Glass

George III Waterford crystal chandelier

When you’re bundled up on the couch or out at a big celebration on New Year’s Eve and watching the ball drop, you’re likely to be focused on the mob of people in Times Square or how young Dick Clark still looks (or where all those people go to the bathroom).  Few people focus on the actual ball and the amazing craftsmanship it involves.  That celebrated sphere is about 12′ in diameter and weighs almost 12,000 pounds and a good bit of that mass is Waterford crystal.

Crystal is, by the way, a bit of a misnomer, as glass doesn’t have a crystalline structure.  What we call crystal is more accurately lead glass – sometimes lead crystal – where lead oxide replaces the calcium used in traditional glass and produces an exceptionally bright, clear glass.  This is why it lends itself to the beautiful stemware and chandeliers associated with both crystal and Waterford.  Waterford stemware is generally prolific enough (and often from the modern period) that prices typically run around $10-$20 per piece, but chandeliers are a different story.  Modern chandeliers generally bring less than $1,000, because after all, there are lots of beautiful chandeliers from the 20th century, but a Waterford chandelier from the first years of glass production there (like the one pictured above) can easily cost more than a new car!

The Waterford in question is Waterford, Ireland, a Viking settlement that has grown into one of the country’s largest cities.  Crystal has a long history in Waterford, starting with a glass company formed there in 1783, but while we think of it as a single industry that’s lasted generations, in reality, the company went broke in 1851 and wasn’t reestablished until 1947 when crystal-making was undertaken by a Czech immigrant.  While the factory in Waterford recently closed, Waterford crystal is still manufactured in several European countries, including Germany.  A product produced in a former Viking settlement in Ireland by Czechs – perfect choice for the Crossroads of the World!

Browse all Waterford Crystal in the Prices4Antiques database.

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Heisey clear glass 4036 Marshall footed decanter

One of the things I love about 19th-century history are all the “rags to riches” stories.  In an age when it’s so hard to get ahead, when opportunities often seem predicated on education, financial resources, or nepotism, I enjoy hearing a good story about someone who gets ahead through intellect, intuition and hard work and one generally doesn’t need to look further than the industrial boom of the 1800s to find fascinating character studies.

Augustus Heisey was such an individual.  Born in Germany in 1842, he immigrated to Pennsylvania with his family in 1843, but when his father died, his mother left him with an older sister and returned to Europe.  At 19, Heisey took a position as a clerk at a Pittsburgh glass company, where he began to learn about the glass business.  After serving in the Civil War, he returned to the glass business, soon moving into a sales position with the Ripley Glass Company where he married the daughter of one of the owners.  (Okay, so nepotism’s nothing new….)  Through hard work and some luck, by the turn of the century, Heisey had started his own company in Newark, Ohio where three furnaces and 700 people where busy cranking out affordable pressed glass.

Heisey glass still brings people to Newark today for the annual Heisey Collectors of America convention in June.  The convention is held at the Heisey Glass Museum and a local auction house has a special sale of Heisey glass to capitalize on the visiting collectors.  While Heisey was known for pressed glass so well executed that it appeared to be cut glass, the bulk of their production was stemware or other pieces for table service, like pitchers, creamers and sugar bowls, often made to fill large orders from hotels and bars.  Today, much of this material doesn’t fetch a great deal at auction, but some of the specialty pieces that come up for sale each June are amazing and can bring thousands of dollars.  Colored glass, which wasn’t produced by Heisey in great quantities until the 1920s and 30s, is the most popular with collectors, and with examples like these dolphin candlesticks in amber, who can argue?  Still, the beautiful clear glass decanter pictured above brought more than $3,000 at auction, so even less colorful examples can be the beginning to someone else’s rags-to-riches story!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Click here to browse all Heisey glass in the Prices4Antiques database.

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