Depression Glass A-Z, Part I

Depression Glass

For many years depression glass has been reproduced by companies all over the world. Some of the patterns and things you may see from those companies are listed below. (We gratefully acknowledge the research work of the Glass Reproduction website, as well as About.com for some of this information).

Adam
Butter dish- on the green reproduction you will see that the veins in the leaves on lid do not join or touch in center of leaf, bottom: on the old, large leaves point to center of each side (north, south, east, west) on the reproduction, they point off center (northeast, etc) very poor mold quality will show up on both top and bottom.

Avocado
Avocado was originally made in pink, green and crystal: white pitcher & tumbler sets were made by Indiana Glass in the 1950’s. Yellow, red, blue, amethyst and frosted colors are all reproductions which were made by Tiara from 1974 through the 1980’s. Pink and green were also made by Tiara but are different from the original colors as follows: new pink has an orange-ish tint rather than the soft pink of the old color. The newer green is darker than the original one was.

Baltimore pear
Compote, marked with a paper label on the base, made in France.

Cameo
The Shakers have been made in green, pink and cobalt. On the reproductions the patternis weak, with a little too much glass in the bottom of shaker, and additionally the cobalt was never originally made. Above the foot is filled in with about 1/4-1/2 of glass. Mosser company has made a line of children’s miniature sets (called ‘the Jennifer line’) with the cameo pattern. As children’s dishes were never made, these miniatures don’t present a problem telling reproductions from originals.

Cherry blossom
The following pieces have been reproduced in any or all of these colors: pink, green, light blue, delphite, cobalt, red and iridized colors. The only original colors that were made were the pink, green and delphite, and some of these reproductions are quite good so they may fool you. The round 2 handled tray, footed cake plate, cereal bowl, footed tumbler, butter dish and a divided platter are among those things that have been reproduced. As a general rule you’re going to find that the reproduction pieces are less carefully molded, with the pattern more crudely in place, branches and leaves on the blossom pattern will lack the original serrated texture of the leaves and the bark of the branch. The flowers will not look as detailed to you. The pieces are also somewhat heavier in glass than the originals.

Columbia
Juice glasses will be marked “France”

To be Continued
* * * * * * * * * * * * *

See our available Depression Glass at: Penny's Antiques & Wedgwood Pantry

Pictured here: Ruby Red Depression Glass Tidbit Bowl

Penny and Doug
cupenny@tds.net
Penny's Antiques & Wedgwood Pantry





Quote of the Day:
"On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." --Thomas Jefferson