New Martinsville Teardrop Cut Sandwich Tray
I don’t know whether I should be honored or not. The nice lady who runs the Great Lakes Depression Glass Club asked me to please present a program this fall and wouldn’t I like to do one about center handled servers. After all, I wrote an article for the Collectors Journal newspaper about them so it should be easy, right?
Now normally when someone asks me to give a talk I take it as an honor. After all, that means they think I have something to say that they want to hear. I’m just a tad skeptical because she also told me they were really really short of speakers for all the programs this year. Hmmm.
Anyway, enough of my ego and on to the fun part, the glass. I decided to cover four main topics:
- Vanished pieces of American glass. As in, no one makes these any more.
- A bit of history as to who did make them.
- How we’d use them today
- Tips to identify them.
I got interested in center handled servers right away when I first got interested in glass. These are unique, lovely pieces that you just don’t see any more. You can sometimes find plates that someone drilled holes in to attach a metal handle or the layered tid bit trays. But servers where the handle is glass and all one piece? Nope. They are gone.
Near as I can tell companies stopped making the center handled servers in the 1950s or early 1960s. Consider Fostoria. The patterns made up to 1970 – Romance, Chintz, Holly – have center handled servers. Patterns on the later blanks such as Raleigh or Contour had no center handled servers. I’m guessing that the style shift to more informal entertaining made the elegant servers less popular.
In depression glass you’ll find a few Hocking patterns like Mayfair with servers but none by Federal, Hazel Atlas or MacBeth Evans. And I found no center handled servers in the mass-produced patterns like Early American Prescut or Capri.
The server shown is from New Martinsville. I could tell this one easily by the handle.
The easiest way to identify a server is by the pattern or etch. I’ve a Cambridge amber one with the Windows Border etch – easy to spot. Unfortunately a lot of servers have no-name decorations that you won’t be able to figure out.
If you can’t spot the etched design then check the handle. Many companies had distinctive handles like the lobed version shown. The secret is having a good book, and since I enjoy these pieces one of my books is a guide by Inez Austin sold through the West Virginia Glass Museum. Her book shows about 200 different handles, some of which look darn similar to me. (She has since published a massive book that I’m going to pass on.)
If you enjoy vintage American glass then these are classic pieces that are fun to display and make exquisite serving pieces.