This antique cut crystal bowl is currently at our Corvallis Queen B storefront. It was originally a candy bowl. Unlike most cut crystal which is as colorless as ice, this piece has a faint purple tint, which happened by accident, in over a century-long, unintended science experiment.
Like all cut crystal, the bowl is heavy for its size, its interior is smooth, and the design on the underside feels sharp to the touch, unlike pressed glass. A professional glass-blower fitted a molten glob into a smooth bowl-shaped mold, leaving the walls thick. Once cooled, a second artisan hand-cut, ground, polished and drilled designs into the glass surface using hard stone cutting wheels and drills of different dimensions. Before electricity, these machines had to be powered by hand or foot treadles, so not only was this exacting work, it took some muscle.
The weight of the bowl means it likely contains lead, a common glass additive since 1st century Rome, even though it was recognized back then as a possible hazard. The advantage of lead was that it made glass extra strong and transparent. A cautious buyer will use this bowl for something non-edible like agates or vintage marbles. Lead was also used in ceramic glazes, toys, gasoline, paints, plumbing, ammunition, even cosmetics. It wasn’t until the 1950s that what was regarded as a ‘safe’ amount of lead in the bloodstream was revised downward, with the first ban (lead housepaint) happening in 1978. Today it’s advised not to store liquor in leaded decanters or eat off dishes with leaded glazes, but handling cut crystal is harmless. And there are home lead-test kits made for people concerned about their vintage wares.
But it’s not lead, it’s the manganese dioxide (another clarifying agent) in this piece that made it magic. This pale, rare tint is called Sun Purple. Unlike the brownish, deeper purple “Amethyst” popular in both Depression and Mid-Century glass, Sun Purple is a pure clear violet and is the result of a happy accident. When exposed to sunlight over DECADES, the ultraviolet wavelength of the light reacts with the manganese and turns the glass purple. The glass is literally capturing the output of the sun, hence ‘Sun Purple’. Only old glass formulated with manganese dioxide does this, and it takes so long that it was never used as a method of tinting glass although there are some controversial sellers online who now irradiate old manganese glassware to massively speed up the process, resulting in a deeper, grape-juice purple. Purists regard this as a kind of desecration, while practical folks may look askance at the possibility of lingering radiation.
Because Sun Purple glass takes decades of exposure to develop, it tends to fall into two opposite categories – expensive pieces made to be family heirlooms, OR, cheap throw-away liquor and medicine bottles. The cut crystal achieves its lovely tint by being treasured – a status symbol displayed atop a credenza in front of a living room picture window where for generations it sparkles in the sun. The empty bottles arrive at their color by being trash; tossed away and abandoned by someone trudging across a blazing sagebrush desert on the Oregon trail. (Our ancestors littered!) These shards were collected from deserts across the U.S.
Oh, and in Corvallis, take a stroll past 3rd St + Madison Ave, or 255 SW Madison Ave, or 120 NW 4th St.. In the 1800s it was common to sink a grid of small glass bricks into the sidewalk over a buildings’ basement to provide light. Called ‘concrete vault lights’ they were originally clear but over the last 100 years, they too have gone Sun Purple. Check them out when you visit QBO!
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!