Old New England Glassware in the Home - Part Seven - "Sidesteps"

Old New England Glassware in the Home

Part Seven

"Sidesteps"

            At the conclusion of Part Six, I said that all I have presented so far is merely an introduction to reviewing the appropriate old glassware found in the old New England home.  This is true.  I now turn to presenting this whole-of-object introduction all over again by denoting the astonishing expansion of what glassware in the old New England home actually... invented itself... by itself... to become.  It is a defining old New England design saga.

            “Defining”?

            It defines... good taste; the appropriate objects and their placement, of old  glassware

            In

            The old New England home.

            And

 In old New England

            Too.

            For this last?  Yes... it is ‘that big’.  And... the reader is now prepared, through the display of... (old New England glassware object) beautifications... and vile discernments of equal ‘bad tastes’ (note plurals) to undertake a ‘re-do’ using all again, inclusive of

‘old wedding glassware’ from the attic and dining room cupboard... ‘recycle that please’ ...cleanings too... to

            Ah...

            “Make appropriate corrections”

            Using the forthcoming pontifications on ‘old New England glassware

            In the home.

            TODAY, though, in this chapter (blog post) I pander an information ‘fill out’. I sidestep to present three helpful points that do ‘fill out’ but do, too, have lasting impact on the reader’s discernment skills or/and... AND the proper

            Glassware in the old New England home.

            “Oh shut-up” you say.  “I like my crummy juice glasses and I abhor having anything less than blatant bad taste in glassware displayed in my old New England home.”

            “We do know that, Darling”.

            Sidestep one is easy.  It is called, in old New England glassware, “Midwest’ or ‘Midwestern’.  And often ‘Pittsburgh’.  These are antiquarian glassware collector’s terms

            To discern

            Glassware that was ‘made’ in the ‘Midwest’ at the same time old New England glassware was being made in ... old New England.

            Like I said... ‘easy to understand’ but.... ‘with points’.

            The big point is that... glassware made ‘there’ (Midwest) was made, too, in a wilderness so... “yeah”... impurities in the glass metal, et all, but... more consequential... “Who you gonna sell that stuff to around here (1810-1820 Pittsburgh)?”.  Soooo....:

            “Go east new glassware”.  It did.  Old today but then new glassware needed a... stable rising middleclass domestic focused happy community of like minded economically prospering big white old New England home building (think “Sea Captain House, Maine” and such communities as Beacon Hill, Boston)...; ‘a marketplace’ “for that stuff”.

            Including the Erie Canal (1824) as an ideal route east transporting an ideal cargo (boxes of glassware) (crated, not too heavy and packed in straw)... one may easily understand “HOW” ‘Midwestern made glassware’ ‘CAME’ to New England.... homes.  This is why

            I

            Find it

            In old New England homes

            Today

            And

            YOU CAN TOO

            Find ‘early Pittsburg’ made glassware at

            YARD SALES

            And thrift shops in...

            Old New England. 

Keeping Eve and Bing (Part One) in mind, too:  Better watch what they, still wearing their flip-flops, ‘recycle’.  Too.

            The key sidestep point here is to introduce ‘Midwestern’ glassware, its production and its marketing.  It ‘doesn’t go away’.  In fact, the opposite happens.  As glassmaking design ‘revolutionizes’ in New England, they and the Midwest ARE... ‘team players’... for the whole of... old glassware... in the... old New England home.  So... old ‘Pittsburgh’ glassware

            In the old New England home

            Is

            “Good taste”.

            “Ah....”

            “Yes Darling; good taste”.

            “You mean I have to ...study... Midwestern glassmaking too?”

            “Yes Darling; plan to look into it.”

            It’s in the museums...  too.

            Sidestep two is the word “color” and the follow words “is everything”.  This is a New England glassware collector mantra that... includes Midwestern glassware so therefore becomes the mantra of ‘Early American Glass” “Collecting” (capitalized).  “Color is everything” denotes the passion, and that passion backed by the wallet, for ‘rare color’ objects (early American glassware).  It is a multi million dollar; probably ‘a billion’ now, mantra that....:

            Actually has very little impact on... glassware in the old New England home

            But that (mantra)

            One should be aware of.

            The reason it is of little import to the home is that most all old New England glassware is NOT and was never intended to be ‘rare’ ‘color’.  It was made, as I have repeatedly suggested, in an effort to achieve a ‘stunning’ high quality CLEAR glass metal equal to and surpassing ‘European imports’.  So... good taste in the old New England home, including a ‘touch of color here and there’, is ‘clear glassware’.  This color mantra does two things.  It makes the clear glass old New England glassware ‘accessible’ and:  It saves the old New England home owner seeking proper glassware.,, a fortune of their own cash.  SAVES is better expanded to “MAKES” “old New England glassware” “DIRT CHEAP” in the antiquarian-collector marketplace.

            “Thank you for doing that”.  It means that of all that I have harped about...  the good taste of what one should seek... is very, very, very, cost affordable extending to ‘absurdly’ ‘dirt cheap’  If there is a single reason to ‘CARE’ about ‘old New England glassware’ it is because one may, in the current forty year old marketplace ‘buy it’ for LESS than one can buy CRAP glassware... at ‘the (box) store’.

            “Color” commercial values are limited to ‘color freak’ collectors.  They are, themselves, NOT found with their glassware in old New England homes.  It is very rare to actually encounter a ‘color freak’ ‘serious’ ‘collector’ of ‘old New England glassware

            In the home.

            One might... read about... in a something... about a someone... paying a “THAT”... for a “THAT” of “Early American Glass”.  But that’s about it unless one TAKES OUT ones WALLET and tries to ‘elbow in’ to “THAT” (color freak New England glassware collecting).  It is, for the subject of this essay, a commercial salvation that one will not find in other New England design mediums.

            The salvation is ‘further more’ by the simple redundancy that this... old New England glassware... may be found

            All over the place

            In old New England

            And nobody cares

            Meaning that affectionates such as myself ‘get it’ ‘all the time’ ‘for nothing’.  It is a ‘you can too’ marketplace leveled to an ‘it can’t get more level in old New England’ status.

            “Yikes!”

            “We know, Darling.  But...

One still has, as most do,

Bad taste

Of glassware.

Darling”.

Blue; the color blue... is sidestep three.  This sidestep may prove to be difficult to “SEE” at first and, properly, it IS a “SEE”; one uses one’s TRAINED eye to discern the “THIS” of sidestep three; the color blue.

Within my harping up to this point, I have noticed that clear glass metal production repeatedly ‘hung fire’ due to impurities contaminating the glass metal thereby turning ‘clear’ in to an unacceptable ‘tainted’-‘tinted’ glass metal.  At best.

            “At best” means... for example... when, in 1817, Henry Schoolcraft failed in profitable clear glassware production at Keene, NH (Part Five) and ‘went out west’, the Keene glassworks continued to make the same objects he tried to make in clear glass but... made this glassware out of utility or bottle glass (impure amber-olive-green glass metal).  That did ‘work’; they were able to sell utility glassware.  Utility glassware is not glassware for the old New England home.  Utility glassware is a container filled with something that is brought to the old New England home.  That is; it’s the stuff IN the container, not the container, that is ‘intended’ for the ‘old New England home’.  This is why ‘at best’ glass metal...; impurity plagued clear glass metal... was... “at best” for ‘glassware’

            In the old New England home.  In 1817.

            Now... with clear glass metal production effort came a MINOR blue glass metal production effort.  It was a “let’s try making some of that’ glass metal effort that was TOO, impurity plagued.  SOOO... ‘blue glass’ WAS made but in scanty amounts AND

            It’s coloration was... impurity plagued soooo....

            The blue glass (“cobalt blue”) color, due to the impurities, has a ‘hint’ of ‘gray’ in its intended ‘rich cobalt blue coloration’ (again in direct imitation of European and English blue glassware imports)... that TODAY... to the ‘trained eye’ is a very distinctive ‘character’ of ... early BLUE glass metal production in... old New England.

            So what.

            There are two ‘so what’s’.

            The first is that this tinted blue color to the eye ...of the collector AND student... is ‘adoring’.  Once one trains to denote this ‘hint’ of ‘gray’ in the blue... this tainted ‘old blue’... one and one’s eye DEMANDS it be there.  IF it is a ‘not there’ then the blue glass under scrutiny is... TOO... BLUE ‘to the eye’ AND, often, TOO BLUE TO BE “OLD”.  I am not at all expecting the reader to ‘get this’ let alone ‘know this’.  Further, I don’t care.  You’ve been told.  It is a feature.  It is a factor.  And I do not leave the point.

            What is the point and if I don’t leave it where does that point go?  The point is that impurities affect the actual color of  old blue glass found in old New England toning the blue glass metal so it is NOT “TOO BLUE”.  And...  the... not too blue...

            Becoming ‘So what’ number two... takes up and

            Carries to OTHER (blue) antique’s design; antique blue colored objects

            Like OLD dark blue English Staffordshire transferware ‘china’....

            That, TOO, has a ‘hint’ of ‘gray’ in the blue color, again caused by impurities AND defining why MODERN blue English Staffordshire transferware is “TOO BLUE” to the knowing eye.  (And explaining why trained eyes like I dismiss suggested ‘old china’ across a room as ‘not old’).  Yes:  The ‘hint’ of ‘gray’ in the old blue ‘thing’ is real and ‘big’ in its influence in discerning TRUE antiques that are blue.(“old blue”) or ...TOO BLUE so, therefore are “NEW” (of modern production).

            And more Hell Fire...

            “Darling”.

            This tinted-tainted blue ‘thing’ of color... and ‘old color’ carries WAY across the board game of ‘antiques’.  It carries to other design mediums, design forms and their COLORS.  Basically, it is best to ‘assume’ ALL antique color is ‘affected’ by this so... learn to look for “OLD YELLOW” instead of “YELLOW” (No; not ‘earth tone yellow’ either, they fake that), etc., et al... and...

            Hell Fire again

            “WASHED” (new) color to “LOOK LIKE” ‘old color.  YES I am talking about the ‘like washed blue jean pants” Eve and Bing wear:  WASHED COLOR to ...FAKE... an ‘antique look’.

            “WHERE WHAT WHY?”

            You say.

            Ok.  How about ‘oriental scatter rugs’... on the floor of ... the (your?) old New England home.  That’s right:  What I am speaking of here allows me to AT FORTY FEET AWAY, denote a true ‘old rug’ based on it’s ‘old colors’ as opposed to a ‘later rug’ with it’s... “ah... no thank you” color OR a NEW ‘washed’ rug with washed colors that makes ‘people’ (“idiots”) think that ‘that rug’ “IS OLD”.

            And it goes from there

            “Like where?”

            “Old paintings  Try those

Darling”.

            One needs... NEEDS... to ‘know’ (study) ‘old color’ of antiquarian design.  That’s what this blue sidestep is about:  One needs to know of and study ‘old color’ and understand it influence on “ANTIQUES”

            In the old New England home.

            One may not think so right this moment, but one WILL THANK ME for ‘telling this’ after one... ‘discovers’ how influential this ‘color thing’ is.  It is not ‘just glassware’ in the old New England home.  It, actually, ‘touches’ every thing (antique) in the

            Old New England Home.

            YOUR trained EYE WILL DELIGHT in

            ‘Knowing the difference”.  Sighting true ‘old colors’ does ‘take the breath away’.  It is also very profitable to ‘know about’ around others who

            Do not.