Glass: Andy McConnell explains that there are rich discoveries waiting to be made outside the well-defined boundaries set by traditional glass collectors

Glass collectors protect to be a strange apportionment This is probably because their speciality is arguably the greatest in quantity academic category of antiques, owed to the absence of identifying marks from virtually all examples made before 1920 and smooth most later ones.

Subsequently glass fanatics are almost entirely reliant upon knowledge and experience when assessing prospective purchases, with beauty resting in the organ of sight of the beholder more than in any other field, with the possible exception of carpets. For example, the ability to distinguish an English twist-stemmed drinking-glass of about 1760 from a contemporary Dutch version, or Victorian faux stone crystal from Edward an intaglio engraving, can enable aficionados to adjust values by means of a factor of at least ten

The anonymity of greatest in quantity glassware in terms of its maker has several important implications. The first is that glass has traditionally remained unfashionable, underappreciated and generally cheaper than other antiques. Another is that its collectors have gravitated towards the 'secure' areas overlayed by the literature. Typically, the publication of LM Bickerton's 18th hundred Drinking Glasses (1987) and the new books devoted to Powell's Whitefriars glasshouse electrified demand for their make subordinate matter. (1)

The downside to this literature-dependency is that the limited choice of reliable works has driven collectors towards myopia. In other words, a high number of glass collectors nurse to be 'trainspotter' types. Countles casuals pick up occasional pieces, on the other hand the field of 'serious' glass collecting in Britain can still be largely divided into twelve narrowly delineated categories. These are, in chronological order: 1 early wine bottle particularly sealed examples, c 1650-1800; 2 eighteenth-century drinking glasses, c 1700-65; 3 Irish glass, 1784- c 1825; 4 coloured Victorian compressed glass, 1850-80; 5, Victorian cameo, stone crystal and fine engraving, c 1865-1910 (Fig. 3); 6 silver-mounted claret ewers notably by Alexander Crichton, who flourished in the 1880s; 7 Emile Galle (1846-1904); 8 Louis C Tiffany (18481933); 9; Rene Lalique (1860-1945); 10 'designer' Murano and Scandinavian glass, c 1925-70; 11 Geoffrey Baxter's 1960 designs for Whitefriars; 12 paperweights.

Incredibly, the list virtually ceases there, with the inevitable spring that the prices commanded by means of these few types have gone from one side the roof, particularly for rare and idiosyncratic examples. Four years ago, a wine bottle of about 1660 (Fig. 4) fix amongst the roots of a fallen oak, fetched above 20,000 [pounds sterling], whilst more lately another, sealed 'AP1714', topped 14000 [pound sterling]. In 2003 a blue-bowl English drinking-glass, c 1765 (Fig. 1) sold for 32000 [pound sterling], whilst a posture-master with enamelling by the Beilby family freshly achieved 28,000 [pounds sterling] (Fig. 2) And age is clearly no prerequisite to like values: a Lalique cire in concealment (lost wax) vase, c. 1925 sold for above 100,000 [pounds sterling] in 2001 whilst a Tiffany wisteria table-lamp, 1910 fetched 15 million [pound sterling] sum of two units years ago.

Outside these narrow confines, glass collecting is radically different. The vast majority of 'antique' glassware remains the couple abundant and often cheaper than brand-new equivalents. nevertheless whilst department-store glass sheds its entire financial value the twinkling of an eye it has been bought, antique and more new glass not only retains value on the other hand also possesses a unique social resonance.

This strange conundrum is bottomed in taste and ignorance. The acquisition of knowledge demands time and dedication. This is particularly authentic in the case of glass, where stylistic evolution has ofttimes been gradual and subtle, particularly in the case of the colourless variety. With everyday lives as hectic as they are, collectors have inevitably gravitated towards the areas where the maximum knowledge can be obtained with the minimum of effort. This simple logic reemphasises the importance of works which can be consumed in the comfort of a fireside chair. in like manner with several volumes already devot to earlyto-mid-eighteenth-century drinking-glasses on the other hand little else of the period, other forms, of arguably equal interest and greater practicality, of that kind as salts, dessert glasses and greatest in quantity decanters, are ignored, a fact mirrored in their price.

The new growth in the quantity and quality of literature devot to of advanced age and not-so-old pieces is having its result with more individuals now collecting glass than at any time before. Indeed, it is now reportedly the category of 'antiques' greatest in quantity sought-after over the internet. in the way that although traditionalists continue to focus upon early Georgian glasses, and to pay handsomely for the privilege, demand is mounting for existences made more recently.

The bound 'modern' glass broadly categorises virtually anything made since 1940 and is by means of far the biggest growth area in the field. A shift in public taste towards 'minimalist' interior design is largely responsible for this phenomenon. novel glass tends towards bold designs, large sizes and bright colours and sits more comfortably in recent homes than generally smaller and more intricate earlier pieces. The other lock opener factor is that unlike virtually all eighteenth-century and greatest in quantity nineteenth-century glassware, a high proportion of twentieth-century glass can be attributed not single to specific factories but ofttimes to individual designers.