Topic: Ruby Vase With Anchor Backstamp...

[vidfletch]

The Anchor over the H logo was used from 1937 to 1977. Of course, that doesn't mean these vases can be as old as 1937! LOL!!!

Vidfletch

[KevinH]

Ivo added:

There was a re-release in 1977 it seems.

And Vidfletch told us:

... Anchor over H was 1937 to 1977 ..

So, perhaps the apparent re-release items were the last with that impressed logo. And maybe the items were well marketed and even targeted for export. That could well explain the high numbers found in the UK.  

By the way, my "other" examples are exactly the same as Anne's smaller vases in her photo above. It was these that I saw most of.

[butchiedog]

Hello,

I am surprised to see such a long thread about one of these vases, which are as commonplace as dust here and apparently elsewhere too.

The Anchor Hocking history is a bit lacking, since most of what has been covered in books etc, has to do with Hocking and then Anchor Hocking. The whole Anchor glass story has been overlooked for some reason or another, even though they did play a bit part.

These Anchor Hocking vases (red and green) were made for the florists trade mainly, which is why they are commonly found all over the globe.

Before the Anchor & Hocking glass merger, the Anchor Cap & Closure Company was producing the plain red and green tumblers for the Jewell Tea Foods Company, who filled them with tea-bags and sealed them with a tin lid. This company was strictly making glass items for other companies, who used it in food packaging and many times their glass items were made so they could be used for a different purpose once the original product had been removed.

This is the mark found on the  Anchor Cap & Closure Company items.



Most people recognize these common red and green glass items as later Anchor Hocking and rarely bother to look at the logo very closely or  notice if the H is missing or not and even if they did it doesn't effect the value in anyway, since this bit of history isn't well known and there is not difference in the production methods used.

After the Anchor & Hocking glass merger they began to produce sets of red and green dishes, vases etc. and were the only American glass company producing inexpensive dark colored glass items in the beginning of the great Depression.

The next and most well known Anchor Hocking glass mark.



The new, but short run of older Anchor Hocking designs were dishes only, not the old florist vases and these dishes were marked with a different logo that the company was using at that time.



They then switched to this logo in the 1980s.



And today, under new ownership, which includes a good deal of outsourcing work to other countries, they have gone back to using the original Anchor Hocking logo.




Mike

Edited to add a photo of the tea glasses and another common item often sold as a ball vase, but was originally made for and was sold with a bug repellant candle in it.

[KevinH]

Mike, thanks for the very useful info.

We can all learn a lot from each other - but only if the info is posted. If it takes a "lengthy" discussion to cause surprise to somebody and that in turn causes the matter to be set straight, then so be it.

An excellent result.  

[butchiedog]

Hi KevH,

I am happy to see a "lengthy" discussion on this topic. Folks here, where I am could care less about these items, mainly because they are so common and do not sell for very much, but I like the history of glass, even if the glass isn't very collectable yet or worth a lot of money right now. Someday it may be, so passing on the information now, before it forever gets lost in the shuffle, might serve to help someone out then.

Plus it allows me to use some of the glass marks I am drawing for a glass marks site, which will be in the same format, so that they can easily be used in a post like this or in an ebay auction description, by those who can't get a good photo of a mark on their item, but want to show potential bidders what it looks like.

Mike

[David555]

I think as researchers and collectors we find ourselves in lengthy discussion about what is perceived as common or cheap inexpensive glass production, in Anchor Hocking's case the market would seem to back that up, most of the time.

So why?

The answer seems easy to me - GMB is even handed through its very ethos and a pebble is worth as much a second look as diamond. For those who come seeking only diamonds (Galle, Lalique, Whitefriars, etc.) the answer will not come so easily.

Thanks Ivo for giving my bubble vase a name "Provincial" (I think you were talking about my pic).

BTW I own two but sold just one about a year ago for £25.00 odd on eBay, I just checked my records

I am surprised to see such a long thread about one of these vases, which are as commonplace as dust here and apparently elsewhere too

The thread mutated into an interesting discussion about the company not just one vase, that in itself was richer than mere dust.


Adam P

[vidfletch]

It's amusing that these are apparently "common as dust" in the USA. 2 or 3 years back I sold a lot of these Anchor Hocking vases. "Ruby Royal" I believe the red ones are. I have had them with the label.

The vast majority went to where? The USA! It seems not everyone could find them.

Vidfletch

[butchiedog]

Hmmm....

I hope some here are not looking for a negative only, when they read message board posts, because one can become very proficient at finding a negative when they make it their main goal to find one.

This statement of mine,

I am surprised to see such a long thread about one of these vases, which are as commonplace as dust here and apparently elsewhere too.

was in no way meant to be malicious or snide, but instead to simply say that I am surprised to see the discussion and I go on to explain why I am surprised to see the discussion. That is all, there is no more meant than that, even though I can now easily see how my statement can be spun into something else, by someone wishing to do that, for whatever reason.

I am honestly happy that this glass is being discussed and if I were not;   I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of offering all of the information I had on the subject, including the uploading of pictures of the marks etc. If it were my only intention to be mean and say the item posted in this thread is " common or cheap. " I wouldn't need to post any more than that if it were my mission to simply be malicious or snide.

Yes;  The "Royal Ruby" and "Forest Green" Anchor Hocking glass items are indeed saleable, I never said they were not. Some pieces do much better than others, (dishes better than vases) and even the most hard to sell items can be sold when the right person (American or otherwise) comes along and wants them. Not everyone who buys glass is a seasoned glass collector, knowing what is what, nor do they all frequent the second hand and antique shops or purchase books on the subject the way serious glass collectors do.

Believe it or not;  there are many cities and towns here in the U.S.A. which have no second hand and antique shops, some don't even have a book store. I feel very comfortable speculating that for every serious glass collector there is also a non-serious glass collector, who collects glass items for no other reason than they think they are pretty and that is what they base how much they will pay for something on.

Mike

[vidfletch]

This Ebay Seller has several books on Anchor Hocking glass. It would seem the whole story is available!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Forte-Books

Vidfletch

[Pinkspoons]

I feel very comfortable speculating that for every serious glass collector there is also a non-serious glass collector, who collects glass items for no other reason than they think they are pretty and that is what they base how much they will pay for something on.  

Wow, I remember those days when I first started!  :lol:

But I never got the impression that you were deriding AH glass, and was very pleased to read the brief history that you gave!