Colored Glass Gift Pieces

 

 

I am sure that we all have those cute little pieces that were given as gifts on special occasions many years ago. Ultimately classified as worthless, these unstamped pieces were probably given to the thrift store where the glass part was separated from the metal holder. Fortunately for me, my mother held on to her pieces and so I have the full item. I will spend another blog on the metal holders and their properties. Today is just about the glass.

 

 



Many of the decorative pieces are early pieces, based on the glass identification and history. I have ton's of books that I reference and I will list their titles at the end of my blog today. You can easily find them on eBay or Amazon. I use these references to date the glass piece, hence the Rodney Kent holder. Above is the candy dish, a perfect red glass bowl sitting in the holder with a handle and an open flower (the rose shaped metal that is usually shaped as the finial on the lids of the more recognizable Rodney Kent pieces) used as feet. The glass bowl meets all the specifications of a dessert bowl in the  Anchor Hocking Royal Ruby line, produced 1938 - 1967 and then reintroduced in 1973 - 1977. Identified as the 4 1/4"  round fruit bowl, the dinnerware piece  that was so popular in the 40'sis interchangeable with the piece shown above.

 

 

This was another gift item, a candy dish with lid that used the same Ruby Red fruit bowl from the Anchor Hocking line. It, too,  had the flower pedestal. You will note that the tulip on the lid used as a finial on the right is different than the one on the left. I believe that the reason is because they were produced years apart. When I review my collection I have noticed that the older the items is (based on my research), the more detail and quality there is. The same detail that you see on the finial is also found on the footing when the flower is open. .

 

This lovely item was recently purchased from a lady in Florida through eBay. She told me that she originally acquired it years ago in its original box so I knew that the glass globe was the original.  It was up for sale for quite a while. When I see something that is new and I am not sure if it is really Rodney Kent, I usually just bookmark it. Then in my travels I found other holders with the wire handle, which is not characteristic of the Kent line. My final piece of research told me about the glass. This is exactly the right size (4  3/4" in diameter) for what was advertised by Anchor Hocking  as a "Moskeeto -Lite" These small globe shaped jars held a citronella candle and when emptied could be used as an "ivy vase". While my research has not turned up a maker, Helen Atlas Glass company produced a lot of cobalt glass. There is no mark on the glass, so I am still looking.

 

 

 

My last find of this blog is a piece Rodney Kent #463. The piece that I own is shown in Azur-ite Blue from the "Charm" collection of Anchor Hocking produced from 1950 - 1954.

 

 

This candy dish has the 4 3/4" dessert bowl  as its glass holder. Azur-ite  was marketed with the more familiar Jade-ite, as well as  Royal Ruby and Forrest Green in the "Charm" line. All were copyrighted colors of the Anchor Hocking Company. Azur-ite, Jade-Ite and Milk White glass colors were Fire King glass, a borosilicate glass that melts at a higher temperature than regular soda lime glass. I have also seen this piece sold with the Royal ruby bowl and the Forrest green, but it is hard to tell if some other wise dealer/collector knew enough to figure out what line the missing glassware could have come from and replaced it, himself. The Azur-ite color is by far the most prevalent and the only one that I feel confident in saying was original.

 

 

 

Just to review two previous blog pieces are butter dishes, obviously from the 1950's. Both have Milk White butter dish plates. I own #418 and the bottom is definitely stamped FireKing. I recently saw a butter dish in Jade-ite for sale on eBay, but I am not sure that it is an original color as the butter dish was used by Anchor Hocking in other glass butter dish designs and I am pretty sure this is marriage, not an originally purchased unit..

 

 

My reference books:

• Anchor Hocking Catalogs: 1940 - present, Phillip Hopper, 2003, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Anchor Hocking's Fire King and More,  Gene Florence, 1998, Collector Books, Paducah, Ky.
• Collectible Glassware from the 40's, 50's, and 60's, 10th ed.,  Cathy and Gene Florence, 2010, Collector Books, Paducah, Ky.
• Pyrex the Unauthorized Collector's Guide, Barbara E. Mauzy, 4th ed. revised, 2008, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Mauzy's Rare, Unusual and Unique Depression Glass, Barbara  & Jim Mauzy, 2008, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Collector's Encyclopedia of Depression Glass, 18th ed., Gene & Cathy Florence, 2008, Collector Books, Paducah, Ky.
• Depression Glass A collector's Guide, 7th ed., Doris Yeske, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Fostoria Serving the American Table 1887 - 1986, Leslie Pina, 1995, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.
• Mauzy's Kitchen Glass, Barbara  & Jim Mauzy, 2004, Schiffer  Publishing Ltd, Atglen, Pa.