Depression glass

How to read it

The Corning Museum of Glass defines Depression glass as inexpensive, machine-pressed American glassware made between about 1920 and 1950. It came in many colors, pink, green and yellow among the popular ones, and was often given away by businesses as a gift, incentive or prize. Corning’s library notes that it often has rough edges or prominent seams and that it often imitates more expensive etched or cut crystal. The Illinois State Museum says it was known at the time as colored glassware, sold through mail-order houses and dime stores, and given as premiums at movie theaters and with soap, flour and other products; it came in over 25 colors and 95 patterns.

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When it was made

The dates depend on who is drawing the line. Corning gives about 1920 to 1950. The National Depression Glass Association gives roughly the late 1920s to about 1941, and elsewhere about 1928 to 1940. The Illinois State Museum’s own Depression glass pieces run from 1926 to 1939, with one dinnerware line made from 1934 to 1965.

Premiums and dish nights

Glass makers found ways to make it so cheaply, the National Depression Glass Association says, that companies used it as premiums in everything from oatmeal to soap to flour, and movie theatres gave away a piece each week so that patrons could build up a set.

Depression glass or elegant glass?

Collectors separate the two. The National Depression Glass Association calls Depression glass mass produced, inexpensive and generally lower quality, made in sets and patterns by companies such as Federal and Jeannette. Elegant glass was made by hand houses such as Cambridge, Fostoria and Heisey: clearer, better finished, with less visible seams and often ground rims. The association counts these as myths: that all Depression glass is colored (many patterns came in clear glass, called crystal) and that all colored glass is Depression glass (hand houses made colored glass in the same years, and pink glass has been made since, such as a spiral pattern made in France by Arcoroc).

Patterns and makers

Some patterns were mould-etched with designs, others geometric, such as Hocking’s Waterford, also called Waffle, and Jeannette’s Windsor. A candy jar in the Corning Museum’s collection was made by the Federal Glass Company between 1935 and 1939. The best-known patterns have their own pages under Pyrex and Depression glass patterns. ORAU notes that some green glass of the period contains uranium as well as iron, and that purists would call it Depression glass rather than Vaseline glass.