A selection of websites with pattern books and other references, which have been made generously available for online viewing.
20th Century Glass: Antique & Collectable Glass Shop & Glass Encyclopaedia
International dealers in antique and collectable vintage glassware, with an online shop. Also has a glass encyclopaedia with many guides and galleries.
I have found the glass encyclopedia on this website invaluable when identifying pieces of glass. As well as clear descriptions of manufacturers and labelled photographs, with sources, they host scanned catalogues for Davidson (for 1928, 1931 & 1940) and Sowerby (for 1882, 1927, 1933 & 1954, plus lists 35, 39 and 41).
They also host catalogues for Dartington and link to other online catalogues.
The Museum of Glass Technology in Bergdala, Sweden provides downloadable PDF files for many Swedish catalogues from Boda, Elme, Hofmantorps nya glasbruk, Kosta, Kosta Boda, Orrefors, Orrefors Sandvik, Pukeberg, Strömbergshyttan, Transjö and Åfors.
This site requests a one off donation to download catalogues for Westmoreland, Indiana Glass, Fenton, Smith, Imperial and Butler Brothers. These are more recent catalogues, dating from between 1950-1992.
Not just Czechoslovakian Glass, but a Czechoslovakian website, written in Czechoslavakian, but don’t let any language barrier put you off! It contains a gold-mine of glass catalogues, all hosted through Google photos. Once you’ve located a catalogue you’re interested in, all you have to do is click on the Join button for the folder and you can easily find the catalogues in future from the “sharing” tab on your Google Photos menu.
Contains 6 pages, featuring centrepieces , from the August Walther & Söhne catalogue from 1936.
This is another site I have spent more than my fair share of time viewing. It is only for glass trinket sets (the name’s a giveaway!) ordered by country, manufacturer and pattern. There are pattern book pictures for nearly all known patterns, as well as photographs for some of the sets and descriptions of the individual items. There is an extensive Mysteries photo gallery showing sets that are yet to be identified, which can also be very helpful.
Glas Musterbuch is all about pattern books. Predominantly populated with German catalogues there are just far too many to mention individually. This is an absolute goldmine of a resource, and I personally find the catalogues for Brockwitz and Walther & Söhne particularly pertinent for the 1920’s-1950’s pressed glass that I favour.
Great Glass does not contain pattern books, but a list of British registered design numbers from glass manufacturers and importers. It covers the period from 1884 to 1944, that is design numbers 1,415 to 842,452. If you have a piece of glass with a registration number on this can help you narrow down who manufactered or imported it.
The Open Salts US website has a mine of information for collectors of glass salts. The above link goes directly to their catalogs page. The catalogue pages are organised A-Z by country, and then by manufacturer. This may make it time consuming to work through, but worth the effort. I’ve managed to identify a few of my glass salts from this site.
The Pressglas Korrespondenz is an extremely informative online newsletter. All editions are available online. They are mainly in German, however I have found that performing a site specific Google search for a particular term enables me to easily track down relevent articles. For example, site:https://pressglas-korrespondenz.de musterbuch will give me a list of all articles containing the word musterbuch, which is German for pattern book.
One hundred and eight books, dating from 1874 to 1945, have been digitised and made available online to preserve the history of this glass manufacturer. Some of the books are pattern books, others contain technical data or general company information.
Very concise, yet informative site, covering pressed glass from the Victorian era. Contains pattern books, and pages, for Sowerby (1874, 1880, 1882 & 1885) and the Edward Moore supplement to the Pottery Gazette from 1888. Additionally, stunning photographs in the galleries and researched articles make this a very good site to visit, especially if you are interested in early Sowerby glass.
Heart Of Glass 