Lynn’s eBay Ezine Volume III, Issue Number 30

Shown is a table set in Toy Lion pattern.

Bread plates, which were made in most patterns, but also in some stand-alone designs, are popular EAPG collectibles and they also make unusual gifts. Many of them had embossed mottos on the center or edge such as “A Good Mother Makes a Happy Home”, “It is Pleasant to Labor For Those You Love” and several Bible verses, most often, “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.”

There are also some amazingly fun glass pieces made for sundry purposes such as holding toothpicks, matches, cards, condiments and such, that don’t necessarily match a pattern but are irresistible to “old glass” folks.

As you know by now, EAPG is known by many terms, and the confusion is multiplied by the fact that almost all of the patterns are known by more than one name and some are known by as many as 7 names! This is because patterns were named by writers such as Ruth Webb Lee or Minnie Watson Kamm in the 1930s. Over the ensuing years, records and old catalogs have been discovered giving the OMN (Original Manufacturers Name) but in many instances, it was too late. Collectors had already become familiar with and attached to the names given by writers, each of who sometimes gave different names to the same pattern! And then, to make matters more confusing, the pattern variations had different names from different factories. Since the trademark was not yet discovered, if one factory had success selling a pattern, another would change a mold slightly & reissue its pattern under another name. Fortunately by now, some common names of most patterns have risen to the top and seem to be settled for most pattern glass folks.

What most resources and references about EAPG don’t tell you is that this glass was the dishes of the “everyday (Victorian era) Housewife.” Wealthy people supped from fine china & blown glass drinking vessels brought across the sea from The Continent. Before American industry introduced this inexpensively made glass commodity, folks of slim means were mostly fed from metal or wooden plates and drank from primitive cups. One reason it was so inexpensive is that it was often made without the benefit of what we now call “Quality Control.” And so, many pieces exhibit what many now erroneously call “straw marks” (for clarification on this inaccuracy, visit this page), and/or rough spots from imperfect molds, and/or the ubiquitous enclosed or even burst bubbles and/or tilty or twisty pieces which ‘set up’ askance after having been removed from the mold a little early.

A pet peeve of sellers of EAPG is the collector who insists on what they call “mint” pieces of EAPG. Certainly few are satisfied with cracks or chips or UV caused discoloration, nor should they be, but the above-mentioned irregularities are part of the character of our 100+-year-old historical glass. Coins are ‘minted’. Pressed glass is irregularly molded and the term ‘mint’ is inappropriate for it.

So we hope you will begin to love EAPG & have a little more appreciation for its historical integrity and try and imagine the life situation of the first owners of each piece as they struggled through the terrible War that divided our Country, Reconstruction as we put ourselves back together, the incredible Westward expansion causing some pieces to be carted in covered wagons, the Great Depression of the 1890s and the industrialization that emerged as we burst into the 20th century.

However you can obtain it, whether by inheritance from your great, great grandparents or by purchasing pieces that belonged to someone else’s great, great grandparents, use it, enjoy it and let it keep you in touch with your American Foremothers in days long gone by.

Much, much more can be learned about EAPG here.

Thanks, Elaine. That was a great lesson on EAPG. Elaine & Bill Henderson are the proprietors of PatternGlass.com, the only known pattern-matching service exclusively for Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG) tableware ca 1850-1910.

I am happy to present our 24th story for The 100 Best Things You’ve Bought or Sold on eBay! This one comes from Kathleen and is about a windfall from downsizing a collection. Click below to read…

Click here to read the story…