Mary K posted cordials with a gorgeous floral etch on our Facebook page. (Unfortunately these are no longer available to link to for this post but I thought it would be helpful to walk through the method I use for identifying pieces.)
These were not familiar. Often people post photos and I will think, “I’ve seen that…” That isn’t actually a big help since I don’t usually remember where I saw it or anything useful like who made it. Those “aha” thoughts do tell me that the glass is likely by one of the major companies or at least that it is likely American made, 1920-ish to 1980-ish.
This cordial was completely new; I’m certain I never saw this etch in any of my books, and I was wondering whether this might be European.
Let’s look at the factors that might make this piece identifiable.
- The etch. Etches are usually easier to identify than cuttings, at least for me. Cuttings tend to look a lot alike.
- The ripple in the base of the bowl.
- It is hard to see in the photo but Mary said these are pink. Pink cordials with big flower etches are not all that common. We might have a chance at these!
Searching Replacements
On a hunch I tried searching Replacements by the flower, although I wasn’t sure what flower it is. “Appleblossom”, “Rose”, “Wild Rose”, “Big Floral”, “Passionflower” all struck out. Finally I did a search for pink floral etch goblet and found this one:
Sylvan by Tiffin, in Pink, dating from 1929. (I can’t link to the photos so please look on Replacements for Tiffin Sylvan.)
Replacements shows a line drawing for the goblet and guess what? It too has the little ripples in the bottom of the bowl. They show photos of a plate and footed tumbler: Big floppy flower?/ Check. Big leaves arranged asymmetrically?/ Check.
I’m pretty sure Mary’s cordial is Tiffin Sylvan, but haven’t heard back from her. If she compares the pictures to her piece we can be certain one way or the other.
Steps to Identify
Let’s summarize how we got this far.
- Looked at the glass to find the points that are different or that can make the piece identifiable. Consider etch, shape of the stem, shape of the bowl, color.
- Went to Replacements to search by flower type. Since we couldn’t tell what the flower was, this did not pay off.
- Searched again for flower etch. Nothing. Or to be accurate, lots and lots and lots of hits. I didn’t feel like wading through these!
- Searched again for pink flower etch. Still got a ton of hits.
- Revised it to be pink flower etch goblet. Putting the goblet in may eliminate good ones, but it also eliminates a gazillion hits for patterns that had plates and goblets and sherbets and and and. None of the results were Mary’s.
- Revised to search for pink FLORAL etch goblet. Often Replacements uses floral instead of flower, but you should check both if one doesn’t work. This returned a couple pages and our Sylvan was right there!
You might wonder why I didn’t go through my books. Partly because I had no memory of ever seeing this and partly because I would have had to look at a lot of books. When I have no clue whatsoever but the piece has some sort of recognizable feature, I find Replacements can be faster than wading through a dozen or more books.
Had I used my books I would have started with Gene Florence’s four volumes of general pattern listings (example Florence’s Glassware Pattern Identification Guide: Easy Identification for Glassware from 1900 Through the 1960s, Vol. 2), and probably given up when I didn’t see it. It takes quite a bit of time to search that way to help someone.