Depression Glass Collecting Passion

Did your parents have a glass cabinet filled with treasured pieces of glass? If so, remember how they adored these special pieces? Did you inherit their eye for glass? During vacations or holidays, have you visited antique stores or second hand stores, looking for items that catch your eye? Maybe you just came across depression glass in your searches for exciting pieces of old glassware. Any one of these situations could describe how you developed a passion for collecting depression glass.

Once you decide to collect depression glass, where do you focus? There are hundreds of patterns. How do pick just one? How much money do you want to spend? What pieces do you really get excited about? Since depression glass was made during the 1920s and 1930s, how much is still left out there? There really are a ton of different collecting options. Time and money usually are the main limiting factors to collecting depression glass.

If money is not a limiting factor for you, now is a great time for collecting depression glass. Some people who have not been faring well financially are selling their personal collections, which may have taken them years to put together. Pieces that were once unaffordable are now much more reasonably priced. So, it is a great time to find and buy those typically more expensive pieces. Some collectors only buy rare pieces. Any rare pieces are a good investment, as they tend to hold their value.

Other collectors focus on specific pieces. Some collectors may target just tumblers, while others may focus on berry bowls. There is a rainbow of colors in depression glass patterns, so some collectors pick just one color, like the green Cherry Blossom pattern for their collection. Others like more color variety, and may focus on collecting a single item in one pattern, but buy that piece in every color that was made. For example, in the Royal Lace pattern, there are four different colored butter dishes. Another option is to look at the crispness of the imprinted pattern. Some patterns are more extravagant than others with sharper detail. In the Mayfair pattern, thick pieces have crisper patterns than the thin ones.

Availability plays a big part in the collecting world. If you want to collect every piece made in a pattern, you have limited possibilities. In the Doric pattern, pitchers are quite rare. You may be lucky to come across one every five years. Some patterns have pieces that are so rare that you may never find one. Thus, you may need to select a different pattern to collect if you want to acquire every piece. The number of pieces in a specific pattern should also be considered. The Cameo pattern contains a large number of pieces, while the Sunflower pattern contains only a few. No matter your preferences, the thrill of the search is part of the fun of collecting any depression glass pattern.

About the Author:

Nan G is the author of this article on Collecting Depression Glass. Find more information about Depression Glass Antiques here.