How to Identify Crystal Glass

hi this is Jennifer with City Farm House antiques and I'm here as I am every Friday with the find of the week and all of our find of the weeks can be found on our website at WWF armed house antiques calm but I want to talk to you a little bit today about crystal in particular Waterford crystal and I want to talk to you about how you know it's the real thing and how you can evaluate you know the value of a piece of crystal and a lot of these characteristics apply to many types of art glass but as you can see with this piece it is very very detailed and that's the first thing you want to look at it's a large piece it's about 12 inches tall and it has a lot of characteristics in a lot of detail starting with this exquisite rim and this is known as a sawtooth edged rim many times when you see a sawtooth rim it's going to be the same depth it's going to be one depth this happens to be multi-dimensional which is not as common and you can see the facets and the varying degrees of depth to that which would add a lot of character you can see that every inch of this piece of glass has beautiful facets and a different pattern here we have a diamond pattern then you come down there's a repeat of the pattern and even on the foot here it's difficult to show you some of this because it's clear glass but there you can even see the different pattern on the foot sometimes with crystal really all the time it's very very difficult to be able to see signatures you're going to have pieces where I've got another piece here I want to show you that also happens to be by the master cutter Jim O'Leary but here is a typical you can see there's a typical water I'm sorry not water but an acid edge to Waterford mark it's on the bottom but this piece actually actually both of these pieces are signed they were made by the master cutter Jim O'Leary and Jim O'Leary happens to do exquisite work very very intricately cut and detailed pieces and there you can kind of make out the signature there and you can see I don't know that you can see that but the date is 1996 if you can make that out that's a little better I'll show you on this other piece it'll be easier to see it on the side most of the signatures you can see on this piece it's on the side you can see Jim O'Leary signature there in 1996 the other thing that makes this piece exquisite is this is a limited-edition piece and when you look at the bottom of a piece many times they're going to be signed they'll have that Waterford acid etch to mark or they will have one better and you can see that it's numbered there you can see that it's numbered again it's so hard to show this because it's a clear piece of glass there you can see that it says Waterford and there you can see where it's number 18 of 25 a lot of his pieces were made in sets of 50 this one there were only 25 made so that gives you an idea of the value of a piece when you are looking at Crystal there are different factors with Crystal everybody talks about the ring well there's lead and crystal and lead makes crystal extremely clear you're going to have a lot more clarity as you can see with these two pieces and brilliance with the piece of crystal then let's say one of my wine glasses and please don't look at my hard water spots but there you can see that it just doesn't have the roof light reflection that a piece of crystal does and this is under the same light for you to see them in a distance it's easier but you can see that they it's not as clear the other thing is the sin found lead is going to give a distinct ring you hear that versus kind of a flat tone on a piece of regular glass so a piece of regular glass almost looks opaque and cloudy next to a true piece of crystal another factor is the weight because of the lead crystals going to be extremely heavy these pieces are very heavy in fact when I ship pieces you've got to be sure and double box them because they will go to the bottom of a box because they're so heavy with the weight they'll migrate down through inches of packing pans so because of the weight of a fancy piece of glass neuronal glass is the same way you've got to take extra care when shipping or moving these items Waterford crystal was actually produced started production back in the late seventeen hundred seventeen eighty-three and off the port of Waterford in Ireland and you know a lot of these pieces you can buy glass you know to use and bases and things like that but some pieces are made to last a lifetime and these are those pieces and with may being here in June with weddings and anniversaries these are the types of pieces that last a lifetime and even after a lifetime and are handed down from generation to generation so they make exquisite wedding gifts they make exquisite anniversary gifts and pieces that can be handed down as well as pieces that can be enjoyed you know in the home on a beautiful table this is another example of another pattern an older pattern of course it's not as fancy it's not hand signed you can see that it doesn't have the detail that these other two pieces have that have been hand-cut and signed well that is all I have about Waterford crystal I hope you enjoyed it I hope when you pick up a piece of crystal you have a better appreciation for it and more knowledge now on how to identify a real piece and where you can find those Waterford marks until next time check us out on the website at WWF armed house antiques calm where we sell more and have more than just antiques

Channel: City Farmhouse Antiques

Views: 220,340

Rating: 4.7868066 out of 5

Keywords: Crystal Glass, Waterford, Jim O'Leary, Lalique, Glass, Vase, Centerpiece

Id: yBRG9C9wCLc

Length: 6min 57sec (417 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2017