Bobbie sent me an interesting email asking for advice on evaluating her Royal Lace blue depression glass. Blue Royal Lace is one of the most popular – and expensive – depression glass patterns.
I get emails every week asking: “What is my glass? How much is it worth? How can I sell it?”
It is unethical for me to do an appraisal without seeing the glass in person but I’m happy to share guidelines that may help. If you’re in a similar situation, then let’s look at these points:
- What is the pattern, color and piece?
- What is the condition?
Once you have determined these points then a few places to judge value are eBay or Replacements.com, or Etsy. Reference books, including Gene Florence’s guides, are useful to give you a ballpark but won’t be current. (I find Florence’s guides tend to be low on the most desirable patterns.)
Value is determined by supply and demand just as for any other item. It doesn’t matter how rare something is if no one wants it. Conversely, a pattern like Royal Lace, which has many admirers, has strong demand and has retained a high value even though you can find most pieces without too much difficulty.
On the other extreme, the interesting S Pattern Stippled Rose depression glass from MacBeth Evans is a very slow seller, even at greatly reduced prices. It is not as popular.
Patterns like Cambridge Rose Point, Royal Lace, Hocking Mayfair, Fostoria June, Federal Sharon and Georgian Lovebirds tend to maintain their value due to enduring popularity. Certain pieces in each of these patterns are rare and can be quite pricey, but most pieces are still affordable.
As for selling glass, you can certainly try an ad in the paper or on Craigs list, take it to a consignment auction. Selling online is not easy (I can attest to that!) and is time consuming to photograph, list, then wrap and ship the glass. It’s a trade off whether you sell to a dealer for a small amount but quickly, or to a collector for more money but considerably more work.
As for identification help, you are welcome to post photos on our Facebook page. I’m glad to look at your pieces and help if I can and your post will go out to a couple hundred other glass lovers too.