Adam Depression Glass from Jeannette

Posts About Adam

Ready for Another Square Depression Glass Pattern? Meet Adam
Adam Depression Glass – Tips to Avoid Damage
More About Salt and Pepper Shakers – Jeannette Glass Patterns with Shakers
Adam Depression Glass in a quick pattern identification list:  Adam to Windsor Depression Glass Pattern Information
A reader’s holiday table set with several patterns including green Adam depression glass: Scott’s Rainbow Depression Glass – Colors Galore!

Adam Colors

Jeannette Glass made Adam in pink and green, with a few pieces of crystal from 1932 to 1934.  Despite that short production period it was popular in its day and still popular with happy collectors now.  Jeannette produced a small number of Delphite candle holders and yellow round salad plates, cups and saucers.  These are all rare.

The pink is most common, at least here in Michigan, but you can find complete sets of green with time.  Prices on the two colors are roughly comparable except for a few truly rare pieces like the pink vase or green butter dish that are costly.  I have never seen crystal, Delphite or yellow.  (Delphite is opaque light blue glass.)

Adam Design – Art Deco In Glass

Here is the small fruit bowl.  Notice the design includes a lovely feathery center in the base, flower sprays on the squared off rim, panels on the side, and a nice combination of squares and circles.  The tumblers shown above are cone shaped, combining triangles with circles.  The shapes show the strong Art Deco influence.

Here is the dinner plate so you can see the lovely feathery leaves in the center medallion.

The plate looks like it has a definite rim with a sharp inner rim edge, but it actually is more scooped with a gentle incline that rounds over to the rim.

Most of the Adam pieces are square.  Collectors found a very few round saucers and small plates and the footed sherbets and tumblers have round bases.  Most pitchers have square bottoms but there is a hard-to-find one with a round foot.

Adam Pieces – Dinnerware

Jeannette made a full dinnerware service, with plates, cereal and small fruit bowls, cups, saucers, tumblers and serving piece.  The pitcher (Jeannette called it a jug) is only one of the serving pieces; you can get multiple sizes of bowls, including a covered vegetable bowl and an oval bowls, a platter, relish tray, shakers, cake plate, creamer and sugar. These serving pieces are fun to find!

This relish dish is the only green piece of Adam we have had.  I bought several pieces of pink from a collector back in 2001 but only got one piece of green over the years.

This next picture of the covered bowl is from before I learned to photograph glass.  Here is the lid:

And here is the base:

Here’s the Adam creamer.  Notice the top of the handle is very different from the handle on the cup.

Adam Accessory and Fun Pieces

Adam was an early entry into the colored glass of the depression era, and as such Jeannette issued a wide array of pieces besides the typical dinnerware.  We’ve already covered the multitude of bowls and serving pieces, but you can find a vase, a candy dish, ashtray and candle holder.  These are lots of fun to collect since you can enjoy them any time and they are small and decorative, easy to display when you are not using them.  This is the candy which uses the same lid as the sugar bowl.

Adam Collecting Tips – Rare Pieces

• You’ll read about a very rare Adam/Sierra butter dish.  The butter top has a Sierra shape on the interior with the Adam design on the exterior on the regular Adam base.
• The pink vase is more scarce than the green, which is odd since in most pieces the green is a little less common.
• Green butter dishes are very rare.
• All the round pieces are rare, but remember, this is only the salad plate and saucer.

Adam Reproductions

The only piece that has been reproduced is the pink butter dish and it’s easy to spot.  (Information is taken from Gene Florence’s Collector’s Encyclopedia of Depression Glass, 19th Edition.)

Lid:  Check the veins on the leaves.  Fake Adam butters have poorly molded leaves where the veins do not meet in the center.  The authentic Adam depression glass has finely molded leaves where the veins do meet.  (In general this is true in almost every pattern: The fakes are poorly molded while the authentic pieces have a lovely, detailed design.)

Base:  Turn it upside down and look at the longer feathery leaves.  On the fakes the long leaves point diagonally, not centered or square to the flat sides.  The originals were square, with the long pointed leaves solidly pointed towards the center of the flat edges.

Basically, if you like Adam, don’t worry about reproductions except for the pink butter.  When you are ready to buy a pink butter keep these tips in mind and check before you purchase.   You should be able to see these details in any reliable online listing too.

Damage Problems with Adam Depression Glass

After seeing the pictures you probably can tell the main damage problem.  Yes, those square rims.  True, it’s easy to nick the corners, but in fact the biggest damage is from the inside edge of the rim, especially on bowls that people tend to stack.

Always check for inner rim roughness on all Adam pieces.  Run your finger along the top, inside and actual corner of the inner rim and visually check any rough spots or discontinuities you feel.  Your finger is a better judge than your eye when it comes to inner rim roughness!  Both candy jars that we had were rough on the inside edge of the base. Plates don’t have rim edges to get rough.

Like most depression glass Adam pieces have bubbles and straw marks.  Plates may have wear and both the creamer and the pitcher that we had several years ago suffered from cracks in the handle.  Except for inner rim roughness and the occasional nicked corner Adam is not more susceptible to damage than any other pattern.   

Summary

Adam depression glass from Jeannette has been popular since people started collecting in the late 1960s.  Hazel Marie Weatherman used a stars and stripes method to indicate popularity, with pink Adam getting the top 4 stars for being a beloved, sought after pattern in her 1981 Price Trends guidebook.  She also rated it a 4 stripes for being available, but it’s harder to find now.  If you like this pattern, then have fun antiquing!