This past week Darlene posted two candle holders on my Facebook page for identification help. I wanted to walk you through how I used my reference books to help Darlene.
This candle holder from Darlene reminded me of some Paden City holders. My favorite candlestick book The Glass Candlestick Book, Vol. 3: Kanawha to Wright- Identification and Value Guide is organized by company with volume 1 covering glass companies Agro Agate through Fenton; volume 2 includes big makers like Fostoria, Heisey and Imperial, and volume 3 has Paden City, New Martinsville and oh yes, Tiffin.
I checked the Paden City listings first and didn’t see this holder. The one it reminded me of is quite different, without the vertical ridges and little curlicues on the center.
I was lucky though. As I was paging through the book just for fun, I noticed Tiffin Williamsburg had a very similar shape to Darlene’s holder. Williamsburg has a molded design that is very different, but the general shape and size were the same. So I checked out Tiffin. Voila! There it was, with a lovely detailed description of the holder, the line number, and the fact that Tiffin modified the design a little over the years.
Normally I would have started with the etch, but this one did not ring any bells. I don’t think I have ever seen it before although I’m reasonably familiar with many Tiffin etches. (I’m a long way from being a Tiffin expert, just saying that I can usually recall a pattern as a Tiffin-Maybe.)
Darlene posted a second candle holder, also quite nice, that I thought might be Indiana or Imperial. It wasn’t in the Indiana section.
All three candle holder volumes by Felt, Stoer and Stoer have little pictures in the back that are supposed to help you find your candle; I’ve not found this useful as so many holders look identical at first glance. The pricing is reasonable, not perfect by any stretch but will put you in the right ballpark.
So there you have it, the secret to identify glass. The main thing is to have a decent library of glass reference books. I highly recommend the entire three volume series by Felt, Stoer and Stoer of which The Glass Candlestick Book, Vol. 3: Kanawha to Wright- Identification and Value Guide is the final volume covering Tiffin (listed as U. S. Glass).