My Search To Identify These Salt and Pepper Shakers

Oh my... this week I was driven to learn more again about vintage glassware! This is what started it all. What a trail these salt and peppers took me down.

Here are some of the things that I've learned. I have quoted from some different sites that had great information for me a newbee to the history of this glassware.

The King's Crown Collection Page Glassery
Ruby Glass

is properly used to describe glass which is made of a comparatively expensive gold solution formula, and is red in color all the way through, solid color. True "Cranberry" glass falls into this group, although it usually has applied clear glass parts.

Ruby-Flashed

is the proper term for a less expensive method of making a piece of glass appear to have been made of solid color. A small quantity of ruby glass is blown slightly, cooled a bit and then dipped into a batch of clear, molten glass, and the desired item is then made. This gives the finished article a thin colored coat, a mere film of color in relation to the amount of clear glass used.

Ruby-Stained

is the name for the least expensive way of obtaining red color on a piece of glass, the item is fashioned in the usual way from clear, molten glass, usually pressed in one of several thousand patterns. The staining material, usually ruby-red in color, was painted onto the annealed glass with a brush, wherever it was desired for decorative effect, and fired on for permanency. This enabled one factory to produce the glass items and to sell them to various decorating companies, where different portions of the same pattern could be stained. King's Crown is of this variety.

pre-production: Ruby Stained vs. Flashed Glass

In the mid 19th century, in Europe (Bohemia) glass workers developed a process of flashing a piece of glass so that had a very thin layer of ruby glass on the outside. This was done by quickly putting the initial gather into a pot of ruby glass and coating the outside (flashing it) with a very thin layer of ruby. The piece was then finished to be a vase, pitcher, whatever.

After the piece had been through the lehr, glass engravers would engrave scenes, building, animals through the ruby glass. We’re all familiar with these Bohemian pieces.

In the 1880s a process was developed whereby a coating could be painted and then fired onto the surface of already-finished glass products. Silver nitrate produced a yellow coating, or stain, and gold chloride produced a ruby coating or stain.

In any case, these pieces came to be called Ruby Stained. Naturally there is some confusion between the products. Almost all flashed glass is blown, where ruby stained glass is mostly pressed, although there is some crossover. Flashed ruby glassware is generally a darker ruby than stained wares, but this, too, is open to interpretation. Generally, ruby stained wares will be personalized, and have a date, while flashed wares will have a scene, or a building, without the personalization.

I admit it that I am nowhere near able to identify a lot of pieces, but would say that I have learned a lot.

Here is a page from the 1978 Indiana Glass Catologue featuring the complete serving set that my salt and pepper are part of.

I have concluded that this set is Indiana Glass Ruby Band Diamond Point Salt and Pepper.

Thanks so much to CharmingsCollectables at Vintage Village for the assistance she was able to give me!

I hope that you have learned something new today, as have I.