Craig Schenning’s A Century of Indiana Glass is an excellent reference book for the many patterns that Indiana Glass over the century they produced glass. The photos are clear and usually Schenning includes more than one photo per pattern. He lists the pieces Indiana made for each pattern, gives a rough idea of pricing, a little information about the pattern. He says whether he knows of any reproductions of a given pattern.
Indiana made patterns that florists bought for arrangements. We used to see tons of Teardrop, Harvest, Diamond Point in thrift stores, and generally the pieces were the heavier vases or comports that could hold flowers. I was glad to see some of these same patterns listed with pieces that are quite lovely. For example, the milk glass or dark green Teardrop comports are all I knew about Teardrop until seeing photos of the ruby stained or crystal accessory pieces.
Schenning does a good job with the two Indiana reproduction patterns that bedevil collectors, Recollection and Whitehall.
Recollection is a reproduction of Federal’s Madrid depression glass, and Schenning notes that Federal had destroyed the original molds (probably melted for the war effort), then Federal recreated several of the molds in the 1970s for the bicentennial and included a 76 in the scroll motif and re-issued the glass in amber. Indiana bought the molds when Federal went out of business and reworked them to eliminate the 76 and used those molds for some new colors plus amber and crystal which are like the original depression glass colors. The reworked molds do not have the 76 mark nor is the pattern detail as good. This helps explain why the newer glass just doesn’t look right.
Whitehall is superficially similar to Fostoria’s long-running American pattern, except made in lower quality glass and some pieces have noticeable differences. For example, Fostoria’s footed bowls and nappies have toes that splay out and the Whitehall feet are little pegs.
The Miscellaneous section was fun to read. He includes pieces that aren’t really part of a pattern, such as Hen on a Nest, and those that Indiana produced from extant Federal molds after Federal went bankrupt, such as Petal or Pioneer.
I discovered several patterns that have only a piece or two – and many of these are decorative or accessories that I used to see at estate sales. For example, I often saw the Honeycomb bowl. It’s not a big pattern, just a few pieces, and it doesn’t show up in some of the general 1940s-1970s glass references.
One of the best features of the book is the text. Author Craig Schenning has a lively, personable style that comes through to us readers. He obviously loves glass and enjoys sharing his knowledge without being pretentious or pompous. It is a joy to read his descriptions. He does not set himself up as an expert, more as a fellow glass lover who is sharing his knowledge and enjoyment with us.
He has a section on hotel, restaurant and soda fountain glassware that might interest some.
There are catalog pages reprinted both black and white and in color that were interesting in that they showed how Indiana marketed their glass. For example, they had pages that showed Oleander/Willow pieces, then other pages that showed a single color in multiple patterns. They apparently sold through the S&H green stamps program and we know they moved a lot of glass through Tiara home parties. No wonder they remained in business until 2002 when most of their competitors closed years earlier.
I can’t comment on the prices really. They seem a little high to me, but I have not bought glass since 2019. The author mentions he used current auction values and his best estimates to arrive at approximate values. Of course values vary over time and location as he notes.
There is an extensive bibliography at the back.
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