Topic: Amberina?? oil lamp shade

[Sid]

Paul

In my opinion amberina is a too widely used term for any glass shading from amber to red. 

The original and, to me only true amberina, was a lead based glass with colloidal gold which was amber when melted and formed.  Then it was struck to create a beautiful deep red colour in the portions of the item that were reheated.  It was patented by Joseph Locke for the New England Glass Co. in July 1883.  This was made in the period 1883 to perhaps 1917.  This glass is extremely heavy due to the lead content of the glass.  None of my true amberina fluoresces under black light.

There was other red shading to amber glass items made in the same time frame where a thin layer of red glass was plated over amber glass.  This technique appears to have originated in Europe (likely Bohemia) but quickly was taken up in the US.  This "so-called German Amberina" (quoted from a contemporary report) was much cheaper to make than true amberina as only the red plating needed to have gold in the formula.

Then you have the 20th century selenium version of amberina which has a very orange shade to it - your goblet is an example.  I call this faux  or wannabe amberina.  This glass is non-lead and thus the objects are relatively light.  Some of this faux amberina fluoresces orange under a UV lamp.

David - Size of your item?  Have you put a UV lamp on it? Is it lead based?

Sid

[Ohio]

If you are asking for a "states" view...when I looked at this piece I did not consider it to be Amberina...I considered the top 1/2 flashed red not reheated, but thats simply my opinion.

[Paul S.]

thanks to Sid and Ohio for contributing  -  it does help to have a more experienced opinion.