Akro Agate Art Association.  – J. Bourque, Box 758 – Salem NH 03079

The Akro Agate Collectors Club -  10 Bailey Street   Clarksburg WV 26301

American Carnival Glass Association – PO Box 235   Littlestown PA 17340

American Cut Glass Assoc. – PO Box 482   Ramona CA 92065

Antique & Art Glass Salt Shaker Collectors Society. Contact: AAGSSCS, 2832 Rapidan Trail, Maitland, FL 32751

Antique Bottle Coll. of N FL, Inc. meets 1st Mon except July & Dec., Faith Lutheran Church, Jacksonville. Contact: E. Biggs 904-786-8487

Antique/Art Glass Salt Shaker Collectors -  1775 Lakeview Drive   Zeeland MI 49464

Blenko Collectors Society -  PO Box 1096 – Kermit WV 25674  Contact Tammy   blenkocollectors@aol.com

Online Blenko Museum

Canadian Depression Glass Association. Contact: Walter Lemiski, 119 Wexford Rd., Brampton, Ontario Can. L6Z 2T5. 905-846-2835; E-mail: cdga@home.com

Collectible Carnival Glass Association - 2360 N. Old S R 9   Columbus IN 47203

Collector of Findlay Glass – PO Box 256  Findlay OH 45839

The Corning Museum of Glass - One Museum Way  Corning NY 14830

Custard Glass Collectors Society – 591 SW Duxbury Avenue  Port St. Lucie, FL 34983

Czechoslovakian Collectors Association (CCA). Contact person Cheryl Goyda, Box 137, Hopeland, PA. 17533 Phone: 717-738-2678, Web site: www.czechcollectors.org<

Early American Glass Club – 2204 East 27th Street, Tulsa OK   estrelle1@cox.net

Early American Pattern Glass Society – PO Box 266  Colesburg IA 52035

European Glass Collectors 

Fairy Lamp Collectors Club – Jim & Pat Sapp, P.O. Box 438, Pine, CO  80470

Fenton Art Glass Collectors – PO Box 384   Williamstown WV 26187

Particular favorites of course are the Royal Doulton, John Beswick Beatrix Potter, which are becoming quite favored among collectors and are sometimes difficult to find as well as being costly in some cases.
You can however find some great deals on Beatrix Potter Figurines, particularly when scouring the realms of glass ware and resellers that are listed on Ebay.

In many cases, the antiques dealers will of course know exactly what they’ve got and what it’s worth, while the individual retailer isn’t always certain.
If you want to be sure whats up with what you’re buying, or selling, pay close attention to the detail of the figurine, as well as to the backstamp, which vary in small details and can make the difference to what the figurine is actually worth.Understanding those backstamps is imperative if you want to collect or sell your Beatrix Potter figurines.The backstamps tend toward complexity in many cases, and the actual figurines may only vary in a minute detail here or there.

Some backstamps are quite rare, having been used only for a couple years, while others are more common, being used for ten more more years.

One, which was used for just two years, 1988 and 1989, is rarely seen and not often listed in the sheets you’re going to find explaining the backstamps. Although the backstamp itself is rare, this doesn’t actually indicate that the figurine is worth substantially  more when it comes to buying and selling.

Some of the backstamps you’re going to see featured on Royal Doulton, Beswick Studios  or Royal Albert Beatrix Potter figurines will be found here..

It’s likely that stretch glass was produced and offered as an alternative and more affordable choice for those that didn’t want to spend massive amounts of money for a Tiffany or Steuben. It was described before as having a “Tiffany finish” according to a 1916 trade journal.

The top U.S. companies in stretch glass production were the Diamond Glass-Ware Company, the United States Glass Company, H. Northwood and Company, Fenton Art Glass Company, and the Imperial Glass Company. Smaller, but no less interesting lines were produced from such companies as Vineland Flint Glass Works, Jeannette Glass Company, Central Glass Works, and Lancaster Glass Company.

Blown into a mold or pressed, stretch glass pieces were not free-blown so no piece has a pontil mark. While still hot, the glass was sprayed with metallic salts before being reheated. The end result was an iridescent effect. Each item was then hand worked using such tools as paddles and crimpers. The glass was then stretched by hand until the proper look was achieved. By applying these methods, the surface of the glass would then appear to have “cobwebs”, “crackled surfaces”, or “onion skin”.

Some pieces had to be reshaped when removed from the molds, but not all. The ones that were not reshaped were fully functional. The pieces that were not reshaped did not have the noticeable “stretch marks”, but did have an iridescent satin finish. Stretch glass pieces have very little pattern to them and cannot be confused with carnival glass. More often than not, the glass is very plain. If one of the pieces has any patterned effect at all, it is usually limited to simple panels, rings, and ribs. Colors are varied in stretch glass.

The most common colors used were blue, yellow, green, and white. These colors were not solid, but transparent and most companies all produced the same colored products. Though not as common, other transparent colors included marigold, pink, teal, cobalt blue, ruby, yellow-orange, green-brown, and purple. Opaque colors were also used at times. Some of the glass was also decorated with painted on images of flowers and human figures.

The value of the glass was determined by supply and demand as well as size, shape, and color. Vases, compotes, plates, and bowls were very common. Some of the harder to find glass pieces being puff boxes, cigarette boxes, pitchers, cigarette holders, and colognes.

The pieces that were done in uncommon shapes or color are also more expensive additions to the collection. As in all collectable pieces, some colors were in larger demand than others. Cobalt blues are always in demand and the red pieces of Imperial or Fenton are always sought after by collectors.

Where common pieces would cost $20 to $30 dollars, the more uncommon pieces done in an uncommon color could be worth hundreds.

Unlike Depression glass, stretch glass was not made in complete dinnerware sets. Tableware was made, but on a very small scale. Luncheon plates, sherbets and liners, and even a few cups and saucers were created. A few companies even went so far as to produce beverage sets consisting of a pitcher and tumblers. Other stretch glass that was made consist of a wide variety of serving pieces. To name a few, there were serving plates, mayonnaise bowls, nut and candy dishes, fruit and sugar bowls, and creamer holders.

Candle holders and floral bowls were also offered in many a different style. Two of the glass companies, Imperial and Diamond, also made a unique collectable that was a combination of a floral bowl and a candle holder. Some of the best stretch glass sellers were both common and unique. The common being a vase and the more uncommon being an entire collection featuring a theme, such as dolphins.

Because glass molds were expensive to have manufactured, companies did their best to create as many different pieces, out of a single mold, as they could. A bowl coming out of a mold could end up with straight sides, or it could be rolled over, flared, pulled into the shape of a vase, or flattened into a plate. To make the piece just a little bit different they could even crimp or flute the edges. They did this to many of the items, including the vases, just so they could make a new and different style without having to spend the money on new molds.

For more information, the Stretch Glass Society offers an informative quarterly newsletter that offers you information on up coming sales, shows, conventions, and meetings. The Society also offers an online detailed website that shows you how certain pieces are made and information on colors and shapes of various glass pieces. As well, the site has a list of books that are helpful to both beginners and long time collectors of stretch glass pieces.

For Society membership information and further details about conventions, please call (904) 471-7703 or visit the web site at http://members.aol.com/stretchgl/

We hope we’ve made you interested enough to take a closer look at stretch glass on your visits to the antiques malls and shows. Stretch glass makes a wonderful addition to any glass collection

 Meissen had successfully kept the secret to themselves for a very long time, but when Muller began experimenting, the ingredients of making fine porcelain were well known, had even been printed, but weren’t avidly being experimented with to make them better.

Müller was attempting to do just that and spent nearly all his free time and most of his money on experiments using a small porcelain kiln.

By mid 1774, Muller wanted investors, but the interest in his experiments and a new porcelain factory was weak, until the Dowager Queen, Juliane Marie ad her son become partners in a new porcelain company, which then thrived.
 Royal Danish Porcelain Manufactory was run by the Royal Family for nearly a century, when in 1868, it passed its way into the hands of the commoners, still keeping that name and the allowed privileged of flying the royal flag.

The mid 1800′s saw new life and new artistry breathed into Royal Copenhagen, and it continued to thrive, supplying high quality goods to households the world over.
For more than two centuries now, Royal Copenhagen has furnished tableware and art, to several continents.

Royal Copenhagen is well known as high quality porcelain, and is collected world wide.
The Royal Copenhagen factory has of course changed marks several times over the course of two centuries, but the current systems is this one:
 
Crown and Royal Copenhagen Denmark in green and three blue wave marks (those actually represent the three straits of Denmark) Beginning in  1935, a green dot was placed over or under one of the letters of the factory name. Every time the dot moves right to the next letter it represents one more year, so that if you have a Royal Copenhagen piece from the time span between 1935 and 1984, you can quite easily figure the exact year of manufacture.

 From 1935 to 1949 the dot appears over the top of one of the letters of Royal Copenhagen.  1950 to 1984  means that the dot appears below one of the letters of Royal Denmark Copenhagen.
The mark used currently for Royal Copenhagen is :

One of the absolutely most fun and amazing thing about collecting china, porcelain or nearly any kind of glassware is the mystery and the hunt to find the things you don’t know about it.

 
The bottom of your new piece of glass will, in nearly every case, offer you some kind of mark or another. These marks, whether they are shapes, numbers or letters will offer you fascinating clues, pieces of the puzzle as to how old your piece is, who made it, what company produced, it, sometimes even what furnace it was fired in, but sometimes even the exact year and the exact employee who made the piece you are holding in your hand.
Marks on your glass hold clues, or entire answers to some wonderful information for those who like knowing what they have, but more, who just like digging for obscure truths.

Some examples of this are:
You purchase a vase at the local garage sale, a large letter H on the bottom tells you that its a Hadley vase. Hadley was considered to be one of the best ceramics workers of the entire 19th century, so having found out that he worked in that time span, and that he also worked for Royal Worcestor, you know something already.
Later in time, his painted rose designs became known as Hadley Roses, for their beautiful soft colors.

His death in 1905 did not stop production of his products, with the molds being purchased by Royal Worcestor, so you aren’t certain when this one was made.

YOu can sort that out by viewing the number of dots that are going around the words Royal Worcestor.

Every dot represents a year.. beginning in 1891, therefore, if you have a piece of glassware from this company, the words Royal Worcestor, with 12 dots around it, will mean that it was produced in 1903
(1891+12=1903)

Nearly every type of glassware that you purchase will give you these kinds of clues. To begin with , start by researching what that single letter may mean, and then move outward from there.

They’ve got another first with their Burmese glass. The process, simplified, is that they add real gold to the glass which gives it a delicate blush and it rapidly became a favorite and remains so more than thirty years later.

Burmese Glass By Fenton

The only company to successfully replicated that formula in more modern days has been Fenton Glass. In 1970 they introduced their Burmese glass and continue to produce it today.

Not highly priced, it is rapidly becoming highly Prized and is among the most popular of Fentons glassware, as well as being among the most beautiful.
The images of Burmese glass seen here, from the Fenton site, will give you ample reason for why the glass is so well received by collectors the world over.
If you’re in the market for something new to collect.. check out Fentons Burmese glass.

The Royal Doulton company began to use its mark in about 1879, and used that mark exclusively, save for speciality products for the span of years up to and including 1902, when it added the words, England, beneath the mark that it had been using.

The mark then used after 1902 was this one:

Most were such tiny changes as the addition of a crown, the inclusion of the words England, or some other thing that doesn’t change the overall scheme of things, however Royal Doulton has also done special marks, as do most companies, for special lines. One such example would be their Bunnykins line of products which are nursery ware, and don’t emulate the other products by using its mark.

The mark used on most Bunnykins products is this one:

Bunnykins Products markings

Every company of the size and quality of Doulton has its special range of products and most of these will have special marks, such as the range of products known as the GreenWood Tree range,  which will also offer a company logo letting you know that it comes from Royal Doulton as well. The GreenTree Range offers this mark,

Royal Doulton marks are distinct in that while they will not always give you the dating of the product, in some cases you can decipher the year that the product was made by doing some calculations.

From around 1879, til about 1902, the company used this backstamp, which was adapted from an earlier Lambeth mark, and uses four interlocking D’s, which was introduced somewhere around 1882. Post 1891, the Doulton Company added the word England below it and continued in that fashion til 1902, when  it was discontinued.

Beginning in 1913, a HN number was used on all products from Royal Doulton. This  number refers to
designer Harry Nixon of Royal Doulton. Harry Nixon was the artist in charge of painting.  A few of theother artists were John Sparkes, George Tinsworth, and Agnete Hoy. The HN numbers were chronological until 1940, and at this time blocks of numbers were assigned to the figurine modelers.
From 1928 to 1954, a small number was placed to the right of the crown on nearly every item that was manufactured. all That number when  added to the year 1927 will give the year of manufacture.
For example, in the figurine seen below, the encircled number (it will not be circled on the product, this was done to call your attention to it) bears the number ten.  1927 + 10 = 37. The figurine was by those calculations,produced in 1937.

 Please do take note however, that the cases of being able to identify the year of production are not always available.

 Dating of many items which were produced by Royal Doulton is not possible, as the factories at that point had no real system of marking things to offer us the year of production. It is possible to ROUGHLY calculate based on:

1902 and later —-"Royal Doulton"
1891 and later —- "England"
1930 and later (a few exceptions) — "Made in England"
The "HN" system of numbering figurines was created by
Harry Nixon and  for the most part, that system is still in use today.
 

In a previous series on China marks we discussed the fact that due to lengthy histories, upheavals or simply the evolution of a company over a century or more, the marks used by the company changed, evolved or grew as the company grew.
A perfect example of this is the Belleek company and its many marks.

Makers of fine porcelain, Belleek had its origins in Ireland in 1857 and continues in business to this day.
In early 1849,  John Caldwell Bloomfield inherited the Castlecaldwell estate, from his father. This estate took in the village of Belleek, and with many of the tenants hungry in the years post the potato famin, Bloomfield sought out a way to give them gainful employment and monetary compensation.

He was an amateur mineralogist, and as such, he decided to order a geo survey of the lands around him, which to his delight offered up the raw materials that it took to make pottery, including  feldspar, kaolin, flint, clay and shale.
 

The village of Belleek,was a wonderful selection to locate the new business since they could also use the power of the river there, to drive a mill wheel to grind their components.

 Bloomfiled took on partners, including  Robert Armstrong who was an architect from London, and David Mc Birney, a Dublin merchant who was quite wealthy. He then nearly singlehandedly pulled the strings that brought the railroad into Belleek.

Next he pulled strings, lobbied and practically paved the way single handedly for the Rail Service to come to Belleek. By rail, coal could be brought in to fire thekilns and the finished Belleek product could be sent to market with ease.
 
 
Although there was labor aplenty where he was, he also knew that the success of the enterprise would depend on skill and experience, with his own people providing the support work, so hewent to England and offered the craftsmen there high wages and a better lifestyle, and when he returned from his trip he brought back 14 craftsmen.
 

Centering their production on high quality domestic ware such as pestles, mortars, washstands, hospital pans, floor tiles, telegraph insulators and tableware they still wanted to make porcelain.Failing at early attempts, until 1863 when a very small quantity of Parian was produced.
 
The company was successful however and by the early parts of 1865 it had established a growing market which sold to England, Ireland, and was reportedly also selling pieces in the growing United States as well as Canada. Orders that brought them greater fame were being taken from such nobility as Queen Victoria and  the Prince of Wales.

Accordingly, the Belleek Mark, as the company itself, has evolved and changed over the years, with more than ten marks being used, as well as special marks for different product ranges or specialty items.

    * The first Belleek mark, used from about 1863 to 1890.
    * The second Belleek Mark, used from 1891-1926.
    * Belleeks third mark,  used for about twenty years,  was used from 1926 through 1946.
    * The fourth Belleek mark was in use for only about nine years, from 1946-1955

 There are multiple other marks which were used in the interim from 1955 to present day, as well as speciality marks, leacing up to the mark which is used today, pictured here. The Belleek company is a prime example of companies whose logos or marks changed over the course of many years, and many changes within the company. This company alone has more than 19 marks including their specialty marks.

As most of you who collect glassware or china know, many of the companies who offer glassware, or have done so in the past, also offer a way to identify that glassware by virtue of their own particular marking on the glassware.

Some of the more famous ones are easily recognized by any glass user, while others are a bit less readily identified and take a little research to uncover.

A few of the more obscure ones of course are from companies which remained in business for a very short time, while others have evolved over the years, moving from one to another as the company underwent changes, sales or other upheavals across eons or even centuries.

China and glass companies as well as other manufacturers, including those  who existed only in the short term usually have their own specific mark that appears somewhere on their product. Some of them are so little seen that we aren’t even certain yet what companies they represent.

Finding a mark on a glass product that you have not previously seen is like a small mystery to a glass collector and most of us won’t rest until we know what, or who, it represents. Many are very well known, and easily linked to companies, while others take a lot of digging to uncover.

Some of the examples of  glass marks you may see which are more or less obscure and will help you to identify the company who made your glass product  are:

Oil City Glass Works–just a few miles from my home town in Pennsylvania, this glass company was in business for a relatively short time, about 15 to 17 years. (1952-1969) The mark resembles an oil derrick, which is symbolic of the area where the company is housed.

Olean Glass mark, from Olean New York, the OG may be encircled or without it. The G is not always clear and sometimes appears more like a C than it does the G that it should be

The well known Ball Glass Company mark, used on Ball canning jars,  originally began its life as the Ball Bros Manufacturing Company/Ball Bros Glass Company until 1969 when it became Ball Glass. It is located in Muncie,Indiana, but was originally located in Buffalo, NY  until about 1888. Best known for their manufacture of fruit and canning jars, Ball has also made a wide array of other products during their lifetime.

This very well known mark is symbolic of the Anchor Hocking glass company, from Lancaster, OH (as well as other factory locations) the company has been in existence since the late 1930′s. Reportedly this particular mark was no longer used after 1975 or 1976, I have personally seen it on Anchor glass products so I’m not quite sure what to make of that.
In the early 1980′s a new corporation was formed known as  Anchor Glass Container Corp, which has it’s own particular logo.

The quite well known mark of the Federal Glass Company. The mark is simply an F inside a shield. Federal Glass Company,which originated in Columbus, OH and operated from 1900 through 1980, began use of this mark in 1930. They made a huge array of table serving glass, drinking glasses, and were very well known and collected. Particularly interesting to collectors is their depression glass.

Sought by collectors today and highly prized, the Limoges region produced Limoges Porcelain in several factories from the 1700′s through the mid 1930′s prior to the change in economic factors that also saw changes in Limoges from the very ornate china that we know as Limoges to a more basic and simple home type tableware that is produced today.

At one point in history, most notably the 1920′s as many as 45 companies situated in the Limoge region were making tableware that was marked Limoges, according to Mary Frank Gaston, an expert in the China field.
Some LImoges was sent out blank, to be used for china painting, which was a huge hobby earlier in the last century, and many pieces of plain white Limoges which are hand painted were not made so by the factory but rather, eager home makers or art students.

Haviland, one of the more popular companies to produce Limoges is often time the preferred one of collectors, who will sometimes completely ignore all of the other factories, which is a great mistake in that some of them are very rare and also very valuable.

To Learn more about Limoges and how it is made and collected,

pay a visit to the Limoges Antiques Site

A china, or pottery mark, is very much like a fingerprint is to a human. A means of identifying and letting the purchaser or owner know when and by whom their china or pottery was made.

The porcelain mark serves us as evidence of the maker, the origin, age and in many cases the quality of a piece of porcelain or pottery, and is in most cases the first thing that will be viewed and checked prior to the purchase of an item whether that item is newly produced or is an antique.

To the Porcelain or china maker, their own mark is also a symbol of pride, in their craftsmanship, and will often inspire confidence and loyalty in the buyer.

Most porcelain marks on fine china, such as the Meissen marks of the crossed swords, or the Limoges marks, are what are known as under glazed, which is to say they were applied to the piece of porcelain prior to the firing, or curing of the china.

For about the first hundred years of production, there were only two pigment colors that could take the high heat that firing produced and so the colors of the older porcelain marks will usually be either cobalt blue or iron red, the two colors that could remain even under the high heat.

Cobalt blue was the more popular color of the two so it is the most often seen in older porcelain marks. There is one big exception to this, which is in Dresden porcelain, which was present in the latter part of the 19th century. The Dresden decorators covered the porcelain marks with a gold glaze, and then applied their own above-glaze mark; usually a blue crown.

In many cases a piece of china will have two marks, applied in this fashion, one beneath the glaze, indicating the factory that produced the blank, and the second above the glaze indicating the decorator. Much of the Haviland for example, has the green underglaze mark “Haviland France,” and the red decorators stamp: “Haviland & Co. Limoges.” In this case, the china bears two marks even though the pieces were produced in different parts of the same factory.

China marks today are many and diverse and are used to show the year, the original and the type of china that is the piece you are holding.

In many cases, porcelain marks are difficult to find, if they are much older in nature and require some vast research to find the age, origin and value of a piece.

To research them more fully, there are several books as well as the following sites which can help you in finding your own china mark.