CAL HACKEMAN, SGS PRESIDENT, AS GUEST EDITOR –HOOKED ON CARNIVAL

JANUARY 17, 2016 PRESENTATION:  STRETCH GLASS – Handled Items

Cal here. It’s Sunday night and tomorrow is a holiday.  All over America we will be celebrating the contributions and memories of Martin Luther King.  He was a great man and a great leader who knew how to get things done.  We have come a long way on the road to equal rights for all, but we still have inequalities in this great nation.  Let’s hope we continue to break down barriers and open doors for all of our citizens. 

Speaking of opening doors, tonight we will be looking at stretch glass with handles – pitchers, tumblers, mugs, sugars and creamers, and guest sets.  I don’t know about you, but most of my handled stretch glass is behind closed doors in cabinets and it is not “handled” very often!  Some handles on stretch glass are “in the mold” but many of the handles were “applied” after the item was iridized and shaped.  Typically the molded handles are going to be the same color as the pitcher or mug but the applied handles were often cobalt blue glass.  We also find applied handles in colors which match the color of the glass – Velva Rose, Tangerine, Florentine Green, even Crystal.  One interesting note is that all Velva Rose stretch glass has pink handles – to my knowledge there is not known a pitcher, mug, sugar or creamer with a cobalt blue handle.  Do you have one?  If so, I would love to see a picture of it. 

As we take a look at some handled items note that some have rib optics or diamond optics while others are plain.  The rib and diamond optics were created during the molding process and create a beautiful design in the glass.  Also, keep in mind that vases were often made in the same molds as pitchers – only the finishing was different.  I’ve included a photo of a Northwood vase made from the same mold as the Northwood guest set. 

 

Hi Carl and Eunice.  Thanks so much for sharing the five old punch cups.  Old Fenton punch cups are scarce at best.  Most stretch collectors struggle to put together a set of 8 or 12 in one color.  I am aware of such sets in Celeste Blue and Florentine Green.  I believe a number of Persian Pearl punch cups have also been assembled by one collector.  Beyond these, I am not even aware of another Ruby or Grecian Gold punch cup; that doesn’t mean there aren’t others, but I believe them to be extremely rare.  Wonderful to see the old ones in these colors. 

The cigarette boxes are also hard items to find.  They come plain, wheel cut and with painted decoration.  Your boxes are very nice and great pieces of stretch to have in your collection.  The cigarette boxes compliment the round and oval cigarette holders and the ashtrays.  All of these are pretty hard to find, especially the ashtrays with all 4 inserts intact.  Here are some pics of these other smoking items.

The pen holders (or toothpicks) typically are flared at the top.  I’ve seen one that is not flared at all and I have seen one that has 4 flares, rather than the usual smooth round flared top.  Both of these unusual pen holders are in Wisteria.  We are always interested in learning about other unusual ones or ones in other than Wisteria, Celeste Blue or Florentine Green. 

I’m glad you are enjoying the photos and information.  There is so much to share about stretch glass that we are only scratching the surface this week. 

 

Barb, you are correct that your Topaz stretch chop plate is by Northwood.  While not much vintage stretch glass is marked, the small circle in the middle of your plate is an indication that it was made by Northwood.  We find this small circle in some bowls, some plates and even on some of the Northwood black bases.  The other plate you have looks to me to be Imperial’s “Green Ice” or Teal color.  One interesting note on the Imperial plates is that some have a large center and others have a small center (your plate has the small center).  Here is a photo of one with the large center – fully large enough to allow the base of a bowl to fit in the center nicely. 

Thanks for the info on the ICGA Convention; I’m sure there will be other stretch glass there as well. 

 

Lance, you have two rare, maybe unique, pieces of stretch glass.  I am not aware of others like the two you shared with us.  The amethyst one is stunning – we don’t see much Amethyst stretch glass from Northwood and this has to be a true rarity.  The Topaz Fenton bowl is also a very unusual shape.  I haven’t seen another one with this treatment but maybe one of our other stretch collectors have.  The same mold used to make the basic shape from which the Topaz bowl was made was also used to make several other shapes.  Here are some of them.  There is at least one more shape which I will find and post in the next couple of days. 

 

Hi Tony – the heart handled server is by Imperial.  When these servers are cupped, as yours is, they are referred to as fruit bowls or nut servers; the flat ones are center handled servers, sometimes also referred to as “Sandwich” or “Cookie” servers.  The one you have also has the decal decoration which we find on some of the Imperial stretch glass.  The decals are put on after the iridizing so they are on top of the glass and consequently they can be scrubbed off if these pieces are washed too many times.  I believe the color is “Iris Ice.”

The chop plate is probably by Fenton.  I could be more certain if I could see pictures of the base as well as a side view showing the slope of the plate to the base.  The dimension is right for a Fenton plate, so I’m going to say I believe it is Fenton.  It is hard to tell the color from your photo – it looks either to be Topaz or Florentine Green which would again support the ID as Fenton. 

 

Thanks Sandy and Bob for sharing the photos of the two Imperial Double Scroll console sets.  The one with the swirl treatment is quite unusual – this one may be considered more Carnival glass than Stretch glass, but either way, it is nice to see one with the swirl treatment in both the bowl and the candlesticks.  The Ruby one is a set that is very popular with stretch glass collectors.  Almost all of the candlesticks that I see have the Amberina coloring with the bases more yellow than red.  I suspect this has to do with how the candlesticks were held when they were re-heated.  If the bases were not re-heated, then the glass would not turn red but would instead remain yellow.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your stretch glass.  I’m seeing some items that I didn’t even know existed and that is pretty cool.  Speaking of pretty cool, the temperature was 40 degrees when I got in last night here in the suburbs of Washington, DC, and I understand tomorrow is going to be a very chilly day.  I hope it is more pleasant wherever you are.

 

From: Steve G.

Greeting to all,

A big thank you to all who sent me pictures for my article on all the vintage carnival glass grape patterns. The article is now finished and should be on the Great Lakes carnival glass club web site soon. It is amazing the number of patterns that feature grapes or some part of the vine.

Steve G.

 

To: all

From: Mark

Hello to everyone, we hope you are enjoying the Grape Articles and even learning a thing or two. The second part is now up on the Great Lakes website at www.greatlakescgc.com. They are written by one of our members, Steve G. He has put a lot of time and effort into these articles, there will be more to come. Thank you and we hope you enjoy them.