Crackle Glass

While I was working a co worker got me interested in collecting crackle glass. He and his wife easily had 500 or more pieces. Supposedly, the first piece of crackle glass was a mistake. The glass blower plunged the piece into water to cool it and it formed a number of cracks. He then immediately put it back into the glory hole and finished the process. As the story goes, he took it home to his wife as it was considered a second and would not be sold. She liked it and other wives asked their husbands to bring them a piece of this glass. Crackle glass as a product was born. I started collecting rather late in the life span. By the time I started several books had been published on collecting and the factories that manufactured them. I actually did visit a couple of the factories in West Virginia back in the early 80's. Crackle was becoming harder to find at prices I was willing to pay. I still have a number of pieces yet to bring down here. Below are pictures of some of the collection.

Two pieces on the top shelf are not crackle. The cruet on the left is ribbon glass and the one on the right is millefiori (thousand flowers). They both date to the 1890's.


The three pieces below are sort of unique. The salt and pepper shaker are collectible in two categories, crackle and as a salt and pepper set. If you look closely at the middle shelf above you will pick out a small blue salt and pepper set. The middle piece is very collectible because the stopper is still with the piece. Apparently stoppers are easily broken. The third piece is collectible because of the height and shape of the piece.

A closer view of the millefiori and two crackle pieces.

The keen observer will have noticed the toy Harley Davidson motorcycle with sidecar. I also collected toys and have several hundred transportation oriented toys. It is a eclectic collection of whatever caught my eye.