Blank? Etch? Huh? It’s time to reduce confusion with those oddball glass terms.
A glass blank is the basic shape, the design of the piece of glass before any decorations. The cup and saucer shown are Heisey’s Empress blank. Heisey made the Empress shape in several colors, sold it undecorated as “Empress” and used it for lots of decorations.
The etched design is called Pompeii. That is the pattern you see with birds, scrolls, lotus flowers and cross-hatched ovals. If you wanted to be exact, you would call this Heisey Glass Pompeii Etched Crystal Empress Cup and Saucer. That’s a mouthful so most of the time you would see this called Heisey Pompeii.
From what I can tell Heisey put Pompeii only on their Empress blank. But sometimes glass companies used several blanks for the same etch. Cambridge did this more than other glass companies. Consider Rose Point, Cambridge’s all time best selling etch. Cambridge put Rose Point on the 3121 blank, on the 3400 blank, the 3500 blank, 3600 blank and and and. You get the idea. If you like Rose Point you can choose among a lot of shapes. Cambridge etched Rose Point on many blanks.
We posted about Fostoria Chintz console sets here and showed four pieces, all are the Fostoria Chintz etch. Three of the pieces are the Baroque blank with flared wings and fleur de lis. The last candle holder shown, is U shaped has no wings and no fleur de lis. This one is the Sonata blank.
The blanks were expensive because they were partially molded – and each mold was unique. When a glass company found a successful blank, in other words one that sold well, they used it for lots of designs.
Let’s look at a couple examples.
Going back to our Cambridge example, Cambridge used their 3121 stemware blank for a host of etched designs. They put Chantilly, Elaine, Wildflower, Valencia and Portia – and Rose Point – on 3121. Obviously it was a successful shape for them.
Remember: The blank is the shape regardless of the design. The etch is the design on the surface.
OK, that’s our vocabulary lesson for the day. I hope you enjoyed it!