Friday, September 29, 2017

If You Love Vintage Glassware Collectibles You Should Know What To Look For

By Angela Miller


Vintage glass is such a popular item to collect that no antique store would be complete without a number of collections made in different countries, in different styles, and at different times. Collecting glass is so popular in part because the items people purchase are usually small enough to display easily. Most of them are fairly expensive as well. If you like antiquing, searching shops for vintage glassware collectibles can be a fun and interesting way to pass the time.

Some collectors are interested in several different types and styles of glass while others concentrate in specific genres. Whatever your preference, before you begin buying pieces, you should know something about them. Cut glass, for example, has been around for more than twenty centuries and is as old as the art of glass blowing itself. Today serious designers replicate the ancient process of grinding patterns and designs out on a specialized wheel.

Owning and entertaining with large, impressive pieces of pressed leaded glass symbolized your wealth and influence at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. This period was known as the American Brilliant. It came to an end when manufacturers began to produce cheaper versions of the prized pressed glass.

In the early twentieth century, the Europeans got into the market with even cheaper pressed glass. American manufacturing suffered until the Great Depression when, the now famous, Depression glass went into production. The manufacturing was so prolific that the Ohio firm, most noted for producing the glass, could turn a profit even selling the pieces for pennies apiece.

During this time, most people could only dream about owning the fabulous stained glass pieces Louis Comfort Tiffany was creating in his studio in New York. Two enterprising companies came up with an affordable version of the original, which became known as Carnival glass. The name comes from the glass pieces that were given as prizes at carnival midways all over the American countryside.

All most people have to do is glance at certain pieces to know they are some version of milk glass. These pieces are found in shops all over the country, but milk glass is not native to the United States. It is actually a product of Venice where craftsmen first created it in the sixteen hundreds. The English variation became popular during the Victorian Era. The glass can be found in a wide variety of colors.

It is important to care for your glass collections correctly. This means not putting them in your dishwasher. The high temperature can crack and even break fragile pieces. You should only hand clean them using a mild detergent and soft drying cloth.

If you want to collect something, glassware might be a good choice. Most of it is affordable, and pieces can be displayed even with limited space. A lot of people love to browse antique and specialty shops in the hopes of finding the missing piece in their collection. It is not unusual for the glass to pass from generation to generation.




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