How to Identify Tiffin Glass
- 1). Identify Tiffin glass by label. The oldest glass in the Tiffin production was marked with USG on a gold shield; later pieces were marked with the word “Tiffin” on a T in a shield label, according to a Tiffin Glass website. View a copy of a Tiffin label on the Kovels website in References.
- 2). Examine the quality. Tiffin emphasized quality glassware after 1937 and even prior to that, the Depression lines were elegant glass, not common Depression glass like Hazel-Atlas. Tiffin made Cadena, Cherokee Rose, Flanders, June Night and Fuchsia elegant etched patterns. Tiffin stems are fine quality blown glass with intricate etchings.
- 3). Learn the colors. Tiffin made transparent pink or blue stems, and made a neodymium or alexandrite glass in a color they called twilight. This dichroic glass changes color from lavender to blue in different lighting. Canary was the vaseline glass production and opal was a translucent white. Clear crystal was the majority of Tiffin stemware production. Satin glass was a mainstay for Tiffin, and canary, two shades of green, blue, pink, crystal, amberina and black were satin colors. It also made a few opaque colors, notably royal blue, amethyst and black. Pina attributes some marbled opaque pieces to Tiffin, but little additional information is available.
- 4). Identify the styles. Tiffin produced colored glass candleholders in sturdy shapes, many with cupped bottoms. It made a dahlia vase with a cupped top and a flared one, dresser sets and perfume bottles, lily vases, bud vases and wall vases or wall pockets. Most of its production in these lines was weighty and substantial--not flimsy and fragile. Tiffin Modern production began about 1940 and this was a radical change in style.
The new biomorphic or free-flowing organic shapes were a sharp contrast to the geometric and symmetrical shapes for which Tiffin had become famous. Tiffin made these beautiful art glass pieces for 20 years and this production was a significant contribution to mid-century modern glass.
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