Collecting Cranberry Glass

Cranberry glassware, so called due to its hue of ranging from deep pink to a deep red, has long been prized for its bright color. The origins of cranberry glass goes into the distant past when gold chloride was mixed with the glass solution, then blown to create shapes from vases to bowls and plates. The Romans made the first type of cranberry glass, with one example being the Lycurgus cup that was made with a mix of gold and silver in the glass.The pink was most visible when held up to the light. Several hundred years later in Italy, cranberry glass was made again, using the gold chloride mix in the glass mixture. The seventeenth century saw the production of cranberry glass once again in Italy. The solid form of gold inside the glass gave the glass the pink hue that became known as cranberry glass. The gold had to be dissolved in nitric acid and hydrochloric acid before it could be used in the glass, otherwise the gold would not disperse properly throughout the glass making a pink color – it would otherwise remain gold, giving it a glittery effect like aventurine glass.

During the nineteenth century in England, cranberry glass was manufactured by glass makers such as Thomas Webb, Stourbridge, and Mary Gregory. It was not uncommon for cranberry glass to be slighter deeper in hue near the neck of the vase or edge of the bowl from which the glass was blown from. Mary Gregory also added decorations made of enamel that was fired to the cranberry glass, such as portraits and figures of people. In the twentieth century, cranberry glass was made by Fenton, Hazel Atlas, Indiana Glass, and Hocking which ranged from the pale shades of cranberry to deeper shades. A rich, deep shade of red called cranberry was put out by Avon in the 1970’s which included a tableware set, candlesticks, goblets, vases, decanters, and bells. One modern glass maker, Rossi Glass, makes cranberry glass in its traditional pink hue.

Image Credit: Flickr user PetitPoulailler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.