glasshouse Bulletin 5, Authenticate your vintage Blenko and Empoli glass

I regularly get emails from collectors - and more frequently from sellers - asking me to identify their "Blenko." Actually, I sometimes get several such emails a day. On the whole, about 60% of the time my reply must include a variation of "the item you emailed me was not made by the Blenko Glass Company."In fact, it is worth noting that that is the only identification that I will give to inquiries.

Though I do consider it to be 'part of the job' to do identifications it does take a fair amount of my time, as a result I limit my free service to those who have a business relationship with me; that means active customers (of course), but also sellers that I buy privately from. To streamline the identification request process for the uninitiated I have posted my identification policy on the About glasshouse page. I actually often have to restrain my self as I love to help people with identification; a request for help often demonstrates to me that they are interested enough, serious enough, to actually care that their items are authentic, and that is exactly the kind of attitude that I want to support and promote.

A number of companies made (kinda) similar glass, including Empoli area companies and contemporaneous West Virginia ones that were trying (and failing) to make something as good as Blenko. Such companies include Rainbow, Pilgrim, Kanawha, Bonita, Viking, and Bischoff (which later became Indiana Handcraft, then Greenwich Flint Craft). I'll be honest, some of the time I totally understand the confusion and think "yeah, when I started out I made that mistake too." Of course, sometimes I just think "??? omg, WHAT are they smokeing!? Did they even try to identify it before asking me?" A lot of novices seem to believe that anything big, brightly colored, hand blown, or unconventionally shaped, must, MUST be made by the Blenko Glass Company (and of course that everything they made was gold and is all equally worth a gajillion dollars, especially ashtrays - cough, cough).

Sometimes sellers get oddly indignant and question my suddenly 'subjective' judgment (after they sought it out!) when I tell them their item is not Blenko. Collectors fortunately tend to take a more sanguine approach and usually don't mind as long as they like how the piece looks - unless of course they bought it recently and paid a price appropriate for Historic Period Blenko rather than, say, run-of-the-mill Pilgrim. And some get angry when they find out some sleazy seller just conned them. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often; those who really care make sure in advance of buying or only buy from reputable dealers like me who identify Blenko the only way possible. I also hope that to reduce the risk, before spending real money collectors read my Newsletter No.1 about how to identify Historic Period Blenko.

I've tried very hard to spell out for collectors how you can identify items, not just in the afore mentioned Newsletter but also in my work with the Blenko Museum and the Blenko Archive - a website dedicated exclusively to identification. But honest mistakes still get made especially with spontaneous purchases and flea market finds. The question is; are you brave enough to uncover your eyes and see the cold truth?

How certain are you that your glass is authentic and what you think it is? I invite you to email me photos of your items to see if your glass passes the test! Please email to info@vmglasshouse.com and don't worry about being artful with your photography; messy group shots are just fine. Note that this is a one-time oportunity for most of you, good for only January 2009 (and you must be a mailing list member; join here for free ). Otherwise, please find my standard idenfitication policy at this link.

Horror Story Photos Below:
Items sold by ignorant or deceitful sellers as "Blenko" when they are not. And trust me; this is just scratching the surface - plenty more where these came from! Pleas note: if a seller does not or can not provide a Blenko design numer do not buy from them! If they are not a reputable expert who regularly sells Blenko and do provide a design number but you are not familiar with it and can't confirm it, don't buy it. Simple.