How to Authenticate Fenton Glass

Check to see if there is a sticker. Fenton used stickers to mark their products for many years, particularly before 1970. Over time, the sticker is often removed from the piece through everyday handling. Sometimes you can get lucky, though, and find a piece that has been handled carefully enough to have the sticker still intact.

Examine the bottom of the piece, if you cannot find a sticker. If it was a piece made before 1970, look for the absence of a pontil mark. A pontil mark is where the punty rod was detached from the glass as it was cooling. It can be a polished dimple, a chipped-looking section or a lumpy bump that isn't very attractive. Fenton -- in almost every production -- used snap rings to hold the base of the glass to the rod for a clean break, without a pontil mark, and will be relatively smooth. If your piece is made after 1970, then it will have a clear molded mark that reads "Fenton." It may be very faint as, after they were molded, many pieces were re-heated in other processes that caused the mark to fade.

Identify the piece through a catalog of Fenton glass. Fenton glass has a great deal of publications concerning its different lines over the years. You can also do an image search online typing in "Fenton Glass" to locate an image of your particular piece or to narrow down its date of manufacture. This is the best way to authenticate Fenton.

Narrow down the date of the glass by identifying the type of glass you have: Carnival glass, the red, amber and purple, dark, iridescent glass that usually features an ornate grape design, dated from 1907 to1926; stretch glass dates from 1970 to present; the acid-etched-satin patterns, with their clear patterned glass, ranged through the mid to late '30s and generally are mistaken for Depression glass. Their famous and easily identifiable hobnail, with its distinctive, raised, white-dotted pattern, dates from 1940 to present. Crests, with its ruffled-edged design, range from 1939 to present. Overlay, with its technique of overlaying a different-colored, opaque glass over clear colors are from 1939 to present and usually range in colors from plum to pink with white, opaque overlays.