The pattern for the opaque glass chickens was inspired by the early Staffordshire hens. This has led many to believe that the former were made in England but they are decidedly a late Sandwich product made of the same composition as many of the lamps and candlesticks. The author has found nests bearing the original orange and red labels of the West Mustard Company.
- [1.] Opaque white chickens large and small.
- 2. Opaque all blue chickens large and small.
- 3. Opaque blue and white roosters.
- 4. Pair opaque dark purple chickens.
- [5.] Opaque white owl quite opalescent at edges.
- 6. Opaque blue and white cats.
- [7.] Opaque blue and white dogs.
- 8. Opaque white squirrel.
- [9.] Opaque white rabbit.
- 10. Opaque white duck.
- [11.] Baskets in blue and white.
- 12. Chickens in clear white, transparent blue and amber glass—rare.
In this group are steamboats, sleighs, Uncle Sam, and various political objects, all of which are uninteresting and not worthy of collection. Little glass bears were made for a concern promoting bear ointment. Heads of these jars have been dug up at the Sandwich works. Complete ones are hard to find.
CANDLESTICKS
HOW TO TELL OLD STICKS FROM NEW
1. Genuine old glass candlesticks were always molded in two sections and fused together. This fusing section varies from one-sixteenth to one-quarter inch in thickness and is irregular on different sides of the same stick. This is an absolute test and never fails.
2. If you will examine the mold seams along the side of the stick you will find that where the sections are joined the perpendicular line is not continuous. The seam may be in line on one side but turn the stick and you will find the rule holds good. This is because in fusing the parts by hand they were slightly rotated and it was impossible to keep the mold seams in a straight line. Also the old hand carved molds varied slightly in size so that no two tops and bottoms were exactly alike. The modern glass candlestick is molded in one section released from machine made molds and the side line is continuous from top to bottom. This test should be applied to all the colored glass sticks of the hollow base type that are appearing. The earlier sticks with scarred bases have not been imitated except in shapes never found in old glass. Reproductions of blown glass will be taken up by the author in another book.
3. The collector of American glassware finds a very handsome type of candlestick with blown bobèche top and molded base. It is safe to say that these tops were imported from England for use at the Sandwich works. They are only found on the most expensive sticks of the period, and are identical with English candlesticks of the same time, except for the typical Sandwich pedestal and base, fused to the blown bobèche. We know that elaborate lamp bowls were imported and combined with Sandwich glass bases and later joined with brass standards to marble bases, thus it is safe to assume that many of the elaborate candlesticks are in part of similar origin.
