Saturday Dave and I went antiquing in downtown Kalamazoo. Right inside the door is a tall display case in front of the window. The booth owner has some lovely depression glass and she arranged it by color. It’s a rainbow and so pretty.
I’ll show you what we found and what I liked the best, then you can leave comments to tell me what you like. Deal? She had a big grouping of pink glass. The pink plate on the bottom is Miss America. It was hard to tell the spiral plates, probably Twisted Optic from Imperial. Love that little center handled server on top!
Did you notice the pink bowl and the handled serving plate to the right of the plates? That bowl is another Imperial depression glass pattern called Little Jewel. I like it. It’s got a nice look and feel and the colors are luscious. Isn’t “Color” one reason we love depression glass? Here it is up close. I think the serving plate is Twisted Optic or Spiral Flutes from Duncan Miller. Until a few years ago I used to see Twisted Optic a lot.
You know I love green. Green glass is pure springtime, so fresh and happy looking it makes me smile. And the patterns! It seems like almost all the prettiest patterns come in green – Cameo, Horseshoe, Lorain, Georgian. Wow. This next shelf had green sherbets all stacked up. Top left is Rose Cameo from Belmont, under that is Cameo from Hocking and the one by itself is Georgian Lovebirds from Federal. I love the color of green depression glass – it is such a true, pure green.
Did you see that green center handled server? Center handled servers are another of my favorites (I have a lot of favorites, don’t I!) and it’s green. And etched. Let’s get a better look at this beauty.
There is a stack of Patrician green depression glass sherbets off to the right. The sherbet by itself is Ribbon from Hazel Atlas and the cup and sugar in back are Colonial Fluted or Rope. These are more patterns I used to see at estate sales and flea markets. In fact one of my first big purchases as a glass seller was a set of Colonial Fluted.
Now we’re coming to another shelf where I had to stop and ooh and aah. I like yellow depression glass, especially when it’s used with green or pink or crystal. It’s odd that you can find a few pieces of yellow in several depression patterns, but glass companies made only a few patterns in full sets of yellow. The square shaped creamer here is Lorain, the cup is S pattern and the plates are a mystery.
Two of my favorite patterns are Lorain and Horseshoe. This picture shows the Horseshoe big bowl and rounded creamer and sugar. Indiana Glass made both Lorain and Horseshoe and they are exquisite designs.
The amber creamer in front is Madrid and the sherbet on the right is Roxanna from Hazel Atlas. I’ve seen Roxanna only a couple times in person and it was one pattern that was made primarily in yellow. You can see the mystery plates in this picture. They have a hunting scene in the center and are mold etched, not one of the elegant glass patterns.
I’m going to show one last shelf, which was on the bottom and didn’t photograph quite as pretty. The pink cups are Sierra or Pinwheel. I couldn’t get a good view of the plates underneath that have the spiral design, but I think they are Arcoroc. Arcoroc is a French glass company that made pink glass in the 1970s. It is not depression glass.
That’s just the first display cabinet in the antique store! It had more depression glass than I’ve seen in a while, including some patterns that are not real common like Roxanna and Horseshoe. The owner displayed everything so it was fun to see and photograph.
We have several more booths to tour, so come back and let’s go antiquing again!