Welcome to the Glass Message Board. To help you make the most of the board's resources may we recommend some steps you can take before you make your first post? Where the text is blue it's a clickable link so do check them out.
Firstly, start by checking to see if your question has already been answered - the board has a powerful
SEARCH function (on the top tabbed menu) so try putting in a descriptive word or words and see what results come back.
Alternatively, you can browse the different forums for a possible match - this works well if you have an idea of your item's origin, e.g. if you think it may be Czech or Murano or American etc, have a look through those forums and see if you can find a match or some pointers to where to look for more information.
Once you have an idea of an origin it may be worth searching for it in a
Google Image Search - often someone else has the same piece already identified - but do be wary of accepting such attributions as cast in stone, especially if from online auction sites which have many mis-attributed items. There's nothing wrong in posting a question on the board asking for identification help with an item and stating that you've seen it elsewhere as whatever maker and can board members confirm that ID.
Other places to look for information on your pieces are in our own
GlassGallery where you will find lots of photos of identified pieces along with labels and signatures collections, and much more besides. Then there's our sister-sites the
Glass Encyclopedia which has lots of helpful pages about different types of glass and glassmakers, and the
Glass Museum which has more articles about different aspects of glass. We also have a
list of websites with more labels and marks and many of our members have their own glass websites in
specialist areas of interest, usually linked from their posting signature block below their messages, so check them out too.
Finally, don't forget to browse here in the
Announcements and Info forum posts as you'll find advice on the mechanics of using the board successfully and other hints and tips, but if you get stuck with anything please do ask for help.
