Now I’m getting into deep water with the Candlewick saga! Imperial made several tumbler and stem lines in the Candlewick pattern – remember they made Candlewick for almost 50 years and issued new pieces over that entire span. I counted 7 stem lines!
This is the one tumbler we had, the 400/19 water tumbler size. It has the usual beads around a flat base that has a very shallow dome inside the beads. I’m not aware of any look-alike pieces that might be confusing; if you find a high quality crystal tumbler with this shape, it should be Candlewick. Apparently the wine goblets and sherbets look about the same with the bowls varying in size.
Another stem line likely to cause problems is 400/18 which looks a bit like the Boopie glassware from Anchor Hocking. If you attend estate auctions you might find the auctioneer confused – trust your judgement, now his!
This is the Boopie goblet with the Swedish Modern cutting. Once you have seen any Candlewick you aren’t likely to get confused. Hocking made Boopie out of the usual tableware glass, nothing like the beautiful clear crystal that Imperial used for Candlewick. The shapes are different too, but you can see why people might be confused at first glance.
If you decide to collect this fascinating pattern please invest in a good reference book. Even though the prices in any published guide won’t be exact, they should give you comparison values. For instance the 3900 water goblet books at $23 on Replacements while the 400/18 water is $80. A good book will help you tell which is which and should show that one stem line is usually more costly than the other, helpful to avoid expensive mistakes. The book I use is Candlewick, The Crystal Line by Garrison and Garrison.