Thank you for letting me share our all-crystal table with you. Thank you to Susan from Between Naps on the Porch and friends for this fun Tablescape Thursday.  After last week when we had our blue period I thought a beautiful crystal dinner would be a fun change.  All the tableware – dinner plates, cups, saucers and goblets – are Chintz etched crystal from Fostoria Glass.  This is a gorgeous pattern full of roses, vines and leaves.

Fostoria Glass Chintz Etched Crystal

Had you thought of using an all-crystal table?  We usually think of china for plates and glass for goblets, but the elegant and depression glass makers produced full lines of dinnerware.  I’m only showing a few pieces from our extensive selection of this pattern.   Fashions change and maybe next time I’ll put this on the larger table to show more pieces.  It makes a dramatic and unusual table to enjoy with friends.

Here is a close up of the dinner plate so you can see what it looks like.

Fostoria Glass Chintz Etched Crystal Dinner Plate

I have to confess that I tried something different to get a good photograph.  Our home is open and the dining room has only one wall to act as a resting point for your eyes.  That’s great for living but challenging to photograph so I put three minimal place settings on the buffet against the one wall.  That didn’t give me room to include the console bowls, salad bowls, sherbets, bread and butter plates, nappies.  You can really have a full tableware set of this pretty glass.

Fostoria Glass Chintz Etched Crystal Duo Candleholder

I especially like the the candleholders.  Fostoria used the Baroque blank, which is the one with molded fleur de lis to etch most pieces of Chintz.  These U-shaped candleholders are from a different line and they make a nice contrast.  The green vase is another choice piece by artist Dave Eickholt.

Fostoria Glass Chintz Etched Crystal Dinner Table

Here is the vase a little clearer.  Dave makes his own glazes of course and this is one of his specialties.

Dave Eickholt Green Crystalline Glazed Porcelain Vase

I like the vase with the modern-looking candleholders, don’t you?

Fostoria Glass Chintz Candleholders & Dave Eickholt Green Vase

Thank you for visiting and come back again next Thursday!

Buying information:  All glass shown is from Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass.  It’s like antiquing with your best friend.

Art pottery by Dave Eickholt is available at Dave’s online store at Etsy.

Fostoria Glass Versailles Etched Blue Bouillon Bowl

Is blue your favorite color?  If it is you know that it is not all that common in glass, especially beautiful etched glassware like this bouillon bowl from Fostoria.  I like this shade better than cobalt blue and it looks grand with the etching and clear handles.

Fostoria Glass made Versailles from 1928 to 1944 in this lovely blue, a gorgeous green, pretty amber and pink.  I have all three colors in my store Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass since this is one of the patterns I try to keep in stock, but I can’t make up my mind whether the blue or the green is prettier.  And the amber is nice too….

Are you wondering what a bouillon cup is?  What, you mean you don’t have a separate piece to serve clear soup as an appetizer?  You use the cream soup bowl for both your Vichyssoise and your broth?  Or even (gasp!) you use the same bowl for any kind of soup or salad or cereal because you only have a couple size bowls?  What is this world coming to?

Back in the day (before dishwashers but when people still had “help”) people had separate dishes for almost everything.  My reference book for Versailles shows this bouillon bowl, the larger cream soup which is nearly the size we would use today but with handles, finger bowl, soup bowl, cereal bowl and fruit bowl.  Needless to say the bouillon is one of the less common pieces.  I think it would be fun to serve dinner with all the right pieces arranged just so.

Fostoria Glass Baroque Azure Blue Vase

This week’s Tablescape Thursday post featured Moderntone cobalt blue depression glass.  Today we’ll look at a different style and color, azure blue elegant glass from Fostoria.

This piece is the winged vase in Fostoria Baroque glassware.  Some pieces in Baroque pattern have fleur de lis molded shapes around the edges and others have these striking curled wings.  Candle holders and comports have the wings turned into stems, very attractive and unmistakable.

Fostoria made Baroque in this light azure blue and gold tint light topaz colors plus crystal.  Earlier, in the 1920s and 30s Fostoria made darker blue glass, not cobalt but a medium royal blue color, and used it for etches like Royal and Vesper.  Later patterns, Baroque and Fairfax, used this lighter, almost sky blue shade.

Azure blue is easy on the eyes and a friendly color that works well with others.  Come try it out at Catladykate’s Elegant and Depression Glass.  It’s like antiquing with your best friend!

Fostoria Glass Grape Brocade Etched Orchid Candleholder

Welcome to this week’s Pink Saturday hosted by Beverly of How Sweet the Sound.  Thank you for finding me.

This week I’m stretching “pink” to include Fostoria’s Orchid color which is a purply pink color.  Fostoria made a few patterns in this color and it was either not a good seller or was too costly to produce because they only made Orchid a few years.

The etch here looks mottled, doesn’t it?  In person the design itself is plain glass and the mottled looking background is actually raised above the surface.  It is very different from normal plate etchings and has a surface texture that feels good to touch.  You are seeing a brocade etch.

The etch is called Grape.  This isn’t a terribly imaginative name – nothing so fanciful as Bordeaux or Trailing Arbor or anything that took some thought to come up with – but it perfectly describes the pattern.  This has grape leaves and grape bunches and it really looks like brocade.

Other companies besides Fostoria made brocade etches but theirs are among the best known.  This is the rolled rim candle holder with the Grape brocade etch and we have it in stock.  Previously I’ve had the same candleholder in green and a gorgeous blue comport.   I like the brocade etches and hope you do too.

Buying information: Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass where shopping is like antiquing with your best friend.

Fostoria Glass Chintz Etched Crystal 4-Toed Wing Handled Large Salad Bowl

Looking for that perfect large bowl for your specialty salad and want something out of the ordinary with looks and pizazz?  When I look at this beautiful etched crystal bowl I think Caesar salad – you know, full of crisp romaine lettuce, all garlicky and crunchy croutons.  The handles would make it easy to hold (the bowl is well balanced) and pass around the table, always assuming I want to share.

When Fostoria made this piece they showed it as part of a console set.  Console sets were decorations that had a big bowl and two candle holder that people set on a side table.  That’s a nice idea, but today we look for glass that is not only decorative but useful too.  I expect that the lucky person who buys this will leave it displayed on a table or on their shelf and get it out when they want a special bowl for salad or fruit.  We use a glass bowl for melon balls with blackberries and blueberries in the summer that looks fabulous.

A piece like this makes a superb wedding gift to the new couple or an anniversary gift for those who enjoy fine home furnishings with a vintage touch.

We specialize in Chintz etched glassware from Fostoria and have a good selection.  Shopping with us is like antiquing with your best friend.  We love glass and we want to share our enjoyment with others.  See us at Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass for Chintz and other beautiful patterns from Fostoria, Cambridge and depression glass makers.

Tiffin Classic Etched Pink Elegant Depression Glass Tumbler

Thank you to Beverly from How Sweet the Sound for hosting Pink Saturday and allowing me to join the fun.

If you read my Tablescape Thursday post this week you saw a beautiful pink pitcher with a scarf-draped dancer swirling among the scrolls and swags.  Today we see the matching tumblers in this pretty pink pattern.

During the 1920s and 1930s a lot of glass companies made designs that featured nearly-nude dancers or nymphs.  You’ve probably seen Hocking’s Cameo depression glass and that was the poor man’s version of this delightful theme.  Monongah’s Springtime etch and Tiffin’s Psyche were plate etched, similar to the Classic etched tumbler shown here.

Just seeing the dancer on this stem makes me want to grab my scarf and join in.  It makes me happy just to look at it.  The color is a beautiful pink, not garish or in your face and not wishy washy either, just pink.

Fostoria Glass Buttercup Etched Crystal Torte Cake Plate

Buttercups, crystal and cake, what an entrancing combination.  Every time I see this large etched plate with the sweet rolled up rim I visualize it holding a special cake for a birthday party or wedding shower.  This pattern with the all over wide open flowers, leaves and scrolls is called Buttercup and it comes to us from Fostoria Glass.

Buttercup is one of those patterns that brides got for wedding gifts in the early 1950s and now are passing on to their families.  It’s a sleeper pattern with ever more people collecting it and looking for pieces to augment what they got from their mom or grandmother.  I buy Buttercup when I can and this particular piece came from an estate sale where the mother was in ill health and moving to assisted living.

This plate is called a torte plate in the Fostoria catalogs so consider it a large cake plate.  It’s 14 inches wide so you can put almost any size or shape cake on it, or use it for your special breakfast muffins or beautifully decorated cupcakes or even sandwiches.  Using special serving pieces is a good way to make your table even more special.

If you want a special cake plate for that special day, consider a vintage etched piece like this.  It will make your day even more memorable.

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.

Etched Drops & Bands Etched Vintage Crystal Stemware

I wish I knew who did this.  It’s a simple shape with straight stem and rounded bowl with straight sides.  The etch – or sand blast – is a solid band with joined lines that have little dangles hanging down.

So who did it?  One possibility is Tiffin.  They made a stem that Gene Florence called Tiara and the Replacements book Tiffin is Forever A Stemware Identification Guide calls SB 602, sand blast.  The top design just above the solid band on the Tiffin picture shows linked circles and mine is plain above the solid band.

OK, what other possibilities?

Another idea is Seneca number 283, which is similar but also not quite a perfect match.  Seneca 283 has a thin double line above the band.

Anyone else have an idea?  These are obviously old, my guess is they go back to around World War 2 based on the style of the etch and the shape of the glass.  They are reasonably good quality but not high end.

These were most likely meant to be wine goblets but they are small for our contemporary tables where we tend to use goblets that hold 8 ounces or more for wine.  Today these would be perfect for an apertif or after dinner brandy.

Back in the era when there were many makers of fine quality glass in eastern United States the companies often had similar wares, similar designs, similar colors, similar etches.  This is partly because good ideas travel but also the artisans moved around.  Companies traded molds.  Other companies specialized in decorations and made no glass but decorated other makers’ ware.  These situations make it difficult to identify some pieces.

That’s ok though.  We can enjoy the glass even when we can’t call it by name.