How was Early American Pattern Glass Made? This Week's Find of the Week

June 07, 2019

Video Translation: Hi, This is Jennifer here with City Farmhouse Antiques and I am here with this week's Find of the Week. This week I want to show you a few pieces of Early American Pattern glass. These pieces are extremely old. These are actually from 1885 so you are going to see damage on them and the sets many times are not complete. A lot of pattern glass or Early American Pressed glass doesn't really come with a high price tag. These are pieces that you would have found that were used every day. All different types of pieces were made with different patterns. Plates were made, tea sets were made etc. This is a coffee set that was made. There was a piece made for everything and this was glassware that was used on a daily basis. How we use paper plates today is what these pieces were made for. They were made to be used every day. So you will see damage from every day use on pieces of this glass. This piece here is a covered sugared bowl. It does not have the lid anymore with the set unfortunately. This pattern is known as the "butterfly spray" pattern. Here you can see the butterflies and you can see the spray pattern. In a coffee set you would have had a covered sugar, a creamer. Here is the creamer to put your cream in for your coffee. You would have had a spooner that looks much like this creamer only normally it is just straight up and a cylindrical version of this so it's tall and may or may not have had handles and didn't come with a lid. That piece was used to hold spoons and looks very much like another piece called the celery vase. This piece here didn't come with the coffee set, but is like a child's mug or cup. I just put it here as a sample of what another piece looks like. You can see this piece has chipping along the inside of the rim where the lid would have hit repeatedly from the covered sugar bowl. Early American Pattern glass was hot molten glass that was poured into a mold so you will also be able to see the seams on the glass where it was pressed into the mold. This glass was cheaply made and mass produced. This one has a crack down the side. There you can see the seam. The pieces were meant to be used every day. The neat part about it is these pieces are so old and the fact that they were used for every day use like paper plates it's a wonder any of these pieces still exist being from the late 1800's. Prices are based on how rare and sought after a particular pattern is. This particular pattern is not that sought after, but it is a very pretty delicate pattern. Some of the other patterns are more well known, sought after and fairly expensive. So it is all about knowing your patterns. There are great books out there if you want to explore American Pattern glass or EAPG as they call it. You can learn a lot just based on the unique patterns and begin to collect them. Most of the patterns are clear with soft patterns and they make for a beautiful table setting with floral patterns, butterflies or animals. You can collect any pattern you like. So I wanted to share these neat pieces with you that contain a link to our American history which I always find fascinating and how it relates to antiques and glassware as we see them and collect them today. Be sure to check out our website at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com where we have more than just antiques and give us a like on Facebook.