Topic: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )

[Frank]

Hardly, see my comment here http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1773.msg124236.html#msg124236

Just updating these threads with what is probably the most recent serious research on the subject.

[krsilber]

Trivia?!  Isn't it absolutely vital to know who dunnit first, and who gets the big booby prize?   (Where's my machete?)

[Glen]

So "clear" is the word you use for colorless glass?

Does this imply that Americans would not use the word "clear" for colourless glass, or have I misunderstood you, Kristi?

[krsilber]

Boy, that post is old!  I figured that out long ago, and changed my mind about the use of "clear."

In the glass circles I've been a part of, colorless glass is called crystal.  I think it probably started with Depression-era companies using the name for that "color" of their glass.  All my Depression and Elegant glass books use it (and I have at least 20 of them; used to be into Elegant glass). 

Sometimes "clear" is used in the US, especially when talking about something like cased glass (e.g. "cut-to-clear").  I like clear better.  I used to have a problem with it because it seems like something can be clear and colored.  Shorter than "colorless" though (and shorter yet than "colourless"!).

[Glen]

Kristi, thank you for replying. You may or may not realise that Carnival Glass is my forte. Carnival collectors routinely refer to a colourless base glass as "clear" - and that of course includes the biggest group of Carnival collectors, who are the Americans.

[Frank]

Before 1670 clear and white glass was mentioned, clear was green glass and white was colourless 

[krsilber]

"White" for colorless glass has been used much more recently than that.  It was common in ABP, for one.  And Cathy was saying that her (Aussie) mum called colorless glass, white.  That's pretty interesting about the green glass, though.

I don't know nuthin about Carnival glass, so I'm not surprised I didn't know that.  "Clear" for colorless is probably used a lot more in the US than I'm conscious of, it's just that I was for so long into the Elegant glass thang, I got caught up in that terminology.