Elegant glass was a high-quality, handmade glass produced during the Depression Era until the 1970s. It was expensive and sold mainly in upscale shops as an alternative to crystal and porcelain. Today, it is sought after by collectors and can be purchased through antique stores or glassware companies.
Elegant glass is glass produced during the Depression Era and up until the 1970s. It is typically differentiated from vacuum glass in quality; elegant glass, as the name suggests, was a much more prized form of glass, making it valuable for the time and even more valuable today. Antique stores sometimes sell elegant glass, as do companies that specialize in glassware, which can be purchased at auction and also through collectors’ organizations.
Defining elegant glass can be a bit challenging. As a general rule, people use the term “elegant glass” to describe glass that was made by hand, by artisans, separating it from mass-produced trough glass, which was designed to be as cheap as possible. Elegant glass would have been expensive, but like Depression glass, it came in a range of colors and was often heavily faceted. The elegant glass was also sometimes etched to create patterns and designs.
This form of glassware was most commonly found in department stores and upscale shops that supplied goods for private homes. It was designed as an alternative to crystal and porcelain, which would have been extremely expensive; elegant glass was in a sense somewhere in between goods of the highest quality and expense, and more mundane housewares. As a result, it was mainly aimed at middle and upper class people, as lower class people could not afford elegant glass.
By the 1970s, glassmaking techniques had improved to the point where high-quality glass could be mass-produced relatively cheaply, and the economy had improved, so it was possible to buy imported china and crystal. As a result, elegant glass largely faded from production, as there was no longer a demand and manufacturers such as Fenton Glass, Tiffin Glass, Westmoreland Glass, Viking Glass and Louie Glass ceased making it.
Like other vintage and antique items, elegant glass has attracted the interest of collectors and companies that specialize in such items. Consequently, it is often readily available on the open market. However, people should take care when purchasing fancy glass, to make sure they are buying the genuine item, rather than a knockoff. Numerous companies publish guides to help people locate fancy glass, and sometimes skilled antique dealers offer courses and field trips to teach people to identify fancy glass and other items of interest to collectors.
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