Mid-Century/Modernism
Glass/Dinnerware Collecting
By
Les Stewart
The last 20 years have seen the
tremendous popularity in collecting Depression Era glass, dinnerware,
and pottery. The baby boomer generation took collecting items from
that period to a level that may never be seen again. It remains
popular and items from the Depression Era remain widely and heavily
collected.
The collectors of Depression Era items enjoyed a love affair with
mostly crystal and pastel shades of pinks, blues, yellows, and greens.
The Depression Era items frequently were almost over designed with
organic flower designs covering the items, while shapes were often
very simple round and/or square designs.
 I
think this era’s design can be seen clearly with the dinnerware
from Franciscan. In 1940 Franciscan brought out the heavily decorated
Apple pattern. It was followed in 1941 by the pink flowered famous
pattern of Desert Rose. Fruit, Ivy, and a number of similar patterns
defined the 40s end of the Depression era for Franciscan. In that
same 30s and 40s era, Franciscan enjoyed success with their plain
pastel lines of El Patio, Coronado, and others also.
 Rapidly
a newer era of collectables began rising. The Mid-Century/ Modernism
period of glass and dinnerware really came to the front in the 50s
designs and continued in design for the next 20 years. The 50s hit
and suddenly the pastel colors from the Depression Era were turning
to darker/brighter colors of Modernism design. The 50s gray, chartreuse,
maroons, browns, avocado, and other darker colors were replacing
all the depression era pastels. Even if in a depression pastel like
pink, in the modernism period it is not a delicate pink. We also
see the start of mixing colors so cream colored or crystal items
have splashes of turquoise/pink and/or shiny gold for accent.
 In
addition, the shapes changed and flowers were much less used in
design and now we see plain shapes being the main interest. The
Tiempo line introduced in 1949 from Franciscan combined 50s colors
with a new Metropolitan shape. The depression delicate rounded shapes
turned into the more modern shapes featuring squares, flat sides,
and shapes that seem almost organic and uneven. That was followed
in 1954 by the Eclipse line from Franciscan. Eclipse seems to reach
for the stars and helped bring the Atomic part of modernism out.
There is one plain undecorated pattern called Eclipse, and that
is joined in Eclipse shaped patterns of decorated Pomegranate, Duet,
Oasis, and Starburst. Starburst exploded in popularity as consumers
fell in love with Starburst’s Eclipse shape decorated by little
Sputnik shaped items. Starburst was extremely popular. I am reminded
of this countless times at shows when told the Starburst was an
older couple’s pattern when they go married in late 50s or
early 60s.
The Mid-Century/Modernism era was in many ways about many new designer
efforts from the period. Designers like Russel Wright and Eva Zeisel
emerged with whole new ideas and shapes. His American Modern became
the best selling dinnerware of all time. Later efforts from Wright
mixed his designs at Iroquois with other designers. Recently I observed
a full set of Iroquois china and the back credited both Russel Wright
and Ben Seibel as designers.
Another company to mention in the modernism dinnerware was Salem.
Harrison Keller, President, Salem China Company in 1957 stated "At
Salem China Company, we no longer consider the use of designers
and having a design department, as a luxury, but as a necessity.
We pay as much attention to the thoughts and ideas of our head of
design as we do to our sales manager or our plant manager."
Salem brought along many Modernism designs from many different modernism
designers. Perhaps the most memorable Mid-Century Modern Salem shapes
are found in Viktor Schreckengost's Free·Form line. Widely
hailed by collectors as some of Schreckengost's best dinnerware
forms, the shapes were sculpted, free-flowing, ergonomic, and futuristic.
Salem created many Modernism shaped patterns. North Star is shown
in accompanying pictures and remains widely collected. Salem stopped
production in the late 1960s.
The glass companies did not want to be left out of this new Modernism
look. Companies like Federal created their Moroccan Amethyst that
mixed more new Modern shapes with a beautiful amethyst color. Federal
and other companies were re thinking their bar ware and creating
whole new modern items. All the glass companies were into the Modernism
movement during the late 50s and 60s and the shape of their products
went through major changes to reflect the Modernism and Atomic eras.
The glass products from this period got the attention of designers
like the dinnerware. Those designers create Modernistic shapes and
designs and then often applied lots of shiny gold. One of those
most noted is Georges Briard. You can see his designs reflected
in most all glass companies. His treatment of gold applied to common
Anchor Hocking casseroles transpose them to a whole new level. Also
brought to the forefront during the Modernism period was the emergence
of Blenko glass with an awesome array of modern shapes and colors.
Blenko’s main period of emergence on modernism design would
have been from late 1940s to late 1970s.
To find and collect Mid-Century/Modernism glass and dinnerware can
be difficult in this area. The Denver Modernism Show (www.denvermodernism.com)
should be completed by the time this issue appears. However, you
are in luck because the Pikes Peak Depression Glass Club’s
annual ‘ALL AMERICAN GLASS, POTTERY, AND MORE SHOW & SALE’
is rapidly approaching. This year’s show is all about change.
The show this year begins a new era with a move to the Douglas County
Events Center at 500 Fairgrounds Road in Castle Rock. Leave I-25
at exit 181 and follow the signs to the show. New dates for the
future will be on the 2nd weekend in September. This year’s
show is September 11th (10-5) and 12th (10-4). This year’s
show has grown much larger and it attracted 34 dealers from 19 states.
Nearly _ of the 34 dealers are new to Colorado collectors. One new
dealer is also noted authors Randy & Debbie Coe. The Coes come
to us from Oregon and will be selling glass/dinnerware as well as
their books in the show. This will be an incredible opportunity
for knowledgeable dealers and collectors to meet the Coes and purchase
their newest books at the show. The show features a huge display
of Imperial Glass Company items with many rare items to show the
public. Drawings take place for gift certificates to spend in the
show. The show got a major change in recent years and that will
continue. It formally was a Depression era only show. It now also
has pre Depression era items like carnival glass and post Depression
era items from the Mid-Century/Modernism periods. The last change
in the show is that home decor items like linens, silver, and kitchen
items will be seen for sale in the show also in smaller numbers.
It remains primarily a glass, dinnerware, and pottery show, but
a larger range of home decorating items also can be found in the
show. More information about the show is available at www.ppdgc.com
and via phone at 719-598-1424.
Credit for inspiration for this articles goes to Russel Wright by
Joe Keller and David Ross, Franciscan by Bob Page and Dale Fredricksen,
and numerous Mid-Century/ Modernism web site locations.
©
2010 Mountain States Collector
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