These Are The DSRs Of Our Lives: Look UP in Levittown PA

These Are The DSRs Of Our Lives: Look UP in Levittown PA

Our photo blog...this month's theme is LOOK UP! come visit to see all the UP photos from around the country! BTW, you can follow us too...we're pretty interesting.

The Wonderful World of Jadite

Jadite is green milk glass basically.  It's depression era but it's the milky, non-transparent green glass.  It was made by multiple companies but Jeanette did a lot starting in 1936.

Then McKee did some reamers in it and some other kitchen ware such as rolling pins, shakers, mixing bowls etc. Hazel Atlas got in on the act with some jadite bakeware.  This is just a small sampling of what's available in the market place. 

JUST BE CAREFUL!!! Martha Stewart made a line of jade kitchenware and consequently it's being reproduced in mass. Trust me K-Mart wasn't around during the depression era (not during THE GREAT DEPRESSION.. LOL) so what you see barcoded in the flea-market did not come from McKee or Jeanette. Get a book and find out what was reproduced.

And come visit us at DEPRESSION GLASS WAREHOUSE

Antique Hunting - sort of like Hunting for Yeti!

So I took a busman's holiday today and went to an "antique show" with my adult son.  He had his own agenda and I was looking at depression glass (among about 89 other things).  My primary objective was to "see" glass. To see how much was out there and what kind of prices were being asked "in the wild". 

I'll blog about the show and some thoughts I had there in my AntiqueDaze blog  so you can come back to that later.

All the pictures here were taken at the Antique Show in the Philadelphia Convention Ctr in Oaks Pa (think Pottstown PA).  

 I just loved this booth - mainly for it's display of Art Pottery but also for all the crystal Pressed and Pattern Glass (but wait til you see the Hummels picture)

THIS - pointing downward is more like it!

The vase is Greeen Tea Room priced at $70 and the butter dish (round lidded thingee) is a Green Sierra, purportedly in mint condition but I didn't check it and I did NOT look at the price.  We are NOT buying it.

Ebay prices, for the record, are better. For a buyer - not for a seller.

NOW! we're talking! Blue Royal Lace - in the picture to the back left is cookie jar WITH a lid, a straight sided pitcher (so it has an ice lip), moving forward on the left  side of the plates are some cups and saucers and a set of shakers. So far, the prices are all higher than eBay/online and WAY higher than my $27 budget for the day.    I can't tell you the individual prices (what you thought I planned this out and wrote it down? Silly you!).  BUT the prices are higher than Dear Hubby (aka SUPER BUYER) is paying on eBay as he rebuilds my collection and also nabs me some fantastic crystal, green and pink versions of every single thing. 

The right side of the plates includes 2 Cobalt Royal Lace candlesticks - straight-sided  - BV is about $110 for 1 by my higher price guide book so this pair should be a $225 item...not sure what the dealer was asking.  Next is the candlesticks are some footed sherbets - the all glass kind (royal lace has some that are metal holders and the glass insert sits in them. Don't like that kind personally but they exist.) and moving forward next to the plates are a creamer and a sugar with a lid. Along the front edge of the table are more sherbets and cream soups. Pretty much all you need to set a nice holiday table.

I love the Royal Lace pattern.  Hazel Atlas did this in 1934 - 41 and named it in honor of the Royal Family of England. The pink Royal Lace has not been reproduced but some cobalt tumblers have been so check a reference book to learn how to distinquish real from repro.

Ultramarine or Teal Swirl crimped epergne (eh purnnnnn) aka flowerholder in the back of this photo.  Pink Dogwood in the center and Pink Miss Amercan platter and the edge ofa  bowl in the front.   More later!!

Pink Lace Edge (Old Colony)

This pattern is near impossible to find without chips or more often cracks  in

the lace edge.  But these peices turned up locally a few weeks ago:

Pink Lace Edge Bowl - Top View

Pink Lace Edge Salad Bowl on Ebay

Pink Old Colony 7.5 HTF salad bowl (ribbed bottom)

The butter bottom looks the same as the salad bowl but without the ribbing in the base.

And also this lovely piece:  (on ebay- Lace Edge Plate) I have 3 listed so don't stop with this one. Check out the other 2 also!

Pink Lace Edge or Old Colony Depression Glass 10 inch Plate

And this is what cracks look like when they start...but they get much much worse.....

Pink Lace Edge Creamer - Depression Glass by Hocking

Lace Edge is a pretty extensive pattern line - there are 4-5 bowls sizes and 4 plates sizes in 2 styles, tumblers in 3 sizes, a fish bowl type cookie jar, vases and a candy dish and butterdish with a few other pieces thrown in.

It was made by Hocking (before they got "anchored" in 1935 thru 1938.  They produced Crystal (very limited) gree and pink.  And honestly in 35+ years of collecting depression glass I don't remember EVER seeing green in this pattern, not even at shows.   Of course, I don't travel like we used to but still you'd think I'd have seen a picture.

Gene Florence in his guides has a Woolworth's picture that shows some "yellow" that looks satinized.  Never saw that either.  

One nice thing about this pattern is, it's never, to date, been reproduced so if you collect this, you know you're getting the real deal.

If you haven't guessed by now...

I'm terrible at schedules and not too organized about this "blogging" stuff.  But I promise to try harder.  AND to reward your patience, I've got some fantastic new pictures to show you later this week.  First I want to pause and say a prayer for the faithful departed (what we ex-catholics call the dead and gone). 

Yesterday, I got my Kovel's newsletter and all it said was Collector Books was shutting down.

WHAT?
Yep...gone.  Now, if you're not a collector, you might not recognize their name but that company published Gene Florence's Encyclopedia of Depression Glass and all his other books on various collectible glass companies and eras.  Along with tons of other types of collector guides, pottery, cookie jars, etc.

So stop for a moment and lament the passing of another "great one".  And help me figure out, WHAT DO WE DO NOW, MA?

So the SUGAR BOWL is

So two of my friends (thanks Marion and Danni) found and identified the pattern on my opalescent piece as Northwood Opalescent Wild Bouquet. And so I went looking thru the internet and found several things that were close but this

Wild Bouquet Covered Sugar is exactly what I have in the same size BUT I don't have the lid. Isn't it beautiful? And what a price range too. Woohoo! I hope mine goes anywhere near that price.

Mine will be auctioned on eBay starting tonight in my eBay store Depression Glass Warehouse

Do you know what this pattern is?

I found a "pretty" at the fleamarket Saturday - and as usual the one book I need is up at my friend's house 30 miles away. So anyone got a clue what this pattern is or who made this?

If you now, please tell me.  I checked my Paden City, my Pressed Glass and my Opalescent glass books with no luck!

And what is it? It's 4.5" high and 4.25" wide. I love the color!

#blog30

Just for giggles & grins- a Twitter stream of Depression Glass Comments!

How do you figure out what's old in Depression Glass?

So, you're a beginning collector and you picked up some pieces you like and now you want to expand your collection. BUT...someone warned you about "repros".  How do you figure out what's new, what's old, what's genuine and what's a repro?

You do what I do, you buy a book and cheat a bit.  Meaning, the best reference books will tell you what are reproductions and Gene Florence's Encyclopedia of Depression Glass has some pages in the back where he includes pictures of those and "points" like book collectors use, to detail what the differences are between the GENUINE article and the reproductions.  As a glass collector and reseller for 35 years, I couldn't have lived with out this info.   So the first thing is use that widget on the right sidebar and buy his book. 

Now lets talk quickly about some telling points so you can go to the fleamarket/garage sale today and buy something.

This is Madrid - Federal and Others reproduced it...

Madrid was produced first from 1932 to 1939 by Federal Glass.  As they hit the economic hard-times of the 70's (believe me ...it was worse then and we did walk up hill in blizzards to get to work..I was too old for school. I had a crummy job. so I remember) Federal "reissued" this pattern in both Amber and light blue and in pink.  The "reissued" (their word not mine) pieces typically but not always had a 76 above the squiggly design element or in the corners of the plates.  Then in the 1980's Indiana glass bought the remains of Federal, including their "molds" and designs and reissued more of this pattern but with NO marks to differentiate the old from the new. A bad habit Indiana still has. 

Part of the problem with Madrid (which came in Green and Amber. Crystal, Pink and Madonna blue which is the solor of the "save now" button on blogger)  is that the amber in particular gets a "muddy" amber color darker more like buckwheat honey than clover honey if you're a honey fan. The plates in particular - which are HUGE plates were "muddy" most of the time from my experience.  If what you ahve is a bright clear goldy amber? it's probably new.

Indiana issued it in TEAL, but also in blue pink and crystal. So if you're buying it and it's those colors, I can guarantee it's only 30 years old not 80-100.  Not quite vintage let alone antique, ya know?  Check the Florence book for more details on the old and the NEW. 

This picture above is a "clambroth" jadite refrigerator keeper (bow your head here and pray for the poor departed thing. I dropped it and broke into a million pieces). THIS was an original (til I broke it).  The color was a "waxy" almost transparent green. Unlike what Martha Stewart Designs sells now in K-Mart etc.

There are MULITPLE books on this so if you want old, you have to get the books and read 'em cause THIS color has been totally bastardized in the last 20 years both by Martha and the chinese repro artists who know a good selling thing when they see it. And their version looks more like these 2 "bud" vases which are neither vases, budding or old.

Now this amber pattern below is called SHARON - It came in Pink Green and amber. I don't care much for the amber color because on a lot of pieces it got muddier than the Federal Madrid.  Meaning it wasn't a bright pretty amber color. It also gets "washed" out.  The pink gets orangey but the green is gorgeous. The problem with this pattern is it shows use marks fairly easily. BUT the great thing is? It's not the popular so it's more easily found and it wasn't reproduced.   I find the bowls (round 8" Master Berry or Vegetable bowls) more than anything else. The plates I find all seem to be "knife-marked" in the middle where you would cut your food. (logical see? it's all logical)

And cause I have this picture I'm gonna show you this because I have the picture right now and I will lose it before I can post about it.

This is King's Crown (a small sherbet) manufactured by Indiana. King's Crown was made back from the 1891 on.  Originally made by US Glass, it was produced in amber-stain, ruby-stained, and crystal.  Indiana made it from the 1950's on with a ruby-stain. The main difference, I learned the hard  way, is the older US Glass items were apparently a 3 part mold and Indiana's were 2 part molds.  (so you'll see either 2 or 3 lines down the sides)  And the ruby-stain from Indiana is not as deep and gets scratched more easily.

Ok, next post will be names and links to some great reference books.

Blue Royal Lace by Hazel Atlas

This is NOT my collection - I wish it was. it's from a local auction house that sold all this stuff on Jan 1. I just wanted to be able to look at it all regularly.  At one point I had all this stuff minus just one or two pieces.  Right now I'm real low on any Depression Glass and especially on this stuff...but I love it!

#1 Good Source of Info About Live Auctions - Walt Kolenda!

There's always omething to learn isn't there?  If we stop learning, we might be like sharks who can't stop swimming or they die. And those who hang around with me regularly know I love auctions. And last year someone "introduced" me to AuctionWally's website and his live online auctions. Well, Here is Wally's new blog MassAuctioneer.

Wally's a long-time auctioneer, and very knowledgeable about antiques and collectibles. He also writes for the Examiner.  And I've learned from him and I htink you can too. So Check him out. !  Follow him on Twitter as @auctionwally

Say Hi to Walt! (and tell him to do a live auction on Bonanzle again soon, they were SOOOO much fun!