Ruby red vintage glass is timeless. Whether designed for function or decor, it comes in all shapes and sizes in styles that can tickle almost every vintage and antique lover’s design fancy. But how exactly does that glass get red? There are three main ways, let us explain with the help of Richard Carter Barret, the one-time curator of the Bennington Museum, from his 1968 book on ruby-stained glass.
Ruby Glass
True ruby glass is solid red all the way through. If (heaven forbid) you break it, the shards will be pure red. The color was originally created by adding gold, but that was rather expensive. Now it’s made with other minerals and colorants like selenium.
Ruby-Flashed Glass
Ruby flash is a cheaper way to make the glass appear red, it’s done while blowing glass. Clear glass is blown a bit and cooled, dipped into a molten glass of another color and then the finished product is made. The red glass is a layer over the clear glass. The bulk of the piece is made with clear glass. It’s the same process as a cased glass piece, but the clear layer isn’t quite as thick.
Ruby-Stained Glass
Ruby-stained glass has color added after the clear piece was made. It’s the least expensive method. A piece is made then painted with a red stain and fired for permanency. As Mr. Barret explains this allowed a glass company to make “blanks” and sell them to finishing companies, much the way glass companies provided blanks to companies that finished them with silver overlay. Most ruby and clear souvenirs are ruby-stained.
Read more:
About gold ruby glass here.
About souvenir ruby-stained glass here.
1 comment
Maybe you can help me. I have a bowl that was given to my grandmother for a wedding gift, was passed down to my mother and now to me. I am trying to find the value of this bowl. My grandmother was married in the 1800’s so I know that the bowl is truly valuable. It is a ruby red bowl with milk glass (?) around the top. There is a swirl pattern in the bottom with continues to flutes around the outside of the bowl. Is there anyway I can find the value of this bowl? As a side story, this bowl kept the candy for my mother and her siblings and my mother was 95 when she passed, so I know this is the original bowl, she talked about it all the time.