Topic: Cut and etched stemware, possible date and origin. Machine blown?

[cagney]

    These stems have me somewhat baffled. Not much if any variance in blown blank. No pontil, polished or otherwise. Cut stems and etched  [ plate etched? ] bowls. Bowls are very thin and further embellished with frosted areas within the etching. At first glance looks like acid treatment, close examination reveals it was done by a wheel. All areas of frosting show the grinding direction the same on all.
Sizes are 10cm,11cm,17.5cm. Most likely lead glass. Good resonance and brilliance.  Any ideas would be most welcome.....cagney

[Paul S.]

nice decoration though.             Probably take your pick from scores of makers, and from half a dozen countries too - I'd suggest C20, and contrary to what I used to think, these things were apparently knocked out way into the 1930s.      Despite the fact that you have these pieces in your hands, mho is that wheel engraving is unlikely to be responsible for what appears to be engraved marks within the pattern.
Some of the later methods for producing this type of work were fairly complex (see Charles Hajdamach), and used copper plates to convey the design - and bearing in mind the degree of variation of design which can be accomplished on a copper plate, you can see how variable patterns might be.            Acid etching is a fairly economic method of producing a pattern on a glass bowl  -  it would be very uneconomical for an engraver to have to go back over every glass and wheel cut to such fine detail within these etched patterns.

They're attractive and a vey good example of late acid etching - good find - but regret finding a maker is probably zero, and even a country will be questionable.    

Apart from the chapter in C.H., the only other source of examples of etched patterns I can think of is in Andy McConnell's decanter book - at least I think there are some pattern shown there - might also be something in Patricia's bulb book. 

Would suggest Cagney that when posting pix of clear glass where decoration is of importance, that you use a  plain dark background - would also be more than useful if your pix were bigger.          Don't take this as nit picking criticism - just some helpful advice  -  we all start somewhere, and you should see some of the rubbish I posted when I started.    

P.S.     just to quote from Andy McConnell's 'Decanter' book re acid etching..................  "Into the 21st century, acid-etching remains the cheapest form of applied glass decoration.                   Applied exclusively by machine, hundreds of patterns are applied to stemware of all descriptions and qualities at dozens of glassworks and retailed across the world."