So here are a few items
to get you started so you, too, can have some meaningful
knowledge to put on the plate when you and your Depression
glass collector friends gather ‘round and chat.

English Hobnail leads the pack as the design with around
the most available pieces still out there for collectors.
Westmoreland Glass Company produced the English Hobnail
pattern from the late 1920s to the 1980s, with the
Depression-era pieces made in eight different colors. In
total, 175 pieces of this particular design were created.

Rose Cameo, conversely, holds the record for the least
number of pieces available in a pattern. The Belmont
Tumbler Company held the patent for Rose Cameo, and only
six pieces of this design made it to the marketplace: a
plate, a footed sherbet, a footed tumbler, a berry bowl,
and a 5-inch and 6-inch bowl. Because Belmont manufactured
only tumblers and was trying to recover from a massive
fire, experts speculate the actual production of this rare
design happened at the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company, only a
few miles away. A six-piece set of tumblers – the pattern
was only made in green – in mint condition can be had for
between $150 and $175 (prices may have changed since I wrote
this).

The Jeanette Glass Company breaks all records for coming up
with the most patterns. Jeanette made 11 patterns of
Depression glass between 1928 and 1946: Sunburst, Homespun,
Swirl, Doric and Pansy, Windsor, Sunflower, Doric, Adam,
Sierra, Floral, and Cherry Blossom.

And then at the other end of the spectrum, the Fenton Glass
Company produced only a single pattern of Depression glass
– the Lincoln Inn.

Of the 200+ patterns of Depression glass created, footed
salt and pepper shakers from Hocking’s Mayfair design
demand some of the very highest prices. Don't flinch
when (or if) you have a close encounter with one: They go
for more than $9,000, which makes them 1 of the most expensive
items of all Depression glass patterns at the time of
writing this article.

Hazel-Atlas produced the Aurora pattern in beautiful cobalt
blue for one year only – from 1937 to 1938.

Jeanette and Federal glass companies manufactured the two
most reproduced patterns, Cherry Blossom and Madrid.
Jeanette produced 43 pieces of the Cherry Blossom design
from 1930 to 1939 in five colors. Federal’s Madrid output
numbered 45 pieces in five colors from 1932 to 1939. The
popularity of these designs, of course, made reproductions
impossible to avoid, but also makes the original
Depression-era versions that much harder to detect.

This article, perhaps, may inspire you to dig deeper and
find out even more about the Depression glass products
we’ve all come to love. Hopefully, with these bits and
pieces of trivia, you’ve learned something you didn’t
already know. If you haven’t, then you need to be writing
your own articles on Depression glass trivia and
enlightening the rest of us! But if you have benefited, you
can safely know that the next time you’re sitting next to
that 40-year collector at convention, you, too, have more
comments to make than just about “all those pretty,
Depression glass colors!”

Until next time,

Murray Hughes

http://www.DepressionGlassSecrets.com

http://www.depressionglasssecrets.com/DPweb-articles/depression-glass-trivia.htm