Crafts-Hobbies

Depression Glass Trivia By Murray Hughes

Depression glass facts make for interesting conversation, especially when you’re at a convention or talking amongst other Depression glass aficionados. So here are a few items to get you started so you, too, can have some meaningful knowledge to put on the plate when you and your Depression glass collector friends gather ‘round and chat.

English Hobnail leads the pack as the design with around the most available pieces still out there for collectors. Westmoreland Glass Company produced the English Hobnail pattern from the late 1920s to the 1980s, with the Depression-era pieces made in eight different colors. In total, 175 pieces of this particular design were created.

Rose Cameo, conversely, holds the record for the least number of pieces available in a pattern. The Belmont Tumbler Company held the patent for Rose Cameo, and only six pieces of this design made it to the marketplace: a plate, a footed sherbet, a footed tumbler, a berry bowl, and a 5-inch and 6-inch bowl. Because Belmont manufactured only tumblers and was trying to recover from a massive fire, experts speculate the actual production of this rare design happened at the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, only a few miles away. A six-piece set of tumblers – the pattern was only made in green – in mint condition can be had for between $150 and $175 (prices may have changed since I wrote this).

The Jeanette Glass Company breaks all records for coming up with the most patterns. Jeanette made 11 patterns of Depression glass between 1928 and 1946: Sunburst, Homespun, Swirl, Doric and Pansy, Windsor, Sunflower, Doric, Adam, Sierra, Floral, and Cherry Blossom.

And then at the other end of the spectrum, the Fenton Glass Company produced only a single pattern of Depression glass – the Lincoln Inn.

Of the 200+ patterns of Depression glass created, footed salt and pepper shakers from Hocking’s Mayfair design demand some of the very highest prices. Don't flinch when (or if) you have a close encounter with one: They go for more than $9,000, which makes them 1 of the most expensive items of all Depression glass patterns at the time of writing this article.

Hazel-Atlas produced the Aurora pattern in beautiful cobalt blue for one year only – from 1937 to 1938.

Jeanette and Federal glass companies manufactured the two most reproduced patterns, Cherry Blossom and Madrid. Jeanette produced 43 pieces of the Cherry Blossom design from 1930 to 1939 in five colors. Federal’s Madrid output numbered 45 pieces in five colors from 1932 to 1939. The popularity of these designs, of course, made reproductions impossible to avoid, but also makes the original Depression-era versions that much harder to detect.

This article, perhaps, may inspire you to dig deeper and find out even more about the Depression glass products we’ve all come to love. Hopefully, with these bits and pieces of trivia, you’ve learned something you didn’t already know. If you haven’t, then you need to be writing your own articles on Depression glass trivia and enlightening the rest of us! But if you have benefited, you can safely know that the next time you’re sitting next to that 40-year collector at convention, you, too, have more comments to make than just about “all those pretty, Depression glass colors!”

Until next time,

Murray Hughes
http://www.DepressionGlassSecrets.com

http://www.depressionglasssecrets.com/DPweb-articles/depression-glass-trivia.htm