There are a great many sites on the internet, that contain a wealth of information, helpful in identifying pieces of glass. Of course it can be hard to determine which information is accurate, especially if this subject is new to you. This is why care should be taken using online selling sites. Whilst some sellers are accurate in their descriptions others are not. Many times I have seen glass listed as “probably Bagley/Sowerby/Davidson/Jobling”, I mean, it may possibly be one of them, but certainly not all four. There is also the distinct possibility that it could manufactured by some other company entirely!
The majority of the following websites belong to long standing members of the glass community, both in reality and online. I have found them useful in learning about the history of glass manufacturers, glass registrations, identifying glass and being able to view pieces I can only dream about owning!
Provided by Angela Bowey’s Glass Museum and Glass Encyclopedia, this is the place to be to talk about glass. There are different boards covering glass from different geographical locations, boards for current research projects and boards for help with identifying glass. Members include authors, dealers and enthusiasts. It’s not really a board for active chatting, more a “leave a message and we’ll get back to you later” type place. The search facility is incredibly useful though.
Pamela Wessendorf gallery of glass from her own personal museum. The menus can be displayed in German or English. The images are clear, can be enlarged, and they are referenced. You can view by item type, manufacturer or country of origin. Although the majority of the glass is German, there are pieces I have bought in North-East England that are attributable to German companies. There is also some English glass in the collection.
Bagley Glass Collection at Wakefield Museum
1160 items of Bagley Glass can be viewed in their interactive online collection. You can browse the items, or view by object type or date of manufacture. Alternatively use the handy search box to narrow the results to a certain pattern type or colour. Each item has a clear picture, date range of manufacture and brief description.
Tyne & Wear Museums Collection Search
The Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums search allows you to search over 450,000 objects held in their collections. The search is comprehensive giving options such as keyword, maker and object name. It even has the capacity for curating your own online collection. Not all of the entries have images, but there is an option to filter out those entries that don’t have media. There is a substantial amount of glass in the collection, nearly 1,500 objects (with images).
Victoria & Albert Museum Collection Search
The Victoria & Albert museum have an online option to search over 1.2 million objects in their collections. You are able to restrict results to only those with images, and there are various filters, such as manufacturer, medium, object type.
Beautiful collection of Art Deco pressed glass flower frogs and float boats. Organised by manufacturer.
The Cloud Glass Reference Site
Chris and Val Stewart’s website is seperated into “Cloud Glass” and “George Davidson” sub-sites. The table of contents displays an index for the glass cloud section of the site. In both sections, the photographs of the glass is displayed with pattern number, known colours, size, date range of manufacture and a written description. There is also a comprehensive list of reference sources, which is useful for further research.
Chance Pressed Glass (archived version)
A gallery of images of the different designs of pressed glass produced by Chance, plus details of the other lines they produced, especially their Fiestaware.
Glen and Stephen Thistlewood’s website, totally devoted to carnival glass. They have featured pages for all the major carnival glass producers, including Sowerby. The site is easy to navigate and clearly presented, with well researched articles.
The Carnival Glass Society (UK) Photo Gallery
Twenty albums of carnival glass photos organised by American manufacturer and company of manufacture, as well an extensive gallery of European carnival glass. The rest of the site is accessible from this page and contains articles and members area. A significant number of flint glass items were also made in carnival glass, so this can be a helpful resource for identification purposes.
David Doty’s Carnival Glass Website
Another site about carnival glass, but this one is indexed by pattern, shape, motif and maker. Lots of other general information about carnival glass, including a section on European patterns.
Jeanette Glass Company History & Patterns (archived version)
A webpage, courtesy of K & M Antiques, containing a brief history of the Jeanette Glass company from 1887-1983, along with photographic example and description for patterns used from 1930’s-1950’s.
Well illustrated site focussing on Fairy Lamps. Whilst Clarkes may be the most well known name with the lamps, Davidson produced a shade on behalf of Clarkes. Additionally, Greener & Co. produced their own variant of the fairy lamp. The galleries are accessible through the “Makers” tab from the website menu.
Heart Of Glass 