Timeless Treasures: A Glass Quintet - The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles (2024)

By Donald-Brian Johnson

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Some things exist “outside of time:” The Wizard of Oz … Model T Fords … Turntables and LPs. After brief, brilliant moments in the sun of our consciousness, they cool down to glowing embers. There they remain, ready to blaze forth again whenever called to mind.

With some other things, those moments in the sun are fleeting – Nehru jackets … Cabbage Patch Kids … 8-tracks. When their flame goes out, it’s gone (we hope) for good.

Most antiques and collectibles exist (thankfully) “outside of time.” Regardless of when they were created, they still hold immediacy. Does Mission furniture just remain rooted in the early 20th century? Is Depression glass stuck forever in the Depression? Does ’50s Modern only work if you lived in the 1950s?

Nope, nope, and nope. Items like these retain their relevancy. That’s why a clean-lined Mission desk looks just fine when topped off with an all-angles ‘50s modern lamp. Add a small blue Depression glass bowl for paper clips, and you’re all set. In the words of songwriter Peter Allen, “everything old is new again.”

Cases in point: five types of decorative glass, dating from different eras of the 20th century. Each was an ideal accent piece when first introduced. And, though decades have passed, each remains a timeless treasure today.

The Sparkle of Schneider

Charles Schneider’s monumental glass vessels —many over two feet high—are among the most elegant and dazzling Art Deco creations. His bold use of color acted in concert with nearly the entire range of techniques available to glassmakers – from mottling, flecking, and streaking, to graceful etched cameo designs of such nature-based themes as hanging berries and sweeping palms. There were even the occasional jolting jazz-age abstracts.

Born in France in 1881, Charles Schneider studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, under famed glass artist Emile Galle. He then found employment, with his older brother Ernest, at the Daum factory in Nancy. In 1913, the pair struck out on their own, opening the Cristallerie Schneider near Paris. The new company’s inventory included the jumbo trumpet and urn-shaped vases today’s collectors generally associate with the name “Schneider,” as well as bowls, lamps, candlesticks, and epergnes.

Schneider soon began producing the cameo glass for which the firm became best-known: “Le Verre Francais” (“The French Glass”). Vivid reds and oranges are characteristic of “Le Verre Francais,” including a rich golden-red hue Schneider dubbed “Tango Orange.” For a particularly dramatic effect, the vase foot was often in a color contrasting with the vase body.

Originally sold exclusively in French department stores, Schneider glass, thanks to exposure at 1925’s landmark Paris Exposition, quickly made its way to the United States. Here, Schneider’s stunning use of color made the line an immediate hit. While technically working vases—they certainly have all the right parts—Schneider vases can be more accurately described as the idea of a vase. These vases are meant to be looked at; their practical use is secondary. Oversize and arresting, a Schneider vase immediately becomes the focal point of any room, holding its own against all comers.

“And The Winner Is … Carnival Glass!”

Best remembered as a prize at midway “games of chance,” carnival glass originally aimed for loftier heights. Introduced in the early 1900s, it was first known as “iridill,” a reference to its iridescence. Iridill was molded, like other pressed glass of the time. When removed from its mold, the glass was sprayed with a solution of metallic salts. Once cured, the effect was magical: the metallic finish refracted light with an ever-changing colorful luster. The goal: to mimic the look of iridescent hand-crafted Tiffany glass at a fraction of the cost. That plan proved so successful that iridill was soon referred to as the “Poor Man’s Tiffany.”

Among the prominent manufacturers of carnival glass were Northwood, Fenton, Dugan, and Imperial. A rainbow of colors awaited buyers, including marigold, cobalt, and amethyst. In addition to the satiny iridescent finish, other treatments included opalescent, translucent, “radium” (which created a mirror-like appearance), and frosted. Among the many popular patterns are Northwood’s “Grape and Cable,” Dugan’s “Persian Garden,” and Fenton’s “Stag and Holly.”

For the first twenty years or so of its lifespan, carnival glass was marketed in traditional giftware outlets. However, with the 1929 onset of the Depression, household budgets became limited. Warehouses were soon filled with barrels of unsold inventory, and manufacturers were forced to explore other means of distribution.

Carnival game entrepreneurs were always on the lookout for something new to tempt patrons into parting with their pennies – and what could be more tempting than shiny glassware? Snapped up at bargain prices by wholesale distributors, iridescent glass quickly became part of the barker’s “step right up” spiel, and “carnival glass” earned its enduring title. That endurance continues. Carnival glass still earns its keep, blending well in any decorative environment, far removed from its heyday on the midway.

“Spun Glass Figurines: Weaving A Sparkling Web”

Sometimes called “lace glass” or “lace crystal,” spun glass was first popularized in the 1940s and ‘50s. It’s easily recognizable by the fine glass threads that form all, or at least part, of an object’s surface texture. The “spun” portion might be the rotund body of a carnival clown, Cinderella’s pumpkin coach, or an entire Christmas tree.

Watching the creation of a spun glass figurine can be mesmerizing. As the artisan holds a rod of glass in each hand, in front of a blazing heat source, molten glass “threads” from one rod are delicately transferred to the other, eventually forming a pattern. As the glass threads are applied, the receiving rod is “spun,” building up volume (hence the name). Once the spinwork is complete, other portions of the rod are drawn out and shaped to form the rest of the image—the wings of an owl, or the oar of a gondolier. Spun glassmaking is sort of a cross between fine embroidery and taffy-pulling, if both your embroidery needle and your taffy are red-hot.

Although spun glass figurines are often clear, the better to capture light, color highlights add both dramatic impact, and greater visual appeal—the yellow filigree on a spun glass table and chairs, for instance. Things comprised entirely of tinted glass—such as a navy-blue sailing ship—are especially striking. The addition of “solid” coloring can also be effective, although this makes the glass opaque.

The thin threads that form spun glass are as intricate as a spider’s web – and just as susceptible to damage. That necessitates displaying a spun glass collection where it won’t accidentally be sent spinning into oblivion. Then, like Laura Wingfield in the famed Tennessee Williams play, you can be endlessly enthralled by your very own “glass menagerie.”

“co*cktail Party: Glassware by Georges Briard”

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Of the stacks of glasses crowding their way onto bar shelves in the 1960s, many were the work of designer Georges Briard. He’s become so identified with decorative mid-twentieth-century housewares (especially gold-decorated glass), that even items not bearing his signature are often classified “Briard.”

A native of the Ukraine, Briard (then Jascha Brojdo) emigrated to the United States in 1937. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, and serving during World War II, he teamed up with Art Institute colleague Max Wille, and embarked on his design career. To separate commercial work from purely artistic endeavors, he adopted the professional pseudonym “Georges Briard.”

Briard’s earliest success came with the use of 22-karat gold as screened decoration for “bent” (molded) glassware. The products were marketed through Glass Guild, a Briard/Wille venture. Their popularity led to arrangements with other glass manufacturers, including Libbey and Anchor Hocking. Plain glass giftware ordinarily sold in dime stores was, with the addition of Briard’s decorations, marketed to such upscale retailers as Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, Briard licensed designs to a multitude of manufacturers. His work graced enameled cookware by Columbian Enamel; wooden cheeseboards with tile inserts by Woodland; bisque ashtrays by Hyalyn Porcelain; dinnerware by Pfaltzgraff Pottery; lamps by Lightolier; Stetson China’s “Artisan” melamine dinnerware … and, of course, all that glassware. Briard catalogs overflow with page after page of colorfully named glasses (“Forbidden Fruit,” “Eye Ball,” “Wet Your Whistle”), plus plenty of glass ice buckets, bar trays, snack servers, and ashtrays.

Briard had an uncanny knowledge of what the at-home entertainer of the 1960s wanted: useful, non-threateningly attractive barware, at affordable prices. His design hallmarks—repetitive arrangements, often of geometric shapes, or nature-based images—retain their hypnotic appeal, over a half-century after their creation.

“Higgins: Modern Miracles With Everyday Glass”

The duo behind Higgins fused glass, Michael and Frances Higgins, began their joint career in Chicago, in 1948. Although each had significant prior artistic experience, the sole focus of their new joint venture was glass fusing. This was a time-honored, but labor-intensive technique. By the mid-twentieth century, most glass artisans had instead opted to work with blown glass.

Glass fusing can best be described as the creation of a “glass sandwich.” A design is drawn with color enamels, or pieced with glass segments, on a sheet of enamel-coated glass. Another sheet of enameled glass is then laid on top. This “sandwich” is then placed on a mold, and heated in a kiln, with the glass “slumping” (bending) to the mold’s shape. Because the interior design is fused between the outer glass sheets, the
colors cannot fade or wear with use. Vintage Higgins items from the 1950s and ‘60s remain as brilliantly colorful today as when they first emerged from the kiln, boldly combining geometric and curved lines and patterns with vibrant color combinations.

In addition to the inventiveness of their technique, the Higgins had another major advantage over other craftsmen of the period: name recognition. This came about primarily due to their 1957-1964 association with Chicago industrial manufacturer Dearborn Glass Company. Since the name “Higgins” appeared on every item produced, there was no doubt as to the creative force at work.

The Higgins saw themselves as designer\craftsmen, specializing in “useful” things. Included in the Higgins smorgasbord of fused glass housewares: bowls, plates, servers, smoking accessories, candleholders, clocks, lamps, and even room dividers. That diversity continues in the Higgins Glass Studio of today, through the work of the Wimmer family,longtime associates, and designated successors to Michael and Frances Higgins.

Higgins Glass … Schneider … Carnival Glass, Spun Glass, and Briard: a design quintet that exists “outside of time.” This is glassware right for any age, as “at home” on a Heywood-Wakefield buffet as on a Victorian dresser. Each piece is a timeless treasure.

Photo Associate: Hank Kuhlmann

Donald-Brian Johnson is the co-author of numerous Schiffer books on antiques and collectibles, including Higgins: Adventures in Glass, Higgins: Poetry in Glass, and Deco Décor. Please address inquiries to donaldbrian@msn.com