Hobbies And Interests
Blown and Art Glass
Blown glass, using molten (liquid) glass and a blowing tube, is a manufacturing method that dates back centuries. While the exact date of discovery of the technique is unknown, archaeological digs indicate blown glass was made between 27 B.C. and 14 A.D. in Babylon. Since the Romans adopted the technique, blown glass pieces have been seen in many cultures. Vintage blown glass collecting focuses on paperweights, art objects and drinking goblets. "Art glass" is a term collectors use to distinguish handmade pieces from machine-made glass. Tiffany, Pilgrim, Kanawha and Viking are just a few historical manufacturers of vintage art glass.
Glass Technology
European glass making techniques, first employed in Venice in the Middle Ages, were adapted in France and England in the 17th century. A series of pragmatic 19th-century German inventions by Otto Schott and Ernst Abbe (an owner of the Zeiss company, known for camera lenses) and Friedrich Siemens allowed glass to be mass-produced at an affordable price. These inventors identified optimum temperatures for melting glass and designed a furnace that produced thousands of glass pieces at one time. After World War I, American Michael Owens introduced a glass blowing invention, the suction blow machine, that revolutionized the glass industry. This machine was modified in 1923 to include a gob feeder, and again in 1925 to incorporate an individual section (IS). These machines created much of the glass that is now collected today under the term "vintage."
Lead Crystal Glass
Vintage glass collecting includes objects made from lead crystal. The first use of this manufacturing process that uses lead oxide and quartz sand is credited to English inventor George Ravenscroft in 1674. Lead crystal collectors focus on brilliant glass, engraved glass and cut glass, which were extremely popular while they were being crafted. The engraving and cutting were all done by hand. Modern collectors also look for later substitute glass designs that mimicked cut crystal in the molded designs.
Pressed and Sandwich Glass
"Pressed" glass is highly sought after by many vintage glass collectors. The term refers to the handmade molded, or pressed, glass process. Both the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company and the Bakewell, Page and Bakewell Company introduced this process in the United States in 1825. Early specimens of this glassware command high prices at auction, even though they were manufactured at the time as an inexpensive alternative to leaded and imported glassware. Twentieth century pressed glassware was manufactured using molded and pressed machine processes, and even though there is an abundant supply of this newer glassware, it is also highly prized by many collectors.
Depression Glass
To meet the great demand for glassware in the 19th century, E.D.L. Libbey, proprietor of Ohio's Libbey Glass Corporation, used a new technology that injected liquid glass into a blowing machine to create multiple shapes. Vintage glassware created using this type of machine was blown within the molded shape. "Depression" glass, a highly popular name among collectors, refers not to the period from the 1920s through the early 1940s during which the glass was made in volume, but for this general type of injected production used to create the glass. Machine-made, mass-produced Depression glass included copies of early Sandwich patterns.