Definitions of:    Quezal glass - reproduction - rubina verde - ruby glass - ruby-stained glass

GLOSSARY OF GLASS TERMS

Q - R

A -  B      Ca - Cz     D -  E      F - L     M - Op      Ov - Pe     Pi - Pz     Sa - Ste     Str - Z

Glossary Table of Contents

The purpose of this guide is to help buyers understand terms
commonly used by E-Bay sellers to describe old American glass (1850-1930).
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Many thanks to all the E-Bayers who
have contributed photos to this glossary!

Quezal glass lamp shades featuring a blue hooked feather pattern.
Shown at right is the iridescent "Lustre" interior of one of the blue shades.

photos courtesy of  saraantiques

Quezal Glass.  Quezal Art Glass & Decorating Co. was a glassworks in Brooklyn, NY, founded in 1902 by five glassmakers:  Martin Bach, Nicholas Bach, Thomas Johnson, Adolph Demuth and Lena Scholtz.  Martin Bach, who became Quezal's president, was a former Tiffany employee.  According to An Illustrated Dictionary of Glass, Quezal made iridescent art glass called Lustre ware very similar in appearance to Tiffany's Favrile and Steuben's Aurene.  Author Judith Miller of Twentieth Century Glass writes that while Quezal designs borrowed unabashedly from Tiffany, Quezal ware was characterized by "superb technical quality" that made the company a serious Tiffany rival.  Quezal's Lustre ware pieces typically have iridescent blue, green, gold, opal, white and red finishes.  Lustre ware vases tend to have thicker walls than most Tiffany vases and appear in floriform shapes such as tulips, lilies and Jack-in-the-pulpits.  When decorated, Quezal ware often features exquisite pulled feathering techniques (as shown above), or the stylized botanical designs typical of Art Nouveau glass.  Quezal also was was known for its "spider" glass, which features thin amber threads wrapped like spider webs around vases and lamp shades, and for its later "Innovation" glass, introduced in 1917, which resembles pottery.  The name Quezal was trademarked in 1902, and the company's logo was a quetzal bird, the Central American long-tailed crested bird with brilliant plumage.  Quezal produced glass in a variety of shapes from 1902 through 1924, including vases, lamp shades, compotes, finger bowls, salt dips and candle holders.  Martin Bach died in 1921 and after a change of ownership, the company closed in 1925.  Bach's son, Martin Bach Jr., and several other members of Quezal later joined the Vineland Flint Glass works of Victor Durand.  Authenticity and Reproductions:  Quezal glass is usually signed with "Quezal" or "Quezal NY" etched into the glass or written with a stylus in silver or platinum.  Buyers should be aware that some imitation Quezal ware bears intentionally deceptive forged Quezal signatures.  (Buyers fare best by sticking to sellers who offer unconditional authenticity guarantees, who describe ware as "properly signed" and not merely "signed", and whose feedback is visible and not private.)  In addition, Quezal ware is sometimes signed with forged Tiffany signatures by dealers attempting to pass off Quezal as Tiffany glass.  If you are interested in learning more about Quezal glass, we recommend Neil MacNeil's article "Quezal Art Glass" in the April, 2003 issue of The Journal of Antiques & Collectibles (journalofantiques.com/Apr03/featureapr03.htm).  See also "feathered glass," "Art Nouveau"  and "Tiffany Glass" in this glossary.

A Corn vase made by Dugan Glass Co. in 1905,
and a reproduction made by L.G. Wright in the 1960's.

above photos by vant21 and curculiosglass

Reproduction:  a term used to discredit authenticity.  A reproduction is a copy, often a cheap copy, of an original piece.  The term suggests that the piece is of inferior quality, and possibly made with the purpose of fooling buyers into believing the piece is an original.  The label  "reproduction" also implies that a piece was issued by a company other than the original maker.  For example, the corn vase shown above right was made by the L.G. Wright company in the 1960's as an imitation of the older Dugan Glass Company corn vase, known for its fine mold work.  Deceptive selling tactics may encourage buyers to mistake the imitation for the original, which is far more valuable.  Re-issue, by contrast, is a term used when the original manufacturer has re-issued a piece using original molds.  The term "reissue" often conveys that the piece is relatively new.  The Fenton Art Glass Company, for example, issued a pressed glass vase in a pattern known as Diamond Point Columns in 1911; in the seventies, Fenton reissued vases in the same pattern, clearly marking the new vases with a Fenton logo that distinguished them from the originals.

     

Two examples of rubina verde:    A ruby/vaseline hobnail
berry bowl made by Hobbs, Brockunier & Co., circa 1880's (left),
with a 19th Century Bohemian cranberry/vaseline loving cup (right).

photos courtesy of tpljjj (left); and of vaselineglass.org/
 private collection of David & Vickie Peterson (right)

Rubina verde (also called Rubena Verde):  a color and type of glass.  "Rubina verde" literally means "ruby green" in Italian, and is a term used to describe glass that shades from red to green.  According to the Collector's Encyclopedia of American Art Glass, 2nd ed., the red of rubina verde ranges from dark ruby-red to pinkish-red cranberry; the green may be a dark, almost aqua green to yellowish green.  Early American rubina verde was made in both mold-pressed and mold-blown glass.  In the 1880's, United States glassmakers such as Hobbs, Brockunier & Co., used uranium dioxide as a colorant in rubina verde, producing mold-pressed glass that faded from ruby to the yellow-green color now known as "canary" or "vaseline".  According to glass authority Tom Bredehoft, Hobbs made its rubina verde pressed glass pieces, such as the bowl shown above left, by placing a hot gather of ruby-colored glass on the inside of a pressed-glass vaseline body (see patternglass.com/).  The blown-glass Bohemian loving cup shown above was made through a standard casing technique:  a gather of molten red glass was placed on a larger vaseline gather collected on a blow pipe.  As the two colors were blown together, the red glass remained near the rim of the glass piece formed.  Rubina verde pieces made with uranium-content yellow-green glass fluoresce bright green under ultraviolet light, and they are thus often found featured in books on vaseline glass.

         

A Victorian gold-ruby glass pitcher; a selenium ruby glass demi cup and saucer;
and a Royal Ruby Depression glass vase made by Anchor-Hocking.
The pinkish-red of the pitcher results from gold chloride added to the glass;
cadmium selenide created the orange-red of the selenium ruby pieces;
and copper oxide was used in Royal Ruby, giving it a purplish cast.

photos (left to right) by dayespast, wildol and curculiosglass

Ruby glass:  a type and color of glass.  Ruby glass has ancient roots:  Roman craftsmen made a bright, blood-red glass whose color was produced by mixing molten glass with minute spheres of gold.  After being lost for centuries, the process for making what was called "gold ruby" glass was rediscovered by Johann Kunckel of Berlin in the mid-1600's.  Kunckel dissolved gold in Aqua Regia (nitric acid and hydrochloric acid), producing gold chloride.  He then added the gold compound to molten glass; when the glass was reheated, the gold chloride caused it to turn a deep ruby color.  By the 1800's, such glass was referred to in Victorian England as "ruby glass".  In 1800's America, a pinkish shade of gold ruby glass was used widely to make art glass, lamps and table ware:  Americans called this glass "cranberry glass".  (See "cranberry glass" in this glossary.)  According to An Illustrated Dictionary of Glass, the term "ruby glass" was first popularized in America at the turn of the century by Frederick Carder, the co-founder in 1903 of Steuben Glass in Corning, New York.  Carder used the term "ruby glass" to describe two kinds of glass produced by Steuben.  The first was made by adding gold chloride to molten glass; the gold caused the glass to turn pinkish red when reheated.  The second kind of "ruby glass" was produced by adding cadmium selenide and zinc sulphide to molten glass; with reheating, these chemical compounds turned the glass a brilliant red color sometimes shading to orange.  This second form of ruby glass is sometimes called "selenium ruby".  Although produced by Steuben, selenium ruby's discovery is credited to Nicholas Kopp, the Chief Scientist for the Pittsburgh Lamp, Brass and Glass Co., who developed the selenium glass process in the 1890's; one of selenium ruby's first uses was in railroad signal lights.  Steuben used both types of ruby glass principally to color white alabaster and clear glass by coating these with a thin layer of flashed ruby glass.  Steuben merged with Corning Glass in 1918, and Corning continued to produce ruby glass until 1933.  Other producers of ruby glass in the first two decades of the 1900's included such companies as Boston & Sandwich, Pairpont and Fenton Art Glass.  Fenton used mainly selenium ruby, because it was more adaptable than gold ruby to being pressed into molds.  Depression Era ruby glass:  Ruby glass became especially popular during the Depression.  In 1939, Anchor-Hocking introduced "Royal Ruby" glass, which used copper oxide rather than selenium or gold as a coloring agent.  Much of the Depression "ruby glass" made thereafter by various companies was colored with copper oxide as well; such glass tends to have a purplish tint, which helps distinguish it from earlier gold and selenium ruby.  According to Naomi L. Over, author of Ruby Glass of the 20th Century (1990), important makers of ruby glass during the 1930's and 1940's were, among others, Anchor-Hocking, Cambridge, Duncan & Miller, Fostoria, Imperial, MacBeth-Evans, New Martinsville, Paden City, Viking and Vintage.   Special note:  Early American pattern glass (EAPG) often was decorated with "ruby staining";  ruby staining is the result of a chemical process and should not be confused with ruby glass used for flashing.  See  "ruby-stained glass" below.  See also, "Steuben glass".

An 1897 George Duncan's Sons & Co. ruby-stained
and engraved child's EAPG mug, made in the pattern called Button Arches

photo courtesy of jetcitykid

Ruby-stained glass:  staining is a glass-decorating technique.   Staining is done by brushing, painting or spraying a cold piece of glass with a chemical.  The chemical is then fired at high temperatures; when exposed to heat, the chemical takes on a desired color.  Glass with staining is often misidentified as "flashed glass," because both flashing and staining are used to leave a thin colored coating on clear glass.  The two glass-coloring techniques, however, are very different.  In flashing, layers of glass give pieces their color, but in staining, color is derived purely from the chemical coating.  Usually, but not always, a colored coating on mold-pressed glass is the product of staining; flashing is generally (but not always) associated with blown glass.  Staining may vary from very high quality, thick staining with rich coloration, to low-grade staining in which the color is weak or uneven and the chemical coating is thin and easily scratched.  The Victorian child's mug shown above is an example of good-quality ruby staining.  Such Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG) was often stained red and then decorated though etching or engraving techniques that removed part of the staining to allow the underlying clear glass to form a design or an inscription.  The reverse side of this mug (shown under "EAPG"  in this glossary) is engraved with "Brooksie" and "1899".   The colorant in ruby staining is copper oxide.  Staining may be done in a variety of colors:  EAPG, for example, may be stained in such colors as green, blue, platinum, amber and yellow.  If you're interested in learning about ruby-stained EAPG, we recommend the website of the Ruby Stain Museum (rubystainmuseum.com).  We also recommend the article "Ruby-Stained Souvenir Glass" by Orva Hieseenbutte at the website of the National Depression Glass Association (www.ndga.net/rainbow/1975/75rrg11d.htm).  Compare "flashing" in this glossary.

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Many thanks to E-Bayers  dayespast,  saraantiques,  tpljjj,  vant21  and wildol  for generously contributing their expertise and photographs to this page of the glossary.  Rights to all photos belong to the photographers, and pictures should not be used without their permission.  Text is (c) 2007 curculiosglass, all rights reserved.  To locate any E-Bay seller mentioned here,  just click on "Site Map" at the bottom of your E-Bay screen, and then click on "Feedback Forum" at the right top corner of the large menu that pops up.  Type or copy the seller's name into the Feedback Forum's search blank.  

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