Month: August 2018

All the different colors of glassware can make your head spin!

On By wisdomlaneantiquesIn Beginning to collect, Glassware, Shopping tips, Tips for the beginner, Vintage, Vintage, Vintage!, Vocabulary WordsLeave a comment

Whenever you are shopping for vintage glassware, hearing all of the different colors of vintage glassware can make your head spin.  Here’s some of the colors that you can run across:

Ice blue—this is a very pale color of blue, and it can have a pastel iridescence if it is on a piece of carnival glass.

Vaseline glass—this is a glass color that has had uranium salts added to the molten glass mix.  When you look at this type of glass under normal lighting, the glass will appear to be yellow or even a yellow green.  When this glass is hit with an ultraviolet light (a blacklight), the glass will fluoresce in a very bright green (it looks like it could be glowing).

Reverse amberina—this is a type of glassware that is the opposite of amberina.  The central part of the glassware is red and it blends out to yellow at the edges (amberina is yellow at the center and it turns red at the edge).

Amber—this type of glass can vary from almost a yellow to a brown.  The best way to visualize the color of amber that is used when jewelry is made.

Horehound—this type of glassware is an amber color with a gray hue to it.  Some collectors call this color of glassware “Root beer”.

This is a small sample of what you can find on glassware.  What other colors have you run across?

Great examples of glassware serving pieces that you can find

On By wisdomlaneantiquesIn Functional items, gift ideas, Glassware, Serving sets, Vintage, Vintage, Vintage!Leave a comment

When it comes to finding serving pieces for the table, you can find some great glassware items in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.  Tumblers, creamers and even plates are only a few examples that you can find.

One terrific example that you can find is this milk glass creamer.

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Not only is it made out of milk glass, this terrific 1930’s creamer also sports a silverplate handle and spout.  To make things even better, it has a hand painted and embossed floral motif on it.  You can see this creamer in my Etsy shop here.

Another great serving piece that you could find is this great nut dish.

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This great nut dish was made in the 1950’s by Westmoreland, and it sports a light blue satin mist color.  The dish also has an enameled floral motif on it, and it could also double as a candy dish.  You can see this dish in my Etsy shop here.

Cruets are perfect for your favorite salad dressing, and they can also be great to display on any table.  This pair would be perfect to do both.

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This pair was made by Hazel Atlas in the 1950’s, and they sport a frosted look with a hand painted floral motif on them.  You can see them in my Etsy shop here.

As a matter of fact, you can see all of the great glassware serving items in my Etsy shop here.  Head on over and check them out!

Make sure you tip your waitress!

On By wisdomlaneantiquesIn Advertising, Vintage, Vintage, Vintage!Leave a comment

Tip trays have been around for many years now, and they can be found with a wide variety of advertising on them.  It could be an advertisement for beer, a company or even a soda pop company like Coca Cola.

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In 1914, Coca Cola made the tip tray pictured above.  As you can see, it has a picture of a Victorian Era Woman in a bonnet or hat.

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This advertising tip tray was made out of tin. Tip trays like this one are a rarity to come by with the original paint, since the coins they meet every day tend to wear most of it off.  To top it off, the paint on the edges of the tray get worn off pretty fast as well from being handled every day.

You can see this terrific tip tray in my Etsy store here.  Head on over and check it out!

Vintage furniture pieces that you may not run across everyday

On By wisdomlaneantiquesIn Beginning to collect, Functional items, Furniture, Tips for the beginner, Vintage, Vintage, Vintage!, Vocabulary WordsLeave a comment

When you are out and about shopping for vintage items, you will run across some vintage furniture that you may not know what it is.  Here’s a couple of pieces that you might run across:

Tallboy—this is a piece of furniture that incorporates a chest of drawers with a wardrobe on top.  The tallboy was considered to be the wardrobe of the 1700’s.

Highboy—this is a piece of furniture that consists of a double chest of drawers (it’s also known as a chest-on-chest).  This piece of furniture has a lower section that is usually wider than the upper section.

Pie safe—this is also referred to as a pie cabinet, pie safe cupboard, or even a pie chest.  It is a piece of furniture that is typically used to store pies.  The cabinet will have sections that consist of either pierced metal or screen to help the pies cool.  In the past, some people also stored meat, perishables, and other items inside of their pie safes.

Hoosier cabinet—this is also known simply as a “Hoosier”.  It is a type of cupboard (or even a free–standing kitchen cabinet) that also serves as a workstation.  It was popular in the first few decades of the 1900’s.  This was because most of the houses did not have built–in kitchen cabinetry.

This is just a few of the vintage furniture pieces that you may not run across everyday.  What other pieces have you run across?

READER’S HELP: that’s a friendly wall-crawling superhero…made from plaster?

On By wisdomlaneantiquesIn Advertising, Beginning to collect, Functional items, Reader's help!, Vintage, Vintage, Vintage!Leave a comment

When you start to dive into the world of antiques and collectibles, you quickly find out that you will find really cool things in unexpected places.

Not too long ago, this happened to me when I came upon a local garage sale.  And do you know what was there?  Just a bust of Spiderman himself!

Spiderman bank (1)

As you can see in the photo, the bust is made of plaster and it is also doubles as a bank (the coin slot is on the back of Spiderman’s head).  Not only that, it is extremely detailed—you can see and feel the ribbing in Spiderman’s mask, and it also feels like the head actually has cloth on it.

Spiderman bank (2)

Here’s the problem that I have with the bank—I know what it is, but I have no idea who made it.  I was told that it was made in Mexico, but there is no maker’s mark or even a country of origin mark on it.

Does anyone know who could have made this great bank?  Could it be a homemade piece that a fan of the character made?

Any information is greatly appreciated!