaped Covered Candy Dish

Isn’t this a gorgeous dish?  It looks just like a leaf with the stem curled up to form the handle.  This Sylvan is from Duncan Miller Glass, who had the slogan “Loveliest Glassware in America”.  You can see how true this slogan was by the pure clarity of this glass.

Unfortunately Duncan Miller went out of business in 1955.  Tiffin / U. S. Glass bought several of the molds and continued making some of the patterns, mostly Canterbury and some of the animal figurines.

Heisey Glass Lariat Crystal Caramel Candy Box

Now that we’re nearly done eating the Christmas candy and facing the annual New Year’s time to consider dieting, let’s look at candy dishes.  After all, Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and candy dishes always make fine gifts.  (If you store your candy in a pretty dish you’re less likely to eat it too.  Side benefit.)

This neat looking piece is Heisey Lariat crystal low caramel dish.  The glass books usually show a taller, more spherical dish with lid as a candy jar in Lariat, so this is a little less common.

Heisey made Lariat the last few years they were in business, from 1942 to 1957, and it was meant to compete with Imperial Glass’ successful Candlewick.  You can see the small loops around the outer edge of the bowl; this is the design.  The loop motif is repeated in the lid finial.  The molded shape on top the lid is a flower, perhaps a calla lily.  Take a look at the next picture to get a better idea.

Heisey Glass Lariat Crystal Caramel Dish

I’ve had this candy dish for a long time since I got it at one of the first auctions we went to when I had the brilliant notion of buying glass to sell on eBay.  I figured out it was Lariat pretty quickly but it took a long time to decide which piece it is.  Heisey made a myriad of pieces – they even had a special bowl for marshmallow – and this one wasn’t listed or photographed in my books.  Finally I came across mention of a low candy or caramel dish and the mystery was solved.

If you like crystal patterns where the central focus is the glass itself you may enjoy Lariat.  You can find a few pieces with etchings but to me that is gilding the lily.  The glass is superb, beautifully clear, and solid.  The pattern is more handsome in person than in photographs.  It doesn’t seem too prone to damage, either, despite the protruding loops.