Depression glass is glassware made in the period 1929–1939, often clear or colored translucent machine-made glassware that was distributed free, or at low cost, in the United States and Canada around the time of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. Depression glass is so called because collectors generally associate mass-produced glassware in pink, yellow, crystal, green, and blue with the Great Depression in America.
History
The
Quaker Oats Company
The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago. It has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001.
History Precursor miller companies
In the 1850s, Ferdinand Schumacher and Robert Stuart founded oat mills. S ...
, and other food manufacturers and distributors, put a piece of glassware in boxes of food, as an incentive to purchase. Some movie theaters and businesses handed out pieces to patrons.
Most of this glassware was made in the Ohio River Valley of the United States, where access to raw materials and power made manufacturing inexpensive in the first half of the twentieth century. More than twenty manufacturers made more than 100 patterns, and entire dinner sets were made in some patterns. Common colors are clear (crystal), pink, pale blue, green, and amber. Less common colors include yellow (canary), ultramarine,
jadeite
Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition sodium, Naaluminium, Alsilicon, Si2oxygen, O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, bu ...
(opaque pale green), delphite (opaque pale blue), cobalt blue, red (ruby and royal ruby), black, amethyst, monax, and white (milk glass). Some depression glass is
uranium glass
Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for colouration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century piec ...
.
Although of marginal quality, Depression glass has been highly collectible since the 1960s. Due to its popularity as a
collectible
A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...
, it is becoming more scarce on the open market. Rare pieces may sell for several hundred dollars. Some manufacturers continued to make popular patterns after World War II, or introduced similar patterns, which are also collectible. Popular and expensive patterns and pieces have been reproduced, and reproductions are still being made.
Manufacturers and patterns
* Anchor Hocking Glass Company
**Forest Green
**Manhattan
**Oyster and Pearl
**Queen Mary
**Royal Ruby
**Teardrop and Dot
* Belmont Tumbler Company
**Bowknot
**Rose Cameo
* Dell Glass Company
**Tulip
* Diamond Glass-Ware Company
**Victory
**Economy
**Round Robin
* Federal Glass Company
**Colonial Fluted
**Columbia
**Diana
**Georgian
**Madrid
**Mayfair
**Normandie
**Optic Paneled
**Parrot
**Patrician
**Raindrops
**Rosemary
**Sharon
**Twisted Optic
* Fry Glass
* Hazel-Atlas Glass Company
**Aurora
**Beehive
**Cloverleaf
**Colony
**Colonial Block
**Crisscross
**Florentine No.1
**Florentine No.2
**Fruits
**Moderntone
**New Century
**Newport
**Ovide
**Ribbon
**Roxana
**Royal Lace
**Ships
**Starlight
**Wagon Wheel
* Hocking Glass Company
**Ballerina
**Block Optic
**Circle
**Colonial
**Coronation
**Fire-King dinnerware
***Philbe
**Fortune
**Hobnail
**Lake Como
**Mayfair
**Miss America
**Old Cafe
**Old Colony
**Princess
**Ring
**Roulette
**Spiral
**Vitrock
**Waterford
* Imperial Glass Company
**Beaded Block
**Diamond Quilted
**Laced Edge
**Little Jewel
**Molly
**Twisted Optic
*
Indiana Glass Company
Indiana Glass Company was an American company that manufactured pressed, blown and hand-molded glassware and tableware for almost 100 years. Predecessors to the company began operations in Dunkirk, Indiana, in 1896 and 1904, when East Central Ind ...
**Avocado
**Cracked Ice
**Indiana Custard
**Lorain
**No.610, Pyramid
**No.612, Horseshoe
**No.616, Vernon
**No.618, Pineapple and Floral
**Old English
**Park Lane
**Sandwich
**Tea Room
* Jeannette Glass Company
**Adam
**Cherry Blossom
**Cube
**Doric
**Doric and Pansy
**Floral
**Hex Optic
**Homespun
**Iris
**Sierra
**Sunburst
**Sunflower
**Swirl
**Windsor
* Jenkins
**Ocean Wave
* Lancaster Glass Company
**Jubilee
**Landrum
**Patrick
*
Liberty Works
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society f ...
American Sweetheart
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
McKee Glass Company
McKee is a surname of Scottish or Irish origin. The surname is derived from the Gaelic ''Mac Aodha'' ("son of ''Aodh''") a patronymic form of an old Gaelic personal name which means "fire". Similar surnames which also are derived from the same ...
**Laurel
**Rock Crystal
*
Paden City Glass Company
Paden may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Paden, Mississippi, a village in Tishomingo County, Mississippi
* Paden, Oklahoma, a town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma
* Paden City, West Virginia, a city in West Virginia
** Paden City Elementary ...
**Cupid
**Gothic Garden
**Orchid
**Peacock and Wild Rose
**Peacock Reverse
*
L. E. Smith Glass Company
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
**By Cracky
**Mt. Pleasante
**Pebbled Rim
**Romanesque
* U.S. Glass Company
**Aunt Polly
**Cherryberry
**Floral and Diamond Band
**Flower Garden with Butterflies
**Primo
**Strawberry
**Swirl
*
Westmoreland Glass Company The Westmoreland Glass Company was a company that produced glass in Grapeville, Pennsylvania.
History
The Westmoreland Glass Company was founded in 1889 when a group of men purchased the Specialty Glass Company located in East Liverpool, Ohio, and ...
**Della Robbia
**English Hobnail
**Woolworth
Elegant glass
A prominent sub-category of Depression Glass,
Elegant glass
Elegant glass is high quality glassware created in the United States during the Depression Era. It was sold for high prices in department stores and given as wedding gifts."Elegant Glass is Not Depression Glass , Just Glass Online." Designer Gla ...
, is of considerably better quality, often including polished mold seams, and hand-decoration such as cut patterns, etched patterns, and painted patterns. It was distributed through jewelry and department stores from the 1920s and continuing after the Great Depression through the 1950s, and was an alternative to fine china. Most of the Elegant glassware manufacturers had closed by the end of the 1950s, when cheap glassware and imported china replaced Elegant glass.
Some Elegant glass manufacturers were:
* Cambridge Glass Company
* Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company
* Duncan Miller Glass Company
*
Fenton Art Glass Company
The Fenton Art Glass Company is a glass manufacturer founded in 1905 by brothers Frank L. Fenton and John W. Fenton.
History
The original factory was in an old glass factory in Martins Ferry, Ohio in 1905. The factory at one time was owned by the ...
*
Fostoria Glass Company
The Fostoria Glass Company was a manufacturer of pressed, blown and hand-molded glassware and tableware. It began operations in Fostoria, Ohio, on December 15, 1887, on land donated by the townspeople. The new company was formed by men from West ...
Lotus Glass Company
Lotus may refer to:
Plants
*Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly:
** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae
**Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...
*
McKee Glass Company
McKee is a surname of Scottish or Irish origin. The surname is derived from the Gaelic ''Mac Aodha'' ("son of ''Aodh''") a patronymic form of an old Gaelic personal name which means "fire". Similar surnames which also are derived from the same ...
*
Morgantown Glass Works Morgantown is the name of several places in the United States of America:
Places
* Morgantown, Indiana, a town
* Morgantown, Kentucky, a city
* Morgantown, Maryland, an unincorporated community
* Morgantown, Adams County, Mississippi, a census-de ...
Paden City Glass Company
Paden may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Paden, Mississippi, a village in Tishomingo County, Mississippi
* Paden, Oklahoma, a town in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma
* Paden City, West Virginia, a city in West Virginia
** Paden City Elementary ...
*
Tiffin Glass Company
Tiffin is an Indian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light breakfast or a light tea-time meal at about 3 p.m., consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in s ...
*
Westmoreland Glass Company The Westmoreland Glass Company was a company that produced glass in Grapeville, Pennsylvania.
History
The Westmoreland Glass Company was founded in 1889 when a group of men purchased the Specialty Glass Company located in East Liverpool, Ohio, and ...
See also
*
Burmese glass
Burmese glass is a type of opaque colored art glass, shading from yellow to pink. It is found in either the rare original "shiny" finish or the more common "satin" finish. It is used for table glass and small, ornamental vases and dressing table a ...
*
Carnival glass
Carnival glass is moulded or pressed glass to which an iridescent surface shimmer has been applied. It has previously been referred to as aurora glass, dope glass, rainbow glass, taffeta glass, and disparagingly as 'poor man's Tiffany'. The name ...
*
Elegant glass
Elegant glass is high quality glassware created in the United States during the Depression Era. It was sold for high prices in department stores and given as wedding gifts."Elegant Glass is Not Depression Glass , Just Glass Online." Designer Gla ...
*
Fiesta (dinnerware)
Fiesta is a line of ceramic glazed dinnerware manufactured and marketed by the Fiesta Tableware Company of Newell, West Virginia since its introduction in 1936, with a hiatus from 1973 to 1985. Fiesta is noted for its Art Deco styling and its ra ...
Milk glass
Milk glass is an opaque or translucent, milk white or colored glass that can be blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes. First made in Venice in the 16th century, colors include blue, pink, yellow, brown, black, and white.
Principle
Mi ...
*
Pressed glass
Pressed glass (or pattern glass) is a form of
Satin glass
Satin glass is glass that has been chemically treated to give it a misty-looking finish. The term "satin glass" is frequently used to refer to a collectible type of pressed glass.
Satin glass can be used for decorative items. However, satin gl ...
*
Sencer Sari
David Judson Sencer (November 10, 1924 – May 2, 2011) was an American public health official who orchestrated the 1976 immunization program against swine flu. Between 1966 and 1977, he was the longest serving director of the Centers for Disea ...
*
Uranium glass
Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for colouration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century piec ...
*
Uranium tile
Uranium tiles have been used in the ceramics industry for many centuries, as uranium oxide makes an excellent ceramic glaze, and is reasonably abundant. In addition to its medical usage, radium was used in the 1920s and 1930s for making watch, ...