2019.10.15 Tuesday Stretch

Cal Here. Good evening, I hope you have had a good Tuesday. I look forward to helping you wrap it up with a few more photos of pastel stretch glass. Dave has already provided the commentary, so my focus tonight will be on sharing a few pieces of my favorite pastel stretch glass. Let’s begin with the pieces which are generally considered to be pink, although technically were marketed as various other colors during both the early and late periods of stretch glass production.

Diamond marketed their pink stretch glass as “Afterglow.” It is very similar to Fenton’s Velva Rose. Here are Diamond’s bowl and candlesticks in Afterglow.

Let’s take a look at Fenton’s Velva Rose, produced during both the early and late periods of production. In the early period Velva Rose was a striking color (e.g. it had to be reheated to obtain the desired color) but in the later period Fenton was able to change the formula so that it was no longer necessary to reheat the glass to obtain the pink coloring. Fenton made a wide variety of shapes and sizes of Velva Rose in the early period. I’m showing some of the more unusual items here. One quick note about availability in today’s market. For some reason, both the 8” and 10” “Florentine” candlesticks are difficult to find in Velva Rose. The same is true for sherbets. The 3 items are readily found in several of the other stretch glass colors and there is no known reason for their scarcity. One can only suspect that they were not good sellers and therefore were only made in limited quantities OR because of the additional effort required to strike the glass, Fenton did not make them in quantity. At any rate, collectors today will find it a challenge to acquire any of tall candlesticks in Velva Rose and it is an equal challenge to find early period sherbets. The 8” candlesticks and sherbets were made in the late period; the candlesticks from this period are somewhat more available and the sherbets are plentiful. Note that the later period sherbets are from a different mold than the earlier ones, so they are larger and much heavier. You will see the late period sherbet on the catalog page.

Imperial also made a contribution to pink stretch glass, calling its glass “Rose Ice.” Here is a photo of an Imperial bowl with a bit of decoration on it.

US Glass also marketed pink stretch glass, especially in their #310 line.

Finally, Vineland contributed a few examples of pink stretch glass. Vineland’s pink can easily be overlooked as it is, sometimes, anything but pink in color. My first purchase of a piece of Vineland’s pink stretch glass was a 10” candleholder which appeared to be nearly grey and leaned slightly. Later I found a mate for it in a similar color but, thankfully, without the leaning! Unfortunately, I can’t find a photo of those candlesticks at the moment (I’m traveling, so they are not available for me to photograph for tonight) so I will show you a pair of Vineland pink trumpet candlesticks instead.

There is much more to pastel stretch glass and maybe we will be able to send in some photos of some additional pieces before the month is over. Thanks for your interest in stretch glass.