Throwback Thursday

Antique Northwood GRAPE AND CABLE Plate* 

Nutmeg Stained Custard Glass ca 1914

“Custard glass,” as collectors call it today, came on the American scene in the 1890s, more than a decade after similar colors were made in Europe and England. The Sowerby firm of Gateshead-on-Tyne, England had marketed its patented “Queen’s Ivory Ware” quite successfully in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

There were many glass tableware factories operating in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the 1890s and early 1900s, and the competition among them was keen. Each company sought to capture the public’s favor with distinctive colors and, often, hand-painted decoration. That is when “Custard glass” appeared on the American scene.

The opaque yellow color of this glass varies from a rich, vivid yellow to a lustrous light yellow. Regardless of intensity, the hue was originally called “ivory” by several glass manufacturers then who also used superlative sounding terms such as “Ivorina Verde” and “Carnelian.” Most Custard glass contains uranium, so it will “glow” under a black light.