Hello malc57 - Looking at your decanter, I think I'm seeing a rather poorly ground pontil mark (that rough bit on the underside that is left after the piece of glass is broken away from the pontil rod) - also looks as though the stopper is showing some moulding lines possibly, and the base looks a little too clean and bright. Therefore, your decanter is quite possibly modern - cranberry glass is still made in eastern Europe and the U.K. (I'm not entirely certain about the U.K., but Dartington were producing it in the 1990's) - and is often made to copy the earlier C19 styles. Genuine C19 pieces would be made to a higher degree of quality, and larger pieces will often show a ground/polished pontil mark on the base (similar to your piece but finished properly by polishing). Both old and new pieces share this not uncommon style of decoration, whereby applied handles etc. were/are often produced from clear glass, so this cannot be used as a guide to age, unfortunately.
'Cranberry' coloured glass started in the U.K. fairly early in the C19 - and it's important not to confuse this very common type of coloured glass with something quite different, called 'Gold Ruby Glass', which has a much older provenance and more importantly a very different method of manufacture (belive I'm correct in saying that 'Ruby' needs to be re-struck in order for the colour to appear - whereas 'Cranberry' is coloured by the addition of selenium (usually). 'Ruby' is deeper in colour, as you'd imagine, and has its origins in eastern Europe.
The intensity of colour in both C20 and Victorian cranberry does vary noticably, and colour is not a reliable guide to differentiating between the two (can apparently go from pink to cherry). What will help you to date pieces (give an approximate guide as to whether the piece is 120 years old or made recently), will be wear (at the high points and on the base) - seeds and stones in the glass (small undiluted matter, or foreign matter - often showing up as tiny irregular grey pieces of dirt) and the absence, or otherwise, of 'lines' on the glass wall. I would suggest that genuine 'wear' can be the greatest guide to age, so spend time looking at any glass you come across, paying attention in particular to wear on the base (underside). Remember to look for wear!! If there is a complete absence of wear, I'd feel reasonably convinced I was looking at a modern piece of glass. Spend as much time as you can looking at glass - even clear glass is not all clear, and you'd be surprised what lurks within what is supposed to be clear glass.
Unfortunately, I am not aware of any book dedicated to cranberry, but wouldn't be surprised in the States haven't got one, especially as they seem to be very keen on collecting 'Mary Gregory' glass. This, as you may have seen is often (but of course not always) in cranberry, and decorated with whymsical images of C19 rural scenes of children or other naive characters. A word of warning, be very careful if buying 'Mary Gregory' glass, as I understand there are a lot of recently produced pieces out there.
Most U.K. books often have a section on cranberry glass - although the content maybe small - maybe someone hear can help you better than me on this particular point, and suggest one or two books worth reading on this subject
Topic: cranberry glass i.d. (Read 1397 times)
