Bob Page and Dale Frederiksen, who own the Replacements company, co-authored the stemware identification guide Tiffin is Forever – A Stemware Identification Guide. This is not a pattern guide in the sense of showing all the different pieces within a glass line and providing colors or pricing information.
This book instead shows the entire line of Tiffin stemware in line drawings that show the shape of the water goblet and the design. The pictures are clear and make it fairly easy to find matches to those elusive pieces lurking in the back of the glass cupboard.
The advantage of a pattern guide like Tiffin is Forever is the breadth of the patterns. The authors suggest focusing first on the goblet shape, then looking at that stemline to identify the design. I sometimes find the number of very similar stem shapes a little overwhelming and it can be hard to see the nuances between similar shapes. My personal preference is to sort by etch or cutting, then identify the shape. The line drawings sometimes make tiny design details appear more prominent than they appear in real life, so sometimes I need to page through the book looking at the etches to spot my match.
I have used this to identify plates, not solely stemware. Yes, it is easier to spot stems when you are looking at page after page of goblets, but the design will be the same or very similar on plates as on stemware. So the book is useful to identify Tiffin glass in general.
I have one other reference book on Tiffin glass and find this book, is my go-to book for Tiffin. It took me a bit of time to get used to it, but once I’d paged through the pictures a few times I had a better sense for what is Tiffin – and what is not.
If you collect stemware, or you are like me and enjoy going to estate sales, antique malls and flea markets and picking up interesting stemware with pretty designs that you have no clue what they are, then you’ll love this book. I found at least a third of my mystery stems turned out to be Tiffin and that may be true for you too. They made a plethora of shapes and designs and distributed the stemware widely.
If you are looking for a standard reference guide with prices and piece listings, then this may not be for you. I find that once I know the pattern or maker, I can usually get a decent idea of relative value, so don’t pass this up just because it doesn’t have everything laid out for you. Once you know the pattern, then look on Replacements website or eBay to see what pieces might exist.
Overall I recommend this guide.