Topic: Need help ID these Uranium wine glasses

[vintageglassfan79]

Hi Everyone,

I have these two uranium wine glasses.  All i know is that they glow under UV light and have very finely detailed etchings on them.  More detailed than typically seen on depression glass. ANyone know this pattern or seen this glass before?  AN ID would be great.  Thank you!

[Paul S.]

hi - nice glasses.             my opinion is that the decoration is wheel engraved rather than etching, which is a wet acid process, and I could be very wrong but to my eyes they have an almost champagne saucer shape - would you agree?

Hate to be a kill-joy, but since uranium was used in vast quantities of drinking glasses, in a variety of countries in Europe and probably elsewhere, then finding a maker is really a non-starter, unfortunately.           Best we might be able to say is they were likely made somewhere in the first half of the C20, and my thoughts would be nearer the end of that period.
Is it possible that we might see a picture of them 'glowing', please?

[vintageglassfan79]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate the info.  I was looking closer at the floral and band engraving and it looks very similar to the floral engravings I've seen on Libbey and Weston glasses. I'm not sure if Libbey did uranium glass though.  Maybe that's a hint.  Also, I'll post up the glowing glass pic once I get home from work.  Thanks again. 

Anyone else have any info??

[vintageglassfan79]

Here is the glowing pic you requested.   

[Paul S.]

thanks for posting  -  and just think how much more impressive the glow would look in the dark .            We do have folk here who collect this stuff avidly and must assume their silence is an indication of the immense difficulties in finding id for much uranium glass  -  drinking glasses are very common and these appear to be without any specific characteristics that might help with their origin.         I'm still of the opinion that all of the decoration is wheel engraved - despite your comments that it's   ..... " "More detailed than typically seen on depression glass".      I know very little about Depression Glass but had assumed all of it was mould made rather than engraved or had patterns formed by machine acid etching.

Compared to some engraved glass these show only a basic level of skill, and might have been made almost anywhere, and date wise I'd also still plump for 1940/1950 -  masses of glass defies attribution and specific origin, permanently.
To be honest my reason for asking to see the 'glow' was just to make sure that it wasn't being caused by manganese  -  a chemical added often to glass to help decolourize some of the inevitable impurities that occur in glass.

But - they're attractive, usable, and a piece of C20 history  -  all you need to do now is go out and find the other four and you have a good set.