Topic: Swankyswigs

[Heidimin]

Anyone here know anything about them? I found some basic info here:

http://www.kraft.com/100/innovations/reusable.html


And I bought the Schiffer book by Mark & Sheila Moore. But neither source tells me who designed and made them, or how the pattern was applied - was it screen-printing?

(Lest I be accused of losing focus from my AHW/ Sherdley/ Ravenhead obsession  , Andy McConnell cites Swankyswigs as the inspiration for the Sherdley/ Ravenhead screen-printed tumblers.)

[David E]

Frank might have something squirreled away, but they were quite popular for the time. You may find that the two can get mistaken, but there is a ready collecters market for Swankyswigs!

Screen-printed, I would ahve thought, but I haven't seen one close up.

[Cathy B]

Kraft registered the designs in Australia, at least, so maybe different companies were licenced to make them?

[Frank]

Swankyswigs were introduced in 1933 but were originally hand decorated then partly mechanical. Those were mostly just lined and later they used a stencil technique to create all over patterns, still by hand. In 1937 they started to use silk screen printing. All were made by Hazel Atlas until 1956 when Bartlett Collins got involved briefly.

I would hesitate to call these the inspiration for anything without corroborative evidence. For one Swankyswigs started in 1933 but other companies had been hand decorating (brushes and rubber stamps) tumblers since the 1920's. Of course, transfer printing had been available for some time but theis type of glass was characterised by bright lively colourings... mostly dots and stripes.

Once mechanised, it was a means of producing a new look and no doubt put a lot of noses out of joint as the cheap colourful glss must have hurt traditional production techniques... but we are well aware of the impact of lower cost production on glass production.

A more useful book is The Decorated Tumbler, Weatherman 1978. Limited to US production.

[Heidimin]

Thanks all, very helpful. The Decorated Tumbler sounds like essential reading - will start looking for a copy. Can't believe I just wrote that... How sad am I?

Were Kraft/ Hazel Atlas among the first to use screen-printing? Or had it been around for a while?

Interestingly screen-printing was (also?) introduced for fabrics in about the 30s - I would have thought it would have been around much earlier, but according to a book I've got on Warners fabrics (for whom AHW designed from the 1930s onwards), until then everything was hand-blocked.

[Frank]

Silk screen was used in WW1 to print flags for all the funerals because there were not enough tailors left to stitch them. It started out in UK circa 1900 and was used for industrial purposes. Glass use must have happened before Swanky swigs but not much before... early 30's perhaps. The take up of the technique by artists occured around 1930 and that was in the US. Screens can be made photographically or by hand.

The processes of printing on glass are quite fascinating and from 1900 to 1950 you can find hundreds of different techniques attempted all over the world. Getting info that is really useful is proving very tough as it mostly requires original research. After 1950 technical sophistication has continued with ink-jet printing being the latest. At some point, in the not too distant future, somone is going to produce pate-de-verre using a 3D printer, just imagine the possibilities when you can build a glass with fully internal decoration to precise detail and in unlimited colours.

[glassaddict]

Found this while browsing - A little more information about production dates, patterns etc. can be found here.

http://www.kovels.com/priceguide/kovels_swankyswig/
Hil