Fostoria Glass June Azure Blue Two-Handled Bon Bon
Recently a prospective customer emailed me to share her dilemma. She got a few pieces of depression glass and wants more. Her problem? What to collect. And if she does collect depression glass, will it go the way of her Beanie Baby collection?
My advice is to find what you enjoy, what makes you happy to see it, happy to hold it, glad to own it. You can collect pieces of blue glass, or get a few plates and cups for lunch, or go after a single pattern. There are enough choices to please everyone.
Will your depression glass be another Beanie Baby, doomed to stay in boxes? No. It won’t. Beanie Babies were made deliberately to be collected. They are like collector plates, created so you would buy several.
Depression glass is different. This is something that people used every day and it might have been the only spot of pretty color in their homes. In the depression housewives didn’t have extra money and for many, their glass was the only beautiful thing they owned.
That alone makes depression glass special: that connection to the past, that sense of owning something that was special. Depression glass is not a manufactured collectible; it is the real thing.