YS Wine Glasses. They look old, but how old?

tamrock

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Picked these up at a yard sale. for 50 cent each. I'm wondering if they may be as old as the late 19th century or later 20th ? The lady said they came from stuff her x's grandparents had. To me the etchings, conical round polished cuts & mono look in the style of the Vic age and possible federal period?. I'm unsure myself as styles and shapes of wine glasses have been made the same for a couple century's now. They could even be as recent as the 20th, but I wouldn't say they'd be any later then the 1920's. Anyone here think they know how old they may be? They're heaver then more recent made glasses and they are hand spun imo. They're not lead crystal , based on the sound of a ping. It's more of a dink.
 

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dumpsterdiver

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The etching baffles me but if I disregard the history. The Danish were pretty big on the thick bottom glasses. svend jensen and some others. If they lack a lot of tiny bubbles I would assume they are leaded crystal. Probably a little thick to ring. You can put some water on your finger and see how loud you can get it.

Danish Hunter red wine glasses set of 4 boxed mid-1970s (01/15/2012) shape is pretty close.

But in more modern terms they have a more traditional swedish/czech shape.
 

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tamrock

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The etching baffles me but if I disregard the history. The Danish were pretty big on the thick bottom glasses. svend jensen and some others. If they lack a lot of tiny bubbles I would assume they are leaded crystal. Probably a little thick to ring. You can put some water on your finger and see how loud you can get it.

Danish Hunter red wine glasses set of 4 boxed mid-1970s (01/15/2012) shape is pretty close.

But in more modern terms they have a more traditional swedish/czech shape.
Thanks Dumps, They don't have a lot of bubbles. If you can just take a stab at when you think these may have been made. The etching could have been done out and away from the glass maker. It is somewhat fancy etchings and done by a shop that had the tools means to implement a few techniques in design.
 

dumpsterdiver

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Thanks Dumps, They don't have a lot of bubbles. If you can just take a stab at when you think these may have been made. The etching could have been done out and away from the glass maker. It is somewhat fancy etchings and done by a shop that had the tools means to implement a few techniques in design.


My best guess would be 1950's-1960's post war. My second guess would be 1900-1930. I agree the cutting is elaborate because the circles were brought up to a full polish and other parts were not. My opinion is dependent mostly on the shape and thickness of the glass and not the etching. You could probably find someone else with a completely different opinion. Some pieces are really hard to pin down because they will never appear in a catalog. Nice wine glasses regardless.
 

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tamrock

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My best guess would be 1950's-1960's post war. My second guess would be 1900-1930. I agree the cutting is elaborate because the circles were brought up to a full polish and other parts were not. My opinionise dependent mostly on the shape and thickness of the glass and not the etching. You could probably find someone else with a completely different opinion. Some pieces are really hard to pin down because they will never appear in a catalog. Nice wine glasses regardless.
Okay! Man I was thinking they were older then that. How can one tell when they make an item in the same shape and material for a hundred years and more. :dontknow:
 

dumpsterdiver

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Okay! Man I was thinking they were older then that. How can one tell when they make an item in the same shape and material for a hundred years and more. :dontknow:

I go to the coin forums and think the exact same thought. :laughing7:

You could be right. In this instance I think if I were trying to market them I would just call them mid-century modern. I have had some Victorian pieces that were almost impossible to sell. If they were at an auction I could almost guarantee the auctioneer would say Murano Style or Old European Wine glass.

I can walk you through how I arrived at the opinion. To me the shape is pretty unique. In general terms most Victorian Glass is going to be thin. You can run some searches for Brilliant Cut wine glass and you will see some thick wine glasses that are probably late 1800's. They will not look like yours. They will not be cut like yours either. You don't have a ruler in the photo but older wine glasses also tend to be on the small side. So based on this I assume later than 1900's.

The shape of the glass is pretty unique in that it wasn't touch very much with a tool. It doesn't look like it was blown into a mold. Its pretty natural shape that blows from the blowpipe naturally. This is typical of Swedish Glass Design. Or more broadly Scandinavia. I can't tell if the stem was applied or if its one solid piece from the photo. If its one solid piece it could have been blown into a wooden mold. If its applied then that could possibly narrow down a more specific time frame. Either way it was hand-blown. I think most war time glass was bottles and plate glass. Orrefors popularized the thick glass in 1940-1950s. They were also pretty generous with the use of lead back then because it makes the glass easier to work so its almost certain its crystal. The engraving and the scroll I'm guessing became popular later, 1950-1960's. I'm sure there are a handful of people on the facebook glass pages that would know enough about the engraving to pin it down more specifically. I'm not really sure when it became common to engrave initials. The cut and polished rim tends to be Danish.

You can probably find someone pretty easy to disagree with this but that was my thought process. Its thick, large, not tooled, fluid shape are the main considerations I made. Older glasses tend to get broken over time, usually much thinner and typically on the small side. Hope that helps. Also if someone came along and disagreed with me entirely I wouldn't be surprised.
 

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