Auntique & Uncle Tony

Sellers of Antique Bookends, Vintage Glass, & Collectibles

Vintage Glass from the 20th Century

Our collection of glass figures, bookends, flower frogs, etc, are all from the early to mid 1900’s.  What makes them highly collectible is a combination of things…  from the quality of the glass, how many were produced, whether or not they are etched with the designers/manufacturers brand, and the particular glass company. We have many excellent original figurines and animals from some of the best know manufacturers of the time.  Most of these companies were only around from the late 1800’s until the 1950’s.           

Click on the manufacturers below (blue links) to see the vintage glass for sale by that company, or Other to see the rest from manufacturers from which we only have a few.  From the lists, you can click on the photos to get additional details about each piece.

Cambridge Glass                    Heisey Glass                Paden City Glass

New Martinsville Glass          Fostoria Glass           

Other manufacturers   (including Baccarat, Boyd, Duncan, Fenton, Haley, Imperial, Indiana, L.E.Smirh, Pairpoint, Steuben, Tiffin, Westmoreland)

Condition

We do not sell new merchandise.  Because our glass figurines were produced in the first half of the 20^th century, minimal age related wear should be expected.  We will mention chips, cracks and flea bites.  Small air bubbles, straw marks and mold marks, however, were a common occurrence in the production of this type of vintage glass.  We do not consider them flaws.  Some pieces may exhibit a faint purplish tint, from sitting in the sun for the last 50 to 80 years.  This is not a flaw, just part of normal age related wear.

A Few Notes About Vintage Glass

The Black Light Test

Nearly all American colorless glass made before 1925-1930 fluoresces yellow under ultra-violet light because of traces of uranium or other chemical elements used in their manufacturing.  Reproductions and newer reissued figurines generally will not glow yellow under the black light.

“Sun Purple Glass”

In the 1860s, the use of lead in glass was being replaced with manganese to make glass brighter.  Eventually it was found that glass containing manganese turned a very light lavender when it was placed in a sunny window, or otherwise exposed to the ultra violet rays of the sun over a long period of time.  A number of early American glass manufacturers continued to use manganese throughout the 1930s and 1940s including New Martinsville, Heisey, Duncan Miller, Fostoria, Cambridge and Imperial Glass.  That’s why some of the glass bookends and figurines featured here may have a faint purple hue from sitting in a sunny spot for the last several decades.