Although most snow globes have winter and Christmas themes, there are also non-Christmas snow globes available for those who want this fun accessory to display all year around. They are frequently tourist souvenirs, showing the iconic buildings or natural features of a particular place. Other non-Christmas globes feature sentiments like “I Love You” or “Happy Birthday” and can be found in gift stores and card shops.

Snow globes with college and university logos or mascots can be found at collegiate stores near campuses or online. Souvenir snow globes can be found at such prosaic venues as grocery stores, drug stores and museum gift shops. The “snow” in these globes, called flitter, may be the usual white flakes, or it can be glitter or any other appropriately dense granular material.

Sometimes the non-Christmas water globes come with music boxes built in. This can be especially true for souvenir globes from places with recognizable themes songs, like Chicago and New York. Other non-Christmas globes with underwater scenes may have appropriate music installed. That Happy Birthday globe may play The Birthday Song. Musicals on Broadway engender water globes with popular songs and appropriate scenes from the play as water globes as well.

Keep a look out, and you will begin to see these non-Christmas snow globes more ofter than you think. You might even begin a new collection. I’m thinking about starting one myself.

The images on this post are from Stock Xchnge.

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One auxiliary collection for a glass collection is one of stamps. Stamps depicting glass may be tied to the glass maker, like Louis Comfort Tiffany, or show examples of ancient glass. Collecting all the stamps with glass on them would be much like a continuing history lesson of glass making from its beginnings. And looking for these stamps makes for a very good geography lesson as well.

To find stamps with glass connections requires a stroll though the various volumes of the Scott’s Catalog of Stamps. Usually available at your local library, one need only page through the volumes, paper or electronic, looking for stamps with glass connections. Creating a list of the country and Scott’s numbers is the first step for making such a topical stamp collection. Note also the Scott’s price, and the price you pay for the stamps will have some relation to the Scott’s price, and not necessarily at full price.

Once you have some stamps on your want list, work with local or mail=order stamp dealers to purchase the stamps you want. You may find some that are too peripheral or too expensive for your tastes, but keep the information in case you change your mind later abou8t including those stamps. You can save the expensive ones as special presents or for work bonuses.

Once you start getting in your stamps, you will need a binder with appropriate pages for holding your stamps. Make sure to follow your dealer’s advice about acid and PET-free stamp pages and binder to protect your monetary investment. You can arrange the stamps in whatever way pleases you, but keep the information of which sets your own as well as the ones you are still looking for, for future reference.

Nearly every hobby shows up on stamps, both US and internationally, at some point or other, so look for the stamps that illustrate your special interests and start a topical stamp collection. Easy to store and arrange, stamps can provide hours of fun as you search for and purchase glass on stamps.

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Cameo glass is made by layering different colors of glass around each other, then wearing away the upper layers to revel the inner ones. Vessels with up to six layers of glass have been successfully made this way. The wearing away of the upper layers may be in part down using acid, but the final finishing is usually does by hand using hand tools or copper carving wheels. The process is time consuming, requires great skill, but results in beautiful three-dimensional decorations on the fluid shapes glass so readily takes.

La collection Daum (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy) © by dalbera

Daum of Nancy, France, was one of the most successful producers of cameo glass at the end of the Nineteenth Century. The natural motifs of Art Nouveau were especially suited to this form of glass. Daum still produces glass in this technique, as well as the crystal clear products the company is famous for.

Emile Galle (1846-1904) was another successful glass designer using the cameo glass technique.

La main aux algues et aux coquillages (Emile Gallé) © by dalbera

This work is rather unusual in it depicts the human hand. His works are found in museums and fine glass collections world-wide.

Cameo glass was first produced in the ancient world. The technique was lost and found several times, most recently in the mid-Nineteenth Century. John Northwood was able to reproduce the Portland Vase, from First Century Rome, and the flourishing of cameo glass is England followed. French glass designers followed suit, and there are many fine examples of turn-of-the-century cameo glass both in and out of museums.

Vase du Emile Gallé © by dalbera

More recently, while Daum still produces cameo glass, American glass makers have also taken up the challenge. Fenton makes a number of vases and lamps in cameo glass, and the Pilgrim Glass Company made some vases and bowls between the 1980′s and it closing in 2001. There is also some new cameo glass described as Bayel of France that seems to come from the Royal Champagne Crystal Work located in Bayel, Champagne, France. More about this production may be forthcoming.

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The great and famous crystal companies make special Christmas ornaments every year, many of which are inscribed with the only year they will be made. Among these ornament and companies, this year, 2011, there are:

Baccarat

Baccarat has two new ornaments specifically for 2011, Jingle Bells and a Fir Tree.

Lenox

Lenox’s crystal ornaments for 2011 is a pair of First Christmas Toasting Flutes.

Kosta Boda

Kosta Boda has a new cute Noel Santa Claus standing ornament for 2011.

Lalique

Lalique’s addition to their ornament series for 2011 is “Masque de Femme” in red.

Orrefors

Orrefors has an unusually shaped Holly Heart ornaments for 2011.

Cash’s Crystal

Cash’s Celtic Shamrock ornament and Celtic Snowflake ball ornament are new for 2011 and inscribed with the year.

Swarovski

Swarovski has a number of special ornaments for 2011, some of which are additions to continuing series. There is a Large Crystal Star, a Little Snowflake/Star ornament, Santa’s hat in red and clear, a Christmas Cookie Wreath, a Christmas Tree, an Angel, a Star ornament, a Kris Bear with a green Christmas tree, a Wishing star, and a cow in a Santa Suit titled Santa Mo or Moo.

Waterford

Finally, Waterford has a wide array of annual Christmas ornaments to choose from, including: an annual angel, a beautiful ruby cased ball, an ornaments titled Twas the Night Before Christmas with flying reindeer, sleigh and Santa Claus, Christmas Wonders which is a Teddy Bear, Snowflake Wishes for Joy, Lismore toasting Flutes ornament, an annual seahorse (Company Logo) ornament. The company also has a set of train car ornaments, including an Engine, Coal Car, Box Car and Caboose, which can be purchased together as a set or individually. The crystal 12 Days of Christmas is the Five Gold Rings for 2011. There is also a Shamrock, a Cross, a Christmas Tree, a Commitment ornament, a Fleur de Lis, a Snowstar and a Snow Crystal Pierced ornament for this year.

To commemorate special occasions, Waterford has a Our New Home ornament which is a Christmas tree and snowman beside front door, an Our First Christmas ornament and Baby’s First ornament, a crystal baby bottle with silver nipple.

Waterford also honors Jim O’Leary with a Lismore ornament, and a Snow Crystals ornament.

For the New Year, Waterford has a Times Square for 2012 ball titled “Let There Be Friendship” and a disk ornament titled “Let There Be Love.”

Marquis, a line made by Waterford, includes an Annual Snowflake, a red train engine, Baby’s First Christmas of a Teddy Bear, a snowman, an Our First Christmas ornament with a heart and a blown glass ornament of blue bells. They also have an annual ball ornament, and a blown glass baby rattle for Baby’s First Christmas.

Crystal is a lovely way to make Christmas ornaments that will pick up the electric lights in their vicinity and spread it around, so there are many crystal and glass ornaments available every year. These are just those made specifically for the year 2011. Looking online or at Christmas stores, you can see the full range of glass and crystal ornaments for sale this year.

See some of these 2011 ornaments.

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Wistarberg glass refers to Casper and Richard Wistar, father and son, and a glass house near Salem in West Jersey from 1740 to at least 1780. The glass house made crude window glass and much better glass bowls and pitchers for the local trade. The difficulty in keeping bonded workmen at the glass house and the Revolutionary War led to the disposal of the glass house and adjacent property in 1780.

Wistarberg glass, where it can definitively be identified as such, is truly Early American or Colonial glass. Early in the Twentieth Century, the drive to collect such glass led to the identification of a lot of glass of the same style and wear as Wistarberg, but those attributions must be taken with a grain of salt. At the time of manufacture, given the technology available, most of the glass looks a lot alike. There are only so many things one can do to the form and decoration of glass, and any popular form or fashion was quickly copied by other glass houses. The collecting of Wistarberg is fraught with peril for the average glass aficionado.

That being said, there are many examples of South Jersey glass from that and later periods to see seen in museums, and which can be reproduced today, with care to identify it as such. The Early American forms are fairly plain, letting the beauty of the glass speak for itself. The colors are strong, in many cases, with simple applies feed and handles. They show the best of the glass makers art in that the simple forms are beautiful with little or no decoration.

For anyone collecting glass, the occasion to see and be near Wistarberg glass must be exciting, but do not let that excitement overpower your critical senses or budgetary limits to acquire this glass. As stated, glass of the era was easily replicated, as the skills to make it arose in each generation of glass workers until the modern machinery made hand blowing and forming glass into a studio movement. The glass of today, with its more sophisticated formulas and controls, is unlikely to produce a similar glass without considerable work, so new Wistarberg glass is not a likely as Nineteenth Century examples.

To collect Early American glass, one must become an expert in the glass properties and manufacturing techniques of the times. Then, after studying those pieces of early South Jersey glass in museums, one can begin to try to separate the real old glass from later examples from the same area of manufacture. This can be done, no doubt, given time and effort, and could lead to the establishment of an extraordinary glass collection, but one that is far beyond the scope of this site. If you decide to give it a try, best wishes to you.

New Jersey has been the home to glass manufacturing for centuries now, and much fine glass is still made there today. To see this glass, a vacation trip to the area would be most beneficial. I’ll meet you there.

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Once used on the tables of the well to do and regular people, knife rests are not common today. However, there are some beautiful glass knife rests available on the secondary market. and they make wonderful collectibles and great conversions starters.

Antique Knife Rests

Glass knife rests are an easy collection to start. Ask in most antique stores and there will be one or two you can look at. The cut glass ones sparkle with the best of this form of glass, and this is a collectibles you can use as well. Sometimes an entire set in the original packaging is available. Look for older sets at estate sales as well.

New Knife Rests

New knife rests are sold in sets of six or eight, and are still made today. These may be fancy, like the cut glass ones of old, or relatively plain in shape but in various colors, so each place has a special knife rest. Knife rests today are also made from several metals, including sterling and silver plate, as well as pewter, and they are made from other materials as well.

Use of Knife Rests

Knife rests are and were used where the table setting of flatware has only one knife for the entire meal. As food course follows course, the knife is placed on the rest when the previous plate is leaving the table and the next course is coming out of the kitchen. Say, between the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding main dish and the fruit and cheese dessert plate. Whether the meal is served on a bare table top, place mats or linen tablecloth, no householder wants the remains of any course on the table when the meal is complete. Hence, the knife rest.

Older versions may be combined with a napkin ring or an open salt dip, but most are single function items. Many are long enough, or have two flat places, so the fork can be saved for the next course as well as the knife. Carving sets also frequently have knife rests, which can also have a place to rest the carving fork when not in use.

Chopstick Rests

Chopstick rests are a version of the knife rest from a different eating utensil tradition, showing that the concern for reusing the eating utensils while not making a mess on the table is relatively universal. Chopstick rests have the same advantages as knife rests as a collectible, but the sets will come in odd numbers, usually five, as odd numbers are luckier in the East. Most chopstick rests are made from china.

Chopstick rests are frequently in the form of animals or food items, and are rarely larger than an inch and a half or two inches. Knife rests are generally from two to four inches long. Both versions of this utilitarian items rest securely on the table, as there is no point in having a knife rest that wobbles and dumps the eating apparatus onto the tablecloth after all the effort of making and having a rest to prevent that very thing.

See knife rests.

Learn More

Many antique and collectibles books may have a section on knife rests, or list knife rests among other glass and porcelain table items, but for pictures of many knife rests, see Knife Rests by Virginia L. Neas, Glassy Mountain Press, Pickens, South Carolina, 1987.

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And now to one of the major forms of glass collectible: depression glass. This glass, made from the early 1920′s to as late as 1970′s, is colorful and and comes in many patterns, made by a dozen and half major glass makers and any number of minor glass houses. Wikipedia lists one hundred twenty-four patterns, while one book I have lists ninety-five patterns, of which eighteen are different from the Wikipedia list. Thus, it becomes apparent that the definition of depression glass and the patterns included depends on who you ask.

Northwood #657 Candlesticks © by OnTask

Beautiful Color

What doesn’t change is the beauty of this glass. The early years produced glass with rich colors, which later became lighter, but which allow the molded pattern to show more effectively. And a great deal of the glass items of this time and manufacturing method are made of clear glass. Effectively, depression glass picks up where pattern glass left off: dinner sets with many serving and individual place setting pieces, as well as matching drink-ware and decorative pieces, like vases and candlesticks.

Depression glass commonly is found in clear, also called crystal, pink, pale green, pale blue and pale yellow. Less common but especially beautiful are pieces in transparent yellow, ultra-marine blue, cobalt blue, red and amethyst. Milk glass, and colored milk glass in green, called jadeite, and pale blue, called delphite can also be found in depression glass. Finally, some depression glass is made of black or ebony glass. Some pieces may be found with an opalescent or iridescent finish added.

Depression Glass Juicer © by James~Quinn

Deciding What to Collect

The volume of glass involved means a collector must choose a company, pattern, color or type of glass to collect. Or a collector can try to get one or more pieces of a pattern in all colors available. One must, however, beware, or welcome, reproductions, and therefore, knowing the about the glass forms and the quality of the glass, you must be able to tell the difference between new and older glass. Until then, be conservative with your monetary resources, or deal with people that will give you a full refund if you are dissatisfied with any purchase.

Green tea time © by Marco Arment

Starting a Collection of Depression Glass

As usual, once you have read a bit about depression glass, look through your own cabinets and closets for examples you already own. If you have any odd glass serving pieces, you may well have depression glass. Then, with permission, check out the cabinets and closets of friends and family. Even if they decline to give you any pieces you find, you can explain what they have, and perhaps get someone you already associate with involved in your new passion.

Tea time © by Marco Arment

Then it is time to check out resale shops, garage sales and start hanging out at antique shops. Find out if there are glass shows in your area, or where specailty stores carrying older glass are located. Subscriptions to magazines or more books can help you identify where a family vacation can be taken to include glass possibilities, like West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Depression glass is a popular collectible, and there is a lot of it. Do some looking around before you decide where you want to specialize, and begin the hunt.

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The use of uranium, in some form, to color glass goes back to at least Roman times. The resulting yellow can vary from a pale ivory to a strong yellow. This partially depends on the amount of uranium added to the glass batch before melting begins.

vaseline glass 2 © by the1pony

Glows in the Dark

Actually, the uranium content of these glasses glows under a black-light, if not in the dark. The amount of the glow is also dependent on the amount of uranium added to the glass batch. During the Cold War, uranium was monopolized by the US government, so US production of uranium colored glass was non-existent. Since then, some uranium colored glass has reached the market.

vaseline glass 1 © by the1pony

Radioactivity

The uranium content of these glasses can usually only be measured above the regular background radiation by the most sensitive of Geiger counters, so the glass does not constitute a health hazard.

vaseline glass 3 © by the1pony

Vaseline Glass

This is a term now commonly used for any uranium-containing glass. It originally was used for glass made in the 1920′s that was yellow-green and transparent or semi-transparent glass. It is even used for any color of transparent or semi-transparent glass with a greasy luster in some places. Therefore, read the description of any glass purchased online as vaseline glass and get pictures before buying.

Custard Glass

Custard glass is milk glass with some small portion of uranium that turns the glass from ivory to a custard to a strong yellow color. It was developed in England in the 1880′s, and was made in the US starting in 1889. Until 1915, this glass was used to create pattern glass and glass souvenirs. There are many patterns of glass table items, made by many of the prominent glass houses of the time.

Inspired by . . . © by EraPhernalia Vintage . . . (playin

Jadite Glass

Jadite glass is a green opaque or semi-opaque glass most commonly used for kitchen glass items. Before the advent of aluminum or plastic, many leftover containers, staple canisters and salt and pepper shakers for the kitchen were made of jadite. The term is also spelled jadeite, and Jade-ite is the name of a specific glass line made by Anchor Hocking. The popularity of this color of glass as a collectible has led to the re-issue of Jade-ite items by the maker.

Uranium Glass in Europe

The use of uranium to color glass in modern times can be traced to Bohemia in the 1830′s. From there, the technique traveled through France to England, then to the US. No doubt some European uranium glasses would make an interesting addition to a collection of this glass, although there is certainly enough made in the US to create a large and interesting collection.

Uranium Glass Today

Together with the re-issue of some of the Jade-ite line by Anchor Hocking, uranium colored glass is still made by Fenton Glass, Mosser Glass, Gibson Glass and Jack Loranger. Look for these new glass items at gift stores.

The glasses made using uranium as a colorant have been popular ever since their re-dicovery in the 1830′s. Look for pattern glass and modern molded items, as well as some blown-molded pieces in this glass that glows under black-light. And add a black-light to your display area to amaze others with the effect this glass has under the right circumstances.

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It is unusual in the history of glass and glass products to have an absolute starting year for any feature or development, especially for one over a hundred years old. But we have Deming Jarvis and his 1927 patent to point to as the beginning of pattern glass. This patent, and others that followed, allowed a worker with less experience to make completed glass objects in quick succession, Furthermore, they were all the same, for the most part, and the skilled position on which this glass depended was the mold maker, and not the master glass blower.

Two-, Three-, Four- and Five-Part Molds

A skilled worker cut a glob of glass and dropped it into the closed mold. He then pressed a plunger into the mold to force the glass into the various nooks and crannies of the mold, and forming the smooth interior of the piece.

Plates only required the bottom half, usually with the pattern and the smooth plunger to form the top of the plate. Until the workman became skilled at judging how much glass to use, there were under- and over-filled plates, which varying in the thickness of the rim. Even so, after decades of plain dinnerware made from glass or pottery, the clear glass plates with swirls, curly-cues and other patterns were quite exciting.

For pieces with a hollow, the mold was made up of two, three or four hinged parts that formed the outside of the glassware at the press of the foot pedal. When first made the parts were tight fitting and very little work was needed or used to removed the mold mark. With continuous use, the moving parts get looser and the mold begins to get less precise. Nevertheless, molds were kept for many years, and sold to other companies when necessary, so a popular pattern may be found in several glass formulas and made by several companies.

Identifying Your Pattern Glass

There are many books available that can help you identify pattern glass. I recently acquired Field Guide to Pattern Glass by Mollie Helen McCain, Collector Books, 2000. It has nice drawings of the various patterns of glass, ordered by the main motif of the pattern, so the reader can find out what pattern a piece is while on the hunt. Drawings are much better for this kind of book as much pattern glass is clear and even the colored pieces do not usually show up well enough in photographs to make this kind of identification.

Looking through this book is a real eye-opener. All these various pattern had from one to twenty-odd pieces made in them. To collect just one of each would be a major undertaking. For this reason, most pattern glass collectors select one or a few types of pressed glass, like syrup pitchers, or a few patterns to collect. Even a collection of just what catches your eye would mount up fast, and quickly take over your living space.

Lacy Glass

The pattern glass from 1830 to the 1860s is sometimes called Lacy glass because of the fancy patterns the mold makers used to cover nearly every inch of the glass. Any blank areas outside the main patterns were filled with small bumps or stippling to enhance the glass and perhaps to hide any flaws that might included in the glass or made by using the molding method.

Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG)

The molding methods created by Deming Jarvis continue to be used today, only slightly modified and with further automation. Therefore the earliest period of this glass is called the Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG). The early refers to pattern or mold-made glass, not the period of history of American history.

Due to the partial automation of pattern glass making, this was the first fancy glass that was within the economic reach of many Americans. Only the coming of the American Civil War stopped the production of this beautiful glass, as the materials needed were put into the war effort, and no one had time or money for fancy glass. And, as usual, after the war, public taste wanted something different, so the pressed glass passed into history, and people’s closets, only to become popular again at the turn of the Twentieth century.

Pattern glass is found in many transparent colors of glass, milk glass, opalescent glass, slag glass and custard glass as well as various qualities of clear glass.

Pattern glass is easy to find and can make a fun project in collecting, allowing the new collector to explore the many patterns and table-wares of pre-Civil War American households. Borrow a book or two from your library and look around your house to see what you already have that is pattern glass. Then you can decide where to go next in collecting this wonderful glass.

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One of the most interesting glass collectibles on the market today are lampwork glass beads. Made in a similar fashion to the lampwork animals and crosses found at fairs and tourist venues, all the lampwork bead maker needs is an open flame, glass rods in various colors, a way to anneal the beads, time, patience and practice. Actually, there are a few other items required, but these are the basic materials needed to make lampwork glass bead.

If you have ever watched a lampworker at the fair or tourist location, you have seen him or her form an animal shape from a clear glass rod by heating the end of the glass rod in a flame and drawing the animal onto another glass piece. The clear glass may be colored by enamel paints or liquid gold upon the completion of the figurine, and they are usually displayed on mirrors to make all aspects of the the beautiful glass figurine apparent.

Handmade lampwork glass beads are made in a similar way, but the glass is wound around a metal mandrel, which forms the hole of the bead as it is made. Colored glass rods allow the lampwork artist to apply color as the beads is made. These colored rods are a recent addition to the materials available to the lampworker, and are one of the best things to happen, as well. By applying the colors as the beads is made, no further treatment is necessary after the bead is annealed, unless the maker wants to frost the outside or add other topical treatments.

Collecting handmade glass lampwork beads can be as easy as visiting your local bead store, or a bead show, or looking for beads on the Internet.
Some compartmentalized storage solution will allow each bead to be given an appropriately sized nest in which to rest, as each cubby is lined with felt, tissue paper or some other materials to cushion the bead when the box is in transit. Glass lampwork beads are not particularly fragile if properly annealed, but they are glass and can be broken by rough handling.

Once you see these little beauties, you also will be hard pressed to resist the urge to own one or more. They are small works of art that fit in a jewelry chest or tackle box, and every time you get them out to look at them, they will make you smile again. As these miniature artworks have only been made for about the last twenty-five to thirty years, you do not have much history to cover as your expand your collection to current and past lampworkers. The most famous, and best, are generally covered in the magazines and books about glass bead making, lampwork beads and beading in general.

Visit a store or show and see the miracles of design and patience the glass bead lampworker can make. They are astounding.

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