Treasures In Your Attic: Bristol glass

Dear J. S.: Collectors have a name for this sort of glass, but it is a complete misnomer. They tend to call it "Bristol" glass in reference to the English city where fine glassware first was made in the mid-17th century by the Dagnia family.

Over the years, there have been a number of glasshouses located in Bristol, including Redcliff Backs Glasshouse and Non-Such Flint Glass Manufactory. In time, the city became famous for items made from rich, transparent blue or green glass and for its production of objects made from opaque white glass.

It became common parlance in English speaking countries to call objects made from these three distinctive colors of glass "Bristol," but a significant portion of the products so identified were actually made elsewhere. Perhaps it should be mentioned here that a thin, pale brown, opaque glass is also lumped into this "Bristol" category just as erroneously.

In fact, most of the opaque white and brown glass that is seen today was made far from Bristol, England, in the region known as "Bohemia" which is now part of the Czech Republic. This region was producing fine quality glassware long before it was made in Bristol.

The first recorded glasshouses were founded in the 14th century, and by the 15th century there were more than a dozen operating. In the 19th century, Bohemian glasshouses strongly competed with both European and American glass companies by making wares that were similar but less expensive. This fierce competition is thought actually to have put some American companies out of business.

In any event, the pair of cylinder vases belonging to J. S. are Bohemian. They were inexpensive decorations when they were new, but they were hand-blown and hand decorated. The evidence of hand-blowing is the rough scar found on the bottom of each of these vases.

This is the "pontil" mark that was formed when an iron rod (called a pontil or "punty") was attached to the molten glass as a handle so the mouth of the vases could be opened and the forming process finished. When the piece was completed, the pontil rod was broken off leaving the scar seen on these two vases.

Sometimes, on better pieces of blown glass, this pontil mark is polished away, leaving a small, smooth, circular, convex indention instead of a jagged scar. Sometimes, however, the entire bottom is completely polished so that no vestige of the pontil mark remains. The pair of Bohemian "Bristol" glass vases belonging to J. S. are late 19th century and have an insurance replacement value between $175 and $225 for the pair.

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of the "Price It Yourself" (HarperResource, $19.95). Questions can by mailed to them at PO Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.