Last post we started a short series on Imperial Candlewick. I’ve had a few pieces, barely enough to touch the surface of the pattern, but we’ll look at what we can.
Unlike most of the depression glass patterns we looked at, Imperial produced full dinnerware sets plus stemware and loads of accessories, serving pieces and decorative accents. They made many bowls in all sizes and shapes, including hearts, squares, circles, handled and not.
This first one is a standard serving bowl with two handles, about 10 inches across. My notes don’t specify but my memory is this was 10 inches not counting the handles, so a larger serving bowl size.
Candlewick 10 Inch Bowl with Handles
It was surprisingly hard to identify this by line number and the exact piece since many of the books don’t specify whether the measurements are with or without handles. Gene Florence always gave measurements without handles in his book but it didn’t appear that was always true from the photos I saw.
The key points for the bowl line numbers are the shape, whether there are any ribs, whether the handles are open or closed. My notes say this is the line 400, 145B bowl.
This next one is fancy, with a pretty crimped wavy shape. My photo isn’t very good! It’s also the 400 line, number 74SC. (I don’t know whether Imperial numbered the pieces sequentially or there’s a meaning in the number.)
Candlewick 400-74SC 9 Inch Crimped Bowl
Everything sold long ago so it’s pointless to haul out my old sales records. Replacements shows the first bowl with two handles at $38 and the pretty crimped one at $60.
This next piece was a mystery and I never identified it. It’s about 7 inches across, fairly straight sides, closed handles; in fact I thought it might be the base to something except there is no ledge for a lid and it’s not the mayo bowl.
Candlewick 2-Handled 7 Inch Bowl
Yes, it’s possible to go batty and cross eyed figuring out Candlewick!
My last bowl was a strange purchase. About a year after I started with glass a couple placed an ad in the paper for Candlewick, mentioned having rare pieces. Well! I’m a total ignoramus about the pattern but I went and the man tells me that this bowl is super rare because it has these little ribs and it’s worth $100 etc etc and etc. Of course I fell for it and took the bowl home.
Candlewick 8.5 Inch 4-Toed Bowl 400 74B
Yes, it is uncommon, hard to find but it took me a dickens of a time to finally identify it and get a decent photo – this was when I used our deck railing in the summer or dinner table in the winter – and I think it did finally sell for around $100. Anyway, I had fun with it!