How many tumblers have you gone through in your lifetime? If your family is like Dave and me, the answer is “a lot”. For a long time we gave up on having matching glasses on the table, but once the kids grew up and we all stopped knocking glasses over at the dinner table, our tumblers last longer.
Now think about juice glasses. For those of you who like a big glass of orange juice in the morning, you may not know what these are. Juice is expensive, even now, and back in the 1930s it was virtually unobtainable except canned during the off season and most people had to prepare their own. Remember, fruit like oranges or grapefruit, was also costly, enough of a treat that kids got oranges for Christmas.
Thus juice glasses hold about 5 ounces. You can find juice tumblers in most of the elegant and depression glass patterns, but certainly not all patterns included juice glasses.
Here’s one of my favorite elegant juice stems. Now this is truly an elegant way to enjoy your OJ, with a piece of etched crystal stemware! The pattern is Chantilly from Cambridge Glass. There’s no reason you could not use this for wine or a cocktail.
Cambridge Glass Chantilly Etched Crystal Stemmed Juice Tumbler
Depression glass tumblers tended to be either flat or footed, but were not stemmed. (The Cambridge Chantilly juice is a bit unusual.) Here is the flat Cameo Ballerina green juice tumbler. It’s just like the regular flat tumblers, but smaller. It’s a cute little piece, about 3 3/4 inches tall.
Cameo Green Depression Glass Juice Tumbler
All the juice tumblers hold about 5 ounces filled to the brim. For most patterns this will be the smallest size tumbler, unless there is a whiskey tumbler in the line up which would hold only an ounce or two. Cordials also hold one ounce but they almost always are stemmed.
Here’s a flat elegant juice, also from Cambridge, in the Rosalie etch. I love this design with leaves and flowers swirling around the square spiral. One of my customers found a clever use for these little lovely glasses; she uses hers to hold make up brushes. That’s a great idea, a smart way to incorporate elegance into your morning routine to start the day off right.
Cambridge Glass Rosalie Etched Tumbler
Last one is a footed example, the Florentine #2 Poppy yellow depression glass tumbler from Hazel Atlas I’ve written several posts about Florentine and how you can tell the #1 from the #2 shape. You can read those here: Florentine Poppy Cups Florentine Poppy Plates Florentine Poppy Tumblers
Florentine 2 Yellow Footed Juice Depression Glass Hazel Atlas
You can have your pick of so many shapes, colors and designs with vintage glass. It’s fun to start your morning off with a glass of juice using one of these little gems to add joy to your day.