Cole T posted a Tiffin goblet for identification help on our Facebook page. Tiffin Glass made some extraordinary stemware with intricate etched designs and fanciful shapes. The particular goblet Cole posted was line 17399, which is distinctive. You won’t mistake that for any other stem line!
I wasn’t able to help Cole, despite using my most complete Tiffin pattern guide, Tiffin is Forever – A Stemware Identification Guide, by Bob Page and Dale Frederiksen. Bob and Dale run Replacements, the large – and helpful – glass and china pattern company.
Usually Bob and Dale’s Tiffin guide is helpful. This stemware guide is excellent for identifying a given stem line, even if the specific etch is not shown. Once you know that Tiffin made a particular stem, then you can often zero in on the pattern.
Cole’s stem line, number 17399, is the same as this next cut stem, although with a different cutting. I was not able to identify this cutting either!
It’s possible that a decorating company bought the Tiffin blanks and did their own cutting. Back in the 1930s and into the 1950s there were many companies that specialized in decorating glass – with cuttings, gold or platinum trim, painted designs, etchings – but did not themselves produce glass. Decorating companies bought the plain glass pieces from firms like Tiffin and made their own designs and marketed the final product.
One of the best known decorating companies was Lotus, another was Hawkes and in kitchen glass Gay Fad was well known for their fruit designs. Decorating companies added greatly to the beautiful designs that spilled out of American glass companies, but they also added mysteries. One mystery is Cole T’s cut pattern!