2020.01.22 Tuesday Stretch

Cal here to share a few stretch glass mysteries with you on Stretch Tuesday. For me, the first mystery piece of stretch glass was this bowl:

I purchased it sight unseen based on an ad in the Antique Trader. It was advertised as a red stretch glass cupped bowl. There was no mention of the cuts on the outside. I was an inexperienced collector and had not learned that Fenton usually did not iridize the exterior of their ruby bowls. When this bowl arrived in the mail, I was sorely disappointed and almost returned it. But returning glass was a lot of trouble so I put it away and moved on. A few years later I took it to a convention of The Stretch Glass Society to get it ID’d. Much to my surprise, it created quite a scene in the room and it was identified as a Cut Ovals bowl by Fenton. I learned that not being iridized on the exterior was ‘no problem’ and I was informed of its rarity. It was many years before I acquired a pair of Ruby cut oval candlesticks to go with it but now I have them also.

BTW, there was no mystery about the candleholders; I knew what I was looking for and when I found them I bought them without hesitation. I’ve looked for other Cut Ovals bowls in this shape for many years and only have one other – in Celeste Blue. That came from the Fenton Museum when Randy Clark was selling the museum glass.

Here is another item which remained a mystery for some time.

The mystery of this bowl is the base; it is unusual and not like other bases on stretch glass bowls. For some time, it was thought to possibly be a product of Imperial but then the same base showed up on bowls in colors not made by Imperial…

…and we began to think it was a Diamond bowl. Finally, a bowl with a similar base showed up in Diamond’s Cobalt blue and the mystery was solved.

This ‘sherbet’ is not documented in the Fenton catalogues, yet here it is in Fenton’s Tangerine. There can be no question about who made it or when it was made – the color and the form place it in the early period of stretch glass by Fenton. Still, it remains a mystery because no other ones in this shape in Tangerine or in any other color are known to me. Surely, Fenton did not make a mold only to use it once and then cast it aside. Where are the other pieces that were made in that mold?? Maybe you have them and will share them with us?

Mystery stretch glass is found in many collections…there are some examples which we just are not able to ID with any degree of certainty. When we attempt to solve ID mysteries in stretch glass, we go about the process much as is done with other types of glassware and even non-glassware. There are at least 3 clues for which we look: color, base shape/size, overall shape. Color is often a dead giveaway as many stretch glass colors were only made by one company. Falling into this category are Egyptian Lustre (Diamond)…

…Russet (Northwood)…

…Opaque White (Northwood)…

Tangerine (Fenton), the various iridized slag glass colors (United States Glass), ‘Coke bottle green’ (Vineland)…

…Green and Blue Ice (aka teal and smoke) (Imperial) and there are others. In these cases, the mystery is over almost before it begins. One does have to be careful, however, to not mistake the color for a similar color by another company. For example, US glass made stretch glass in an Olive Green…

…which vaguely resembles Russet. And there are a few plates known in Antique Green, which look similar to Green Ice until they are placed side by side.

When it comes to stretch glass in Topaz, Crystal, Pink, Amethyst, Green and the Celeste Blue-like colors, we generally have our work cut out for us as these colors were made by numerous companies. Here we turn to shape and especially the base shape and measurements. Why the base? The base is usually the only part of the stretch glass which remained true to the molded form and so it is most reliably compared to other ‘known’ stretch glass. In some cases, the base easily solves the mystery but not in all cases. If the color and the base do not solve the mystery, lots more work lies ahead. And, of course, there are still pieces which we have not absolutely identified to a company. It is these mysteries, as well as other moments of excitement, which fuel our curiosity and provide us satisfaction as we continue to discover, collect and share about stretch glass.