Glowing Reviews for Vaseline Glass

When I am on vacation, there are few things that can coax me out from under my palm tree. One of them is the annual 20th Century Glass Show mounted by the South Florida Depression Glass Club (SFDGC) at the Pompano Beach Civic Center.
First of all, this show is a feast for the eyes. I always look forward to that first moment opening the doors to the auditorium. It’s like lifting the lid to a treasure chest filled with sparkling precious and semi-precious gems. Here, in one place, are all the dazzling reasons so many people love to collect glass.
Also, this is a true collectors’ show. All the dealers here know their stuff, and they enjoy sharing their knowledge. I always defer to the collectors, so I brought a photo of an item with a pattern that had been stumping me. After lots of opinions and some discussion, we came up with an answer, and I’ve included a photo of it with this column.
The show usually includes clinics run by experts, and a featured glass, which, this year, was the enigmatic yellow/green Vaseline glass that has been enjoying resurgence in popularity of late.
When talking about the color of glass, we always have to start with the Bohemians, the master batch-makers. The Bohemian in this story is Joseph Riedel who, tradition has it, developed the color in 1835.
All color in glass is produced by introducing a mineral solution (iron=green, gold=red, cobalt=blue, etc.). Rielel used a 2 percent solution of uranium dioxide to produce a yellow/green that he called “annagelb” after his wife.
A later improvement was made in 1868 by the Englishman William Leighton Hobbs, and by the 1880s the color took its place among all the colorful glass enjoyed by the Victorians. The term “Vaseline” came about with the introduction of the brand-name lubricant in the 1920s. No Vaseline glass was produced between 1943 and 1958 due to a ban on the public sale of uranium during that period.
The fun part about Vaseline glass is that it glows bright green under Ultraviolet light. Some collectors will equip a glass-shelved cabinet with both regular and violet light; it makes quite a show.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention another type of glass I noticed at this show. It’s Higgins Glass from Illinois, the product of the husband and wife team, Michael and Frances Higgins, who started their company in their basement n 1948.
Their process was to create a multi-layered sandwich of glass with each layer enameled with a design, giving the piece a three dimensional look. They called it “slump glass,” because pieces were heated and then “slumped” into their molds.
The Higgins’s slogan for their business was the “House of Modern Miracles” and their designs are exciting, colorful, imaginative, intelligent, and very much a product of the mid-Century Modern movement of their time.
“After looking a piece of Higgins glass, you can’t help feeling better about your day.” That’s a remark by Donald-Brian Johnson, author of two books on Higgins, both published by Schiffer: “Higgins: Adventures in Glass” and “Higgins: Poetry in Glass.” That sentiment could apply to much of mid-20th Century Modern design; it’s optimistic, uplifting and forward-looking.
To learn more about yellow/green Vaseline glass, check out the web site of Vaseline Collectors Inc. at: www.vaselineglass.org. You may even want to join ($25/year) and receive a copy of their newsletter, the “Glowing Report.”
To learn more about all sorts of 20th Century glass, visit the web site of the South Florida Depression Glass Club at www.sfdgc.com, or like them on www.facebook.com/sfdgc.
Mark your calendar if you have some things you would like to have appraised. I will be at the Cape May Lutheran Church on Pittsburgh Ave. March 26 at 1 p.m. for MAC (609-884-5404); and April 12, I’ll be at the Marketplace@Teaberry on Route 9 in Clermont (609-624-1799) at 11 a.m. More about these as they come up.
Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is the author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things,” and co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques on Route 9 in Swainton. Send your comments, questions and appraisal requests to: aschwerdt@cmcherald.com.