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. 

Rodney Kent and Glass: Pyrex, Fire King, Federal, et al

Recently I have begun to research the glassware that has been used in Rodney Kent. They purchased from several companies. There are more collectors of the glassware than there are of Rodney Kent aluminum, so I have tried to use the glassware to figure out and approximate time for manufacture of Rodney Kent. So here is my first dilemma.

In a previous blog, I posted a page from a wholesaler's catalog. It had a drawing of a cruet set. Shortly after that the metal holder went up on eBay. Alas, the glassware was not with it. the advertisement had the specifications and a clear drawing of the glass cruet. So I scoured various venues for cruet servers. With my  possibilities reviewed I settled on two with the exact same profiles, but they are both 5 3/8" tall and the wholesale ad say 6 3/4" None of the cruet jars  that were this shape were that height. But this is my find.

 

So now I am wondering if Anchor Hocking or Pyrex, but especially Pyrex made cruet jars with this exact handle shape and body profile. What I have here is Hazel Atlas on the right and Hocking?? Glass on the left. Shape is correct. Height is not what the ad says. I would love some input.

I have got my hands on many collectors books...... Depression Glass, Fire King, Kitchen glass of the 30's and 40's, and so on. I have seen nothing that helps me in this category. Now I am waiting for a Fostoria glass book. So we will see.

On the bright side, the butter dish has an identifiable maker.

 

 

This glass butter holder is produced by Federal Glass. Federal makes a full butter dish, which you can occasionally find online and this is used as a lid. It is not to be confused this the  "Criss Cross" pattern sold by Hazel Atlas. Below is the full federal glass butter dish.

 

Notice the three triple rib bars

 

 

and here is the Hazel Atlas butter dish.

 

So for at least one glass item, the mystery is solved. But one more look at a bowl that is identifiable but that I have never seen in books. The Pyrex bowl 592 with the concentric circle bottom. At first glance you might think that it is a Fire King "Manhattan" bowl or the later "Park Avenue", but is it distinctly marked Pyrex.

 

 

So this is my last entry for the night. Again, you can see this on the wholesale catalog page that I previously posted. I believe that this may be item #417, but I am not sure. Something to think about for tonight.

 



The bidding war I lost

I was browsing through eBay looking at butter dishes when I found a surprise. It didn't say Rodney Kent, but is had all the signs and I knew it. I wasn't the only one. I bid against this person right to the 2 minute mark.... but it's hard to bid when you are working in a retail environment. I lost. A new person sniped me at the last minute and won the prize for $50.50.

I never doubted that this was a true Rodney Kent and not a mismatch because I already own a butter dish with a milk glass base, in it's original box with the original hangtag still attached. The milk glass base is from Fire King. The lid isn't quite as hammered as the rest of the collection. The seller, willy5269 of  Lancaster, Ohio., tells me that he found this at an estate sale. Look him up on eBay.

 

 This is my find from earlier the summer of 2013. The butter dish was acquired by the seller from the purchase of an old general store. They bought the entire stock and found this. It's still marked with the original price of $2.50 which is consistent with the catalog page that I printed in my last blog.

 

 

This brings me to the topic that I will be writing about. Glass --- Fire King ( Anchor Hocking Glass Co.) is one of many resources that Krischer glass tapped when searching for liners for casseroles or other decorative glass. Pyrex and Fire King, as well as Fostoria and Indiana Glass Co. all produced items the are better documented than Rodney Kent. It is through this type of forensic research that I am able to date production of the Kent pieces. My guess is that both of these butter dishes are late 1950's, but I don't have corroborated proof. I do know a lot from the Pyrex liners and the tab handles that were produced up until a limited time. But more about that the next time.