Something I don’t believe I’ve mentioned before is that I collect antiques and for about ten years I was an antique dealer. One of my collections is a fairly extensive collection of old (pre-Civil War) American Pattern Glass and I thought I might give you a look at some of it.
As you might know the natural color of glass, i.e. the color you get by melting plain old sand, is green—the color that old Coke bottles used to be—because of the presence of iron in the sand. To make glass really brilliantly clear you’ve got to add something to it.
Back in the 18th century or so it was discovered that if you add lead oxide to the molten glass metal it will come out significantly more brilliantly clear. That’s what we call “lead glass†or “crystalâ€. In the United States before the Civil War it was called “flint glassâ€.
Now for some reason or other during the American Civil War lead became expensive so a substitute was sought out and it was found that adding lime—calcium carbonate—would make glass clear, too. Not as beautiful as flint glass but a lot less expensive.
Since classical antiquity people had been making glass drinking vessels by blowing molten glass. This took skill, there were lots of failures, and it was quite expensive.
During the incredible burst of creativity that followed the founding of the United States in the 1820’s an ingenious Yankee named Deming Jarvis invented a method of pumping molten glass into a mold. This still required skill but not nearly as much as glassblowing, there weren’t nearly as many failures, and, consequently, it was a lot less expensive—it could be sold to a mass market.
Not only that but by engraving a pattern into the mold a dizzying array of patterns could be placed on the glass. And so “pattern glassâ€, a truly American art form, was born.
Early American flint pattern glass, made between roughly 1825 and 1870, is the stuff that I collect.
Here’s an interesting piece, possibly one of the oldest in my collection:
This is a goblet roughly 6 inches tall. It weighs 1 lb. 12 oz. More of a deadly weapon than a convenient drinking vessel.
The pattern is called “Giant Sawtoothâ€. These pattern names are given by collectors rather than being what their manufacturers called them. No one knows what the original name of this pattern was or where or by whom it was made.
The experts say that this pattern was made in the 1830’s. I have my doubts. It’s been found in goblets, footed dishes called “compotesâ€, pitchers, lamps, and a few other pieces.
“Now for some reason or other during the American Civil War lead became expensive”
All the miners left to become soldiers? In any case, so did salt, and probably other minerals also. While searching the library Countycat for something else a while back, I happened upon a book entirely about salt during the ACW. According to Confederate officers quoted after the war, lack of salt contributed to the defeat of the South.
For some thousands of years salt played a role in the world economy not dissimilar to the one paid by oil now. Some might say “spices†but the volume of trade in spices was never what the trade in salt was.
Few people know of it but 10,000 years ago there was a thriving obsidian trade whose trade routes covered a remarkably large area.
“Now for some reason or other during the American Civil War lead became expensiveâ€
I would guess it was because all the lead available was being used for lead ball shot. Whatever was left after the Feds and the Rebs got their trainloads was being competed for, driving up the price.
“Here’s an interesting piece, possibly one of the oldest in my collection”
What is it about that particular piece that makes you think it’s quite old? How does one date a piece of glass?
There are a number of different ways of dating glass like this. Sometimes old catalogs with dates are found, for example. To the best of my knowledge this particular pattern hasn’t been found in a catalog.
Or the pattern may be seen in an old photograph with a known date. That will tell you in a general sort of way the age of the glass.
Another way is by style. Styles come and go and particular styles eventually cease being fashionable and it’s known that pattern glass with this general sort of style stopped being fashionable before the Civil War.
Experts in American Pattern glass, particularly a woman named Alice Hewlett Metz, have suggested that this particular pattern is quite old based on both style and details of manufacture which can be inferred by examination of the piece but which aren’t immediately apparent in a photograph.