Topic: Pressed Amberina by Gillinder & Sons, Show & tell

[cagney]

  This exact type and color bowl is pictured in a Gillinder & Sons, Philadelphia, PA U.S.A catalog dating from the mid 1880's* under a heading of " Imitation Rich Cut Ware "
" no. 406 BOWL FLARED ". Also a smaller bowl same type and color pictured as " no. 406 NAPPY ". This particular color plate in the catalog illustrates the same no. 406 in clear, canary/vaseline and blue. The large bowls could be had either straight or flared except the large amberina version came only flared. Smaller nappy's all straight.
     *Jane Shadel Spillman in the Glass Club Bulletin  #222

Last photo provided is a no.406 nappy in canary/vaseline 6 inces long. Large Amberina bowl measures 8 5/8 in. X10 3/8 in.at top. Probably 8X10 from the mold.

[flying free]

Lovely pieces  

I've been pondering how they managed to press and heat strike to get the colour change.  Is it heatstruck?

m

[cagney]

  It is heat struck as is Hobbs version in the same pattern. Probably a gas fired flame after it came from the mold. Similar to to present day methods using gas torches.
These particular bowls are the only pieces to appear in the Gillinder Catalog in the Amberina color way, reason unknown.

[flying free]

So they would have had to do some more work on it - it's not just a case of it being mass produced pressed glass.  Makes it more expensive.
Did they produce tons of it (I always assume pressed glass is produced in mammoth quantities) or was it some type of limited run do you know?
Is it rare to find?

[Lustrousstone]

A surprising amount of pressed glass was reworked after pressing...all those swung carnival vases and crimped rims just for a start.. True amberina should be heat struck

[cagney]

  Hobb's version shows up frequently, especially the small square dishes/ bowls. Still good sellers today. The large  Gillinder bowls are scarce no matter what the color. I do not know of any accounting done on individual patterns of any U.S. glassworks. To say that tons were made in any given pattern I would guess to be accurate.

  Given the division of labor in glassworks at the time [1880's]. I am sure the young carry in/carry out boys were quite busy. These young boys would do the mundane work in most glassworks. Carrying glassware in/out of the lehr, opening/closing molds, etc. Harsh by our standards today. it sure beat working in the coal mines.
 
  This decade [1880's] was one of large economic expansion in the U.S. The last "panic" as they use to call them, was the early/mid 1870's. The next one to come early/mid 1890's.