Identification Tips: Check the Bottoms
Did you buy some pretty glass and now you wonder what it is? I’ll publish tips, including good websites, over the next several months.
Tip #1: Check the Bottoms
Here’s why. You’ll want to know whether your glass is Elegant Glass, Depression Glass or something else. One way to spot elegant glass is that often the bottoms have ground base rims.
The elegant glass companies spent considerable time and cost to finish the glass to make it look complete and polished. (Depression glass, on the other hand, had basically no finishing steps.)
One way to give glass a better look is to finish the the bottoms. Glass artisans ground each piece so the base was flat and smooth.
Turn the piece over. Is there a rim on the bottom? Is it ground? Or if there is no rim, has the entire bottom been ground or polished.
This is a very good indication you have elegant glass. Note please that not all elegant glass pieces have ground bases. Stemware or candle holders rarely are ground. The foot is instead fire polished to be smooth and level.
Once you know you have elegant glass you will then work on who made it and the pattern. But at least you can rule out the 100+ depression glass patterns and the
several hundred glass patterns mass produced after the depression era!
Stay tuned for more tips. Next time we’ll look at glass quality.