It's a long shot I know and not expecting much response here but I don't suppose anyone out there knows anything about antique glassware?

I've inherited a couple of pieces from my grandmother. I think they're beautiful and wouldn't part with them for the world, but they have absolutely no history with them, no distinguishing marks that I can find, so at the moment they could be mass-produced from Woolworths or genuine antiques for all I can fathom.

I've spent many frustrating hours trying to find similar pieces on the net, but unless you really know what you're looking for it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

I'd love to know their origins though, who created such beautiful pieces....so if there is anyone out there with some knowledge or information on a website that might help me track them down, please mail me?

Thanks!

LabRat (who figures if FoLCs don't know no one will)

Labby,

I don't know much about glass, but I do know that there are several very good books out there that could help. I have found a few websites that might prove helpful too.

http://www.speakeasy.org/~duchess/identify.html

http://www.erasofelegance.com/may2001_glass.html

http://www.woodsland.com/carnivalglass/pages/trade1.htm

Hope that some of these help you, specially the one at the top..

Lab, do you have a digicam? If so, you could post pictures of the items - just on the longshot that someone may recognize them...

Just an idea

Melisma (wishing the Rat some luck with the project, here under her Rock)

Thanks, Marnie! I'll check those out.

Mel, thanks for the suggestion too. I didn't post photos deliberately because I wasn't anticipating researching it here on the mbs. Could end up being a very long and boring thread for anyone but me. I was intending to leave that for an email discussion.

If it jogs anyone's memory though, here's a description of the pieces:

Glass sugar bowl and creamer set: Clear glass with gold band around the rim and base and stylised pattern of berries, leaves. Leaves are in gold and berries represented by groups of five red dots, with the dots but not the 'leaves' slightly raised on the surface of the glass.

Set of six sherry goblets: Very small and delicate; gold chased around rims with spiral/twisted clear glass stems. The goblet part is clear glass but banded in gold of different thicknesses, so that not much of the clear glass shows.

And I'll think about chasing down Stuart to take pictures of them if anyone thinks it might help them identify them. Although that first site of Marnie's looks very promising.

Thanks for the help!

LabRat

Can't speak for Marns, of course. But as to me, I'll do anything to help the Rat and maybe prod her back into writing some more fic. Any rating. Honestly

Melisma (under her Rock, wondering if the Rat would like a cheese block carved into a naked Cl...er, a bare-chested Clark. Yeah, a bare-chested Clark )

ROTFL, Mel. Ulterior motive, huh?

LabRat (who, yes, should really be opening up the SDB file instead of coming back in here for another visit...)

Perhaps. But also happy to donate my two cents (Canadian: the exchange is ridiculously high these days) to a worthy cause...



Melisma (giggling harder here under her Rock)


PS - BTW, did you ever ID that glassware? I have to stick to the thread topic, ya know

Waiting for Stuart to break out the digital camera and take some photos, Mel. But if I ever do track them down, I'll post an update.

Thanks again for the help.

LabRat

LabRat, try these people: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/antiquesuk/
This is the Brit "Antiques Roadshow". You don't have to be willing to sell to get them to appraise. And they have tons of experts. You also can e-mail them your photos and don't have to show up in person with the stuff in hand.
We love the British version of AR because your stuff is so much older .

Artemis
-- going back to try her hand at "Britspeak"
P.S. I killed them on the game, thanks to you all here. Until I got to "Toss". Which I found out is a "Bung" which I'm not even sure what that is in American. Hee hee - they had "jumper". Boy that was easy.

Thanks, Artemis! This must be a new innnovation, because I've tried their website in the past and they had nothing like this. Thanks for the headsup!

Oh and the only useage I know of in the UK for bung is as a bribe.

LabRat

The UK term was "toss" which is only a verb, not a noun over here! Bung in American is a stopper on a barrel or keg (i.e. a big one) A stopper in a bottle is just a stopper or cork.
However, I'll remember your comment and if I'm ever asked for a bung in Britain (almost rhymes), I'll know what they want!

Artemis

Toss? Oh! Yes, I see the context now. Was about to say never heard of it. Yes, you could use bung in that sense, but gosh I haven't actually heard anyone use it to mean throw something for, well, centuries. <G> Still would say 'Toss that over here' though.

Regional variations might apply here though.

LabRat

Something a little more local for you, Labby:
BBC site - this is the collectors guide.


Avia

Thanks, Avia

BTW, Artemis, I've trawled through the Antiques Roadshow site and can't find anything about being able to email them for an 'appraisal'. Can you direct me to where I'm missing it? Thanks!

LabRat

Just to add to the confusion, I use bung regularly... along the lines of:

"Bung it over here."

So it might well be regional...

And complicating things further, remembering from my school chemistry a bung is what we called the stoppers in test-tubes, so I guess it can be any size stopper...

Helga

Labrat,

I may be a bit late here . I won't say I know a lot on antique, but I happen to know a little things on glassware and cristalware work.

How do your pieces look like? Plus other technical questions that may sound chinese to you but that might help like:

are they tainted, painted or coloured glass?

Do they have a certain shape?

Are they cristal or glass and if yes, can you tell: mouthblown, mechanical or industrial or handmade?

Are there any marks, symbols on it, or a specific shape, decoration, design?

things like that...But the best would be a pic. Anyway, if it's really urgent, you got my email, don't you?

Carole

Never too late, Cyad. The help is appreciated. Still waiting for Stuart to take pictures (the story of my life) but I'll gee him up and try posting them here later in the week if I can.

They're glass not crystal and clear glass but with gold patterned onto the glass. I'd say etched, but that's probably entirely the wrong technical term. Could be painted, I guess.

On the sherry goblets, the gold is worked in bands of differing thicknesses to the point where not much of the clear glass beneath shows on the goblet parts. Just very thin strips between the gold banding. I call them sherry goblets btw because that's all I can imagine them being, but that's just a guess. They're very small and delicate. Their stems are twisted into a spiral, with a round, flat base with a gold rim.

The creamer set - the jug is what I would call Grecian in style - tall and fluted rather than being dumpy like a milk jug. The sugar bowl is a large bowl with a thick round base. Both are 'etched' with gold in a very stylised leaf pattern - just a few strokes here and there to give the impression of branches and leaves. Clusters of berries are represented by groups of five red dots and these are slightly raised off the surface of the clear glass base.

No idea as to the method of manufacture, I'm afraid.

I don't think they're genuine antiques because I haven't ever been able to find any makers' marks on them and I've garnered from researching the sites others have helpfully provided that most antique glass does have makers' marks, just like silver.

Anyway, thanks for helping out - I'll try and get those pictures posted ASAP.

LabRat

Story of my life (the sometimes late thingy, I mean )

Ok, again the ideal thing would be a pic (Just teasing you a bit, I'll wait patiently for you to post them or send them), the even better thing would be to be able to see them '3D', but a pic would do.

I have absolutely no clue so far (visual thingy again), though golden decorated items are making a come back....BTW, acid gold decorated or just applied gold? I mean, are there parts of the glassware where the gold have slightly disappeared? and do the gold part also stressed a decor shape?

Too bad you don't have a clue on a possible date of purchase, if not a manufacture one. Here I know such gold decorated "services" (with multiple pieces) where usually 1970's, but again, it could be 1847's, depends on the manufacturer (though the 1847 example applied to french luxuous brands...copies can exist but those are usually easily spottable)...here, the decor you describe seems rather modern except for the etched part.

And now I realise I made you re-write the entire description of your service (blamey, blamey, blamey).

For the method of manufacture, I'll make it simple, though it's not the only criteria:

Mouthblown: usually the base of the stem shows with the round mark of the 'stick' that the glass blower used,. can look like a default or as if the glass was a bit broken at the base, but it's not. But mouthblown it's a thing you 'see', like the rest...can't really explain it.

Mechanical: you see a thin discreet line, usually in the middle of the piece that shows like the two half part of the glass were 'glued' together.

Industrial: the piece is in one shape, and seems perfect, but usually the quality of the glass and the absence of mouthblown mark on the base tells you it's industrial and not mouthblown.

it's the coloured berries decor that strikes me here...I'll tell you if I come up with something more helpful.

Carole

PS: and catch Stuart!!! LOL

hey again, Labrat!

ok, I still have no clue concerning your glass 'service' though it reminds me a lot of Bruce Jackson work.

Still, for my personnal culture, I found interesting paperweights (very Cristal Saint-Louis like) on william manson\'s website

Carole

Interesting, Cyad. I tried a search for Bruce Jackson, but couldn't find any sites which had any clear examples of his work. Gilding though and the description of the process very much fits my glass, I think.

I'm getting a page not found on your link, can you check it again, please?

Oh, and I checked my pieces again and would definitely go for Industrial as the manufacture method. There are no seams and nothing like the 'imperfections' you mention.

LabRat (still waiting to catch Stuart for more than ten minutes - it's been one of those weeks.... :rolleyes: )

industrial, huh?

it's making it even harder 'cause it could be copies and could have been made anywhere.

I'm glad you liked the manufacturing methods lesson

the url to the link is: http://www.williammanson.co.uk/mainpage.htm

and it's working with me so I'm

Carole (who's considering manufacturing a Stuart trap )

It could be Depression Ware, especially with the gold band. My aunt collects it, but I never really pay too much attention when she rattles on.

Depression Ware is a huge hobby over here, so I'm sure there are lots of websites devoted to it.

HTH

LabRat:
I got this from the BBC site that avia sent. It looks like your glass except for no gold trim.



As to the appraisal process, I'm afraid I don't know. I didn't trawl the Brit website, but I do know they do the show in Britain.

Since it is gold trimmed, I'm doubtful it is Depression Glass. That was industrial glass made for the masses in 1929-1939. It's very plain and simple. Do you know what year your Grandmother is likely to have gotten it? Was it a wedding gift to her? It sounds like it would be.

Tell Stuart that the masses are going to rise up out of the computer and demand he take a picture if he doesn't hop to it!


Artemis

Thanks for the continuing help, everyone.

I trawled through a few websites on Depression glass at one point, but couldn't find anything close to matching these pieces.

Artemis - I know absolutely zip about their history, so no clue to your questions, I'm afraid. I inherited them from my mother, who inherited them from hers, but how much further back they go I have no idea. All I know is that growing up I remember them being in gran's china cabinet. He's been rushing around with one thing and another between shifts and I've barely seen him for more than five minutes, but hopefully I'll get those photos done over the weekend, now that the car's safely MOT'd and things have calmed down some.

LabRat

Aww!!!

Then I'll get a chance to have a look at those glasses...great!

Carole

Oh no argument there! It's almost a national institution... been running for years.

Typical Sunday evening in my family was spent at my Gran's house: Sandwiches (cut into triangles of course), cakes and tea in proper china cups for tea. Songs of Praise then Antiques Roadshow, followed by Last of the Summer Wine on TV... with me and my sister bored senseless through having to behave....

Helga