Saturday, May 4, 2013

Twiggy--Plate

Twiggy Plate.  Also called "Pebble Leaf" and "Tree of Life"

About six months ago I found this piece of glass at a thrift store.  It didn't look like any pattern that I was familiar with, but the color was unmistakable.  Definitely depression era glass.  I bought it for $1.50.

I brought it home and put it under my blacklight to see if it was the correct age,  and it was.  I did a brief internet search to see if I could identify it, but couldn't find any images of it.  I put it on the shelf and forgot about it for awhile.  Yesterday, I was looking on that shelf for something else and saw the plate and decided to try to identify it again.  This time I was successful.

I did a Google image search for something like "green depression glass leaf plate" or something like that and found an image of the plate I was looking for.  I followed the link and discovered this plate was manufactured sometime between 1929 and 1936 by the Indiana Glass Company.  It was originally manufactured in pink and green.

I haven't found any sources on how many different kinds of pieces were pressed.  I know that the plate I have and an open handle relish tray were pressed during the Great Depression.  I've seen images from the later pressings of punchbowls, cake plates, tumblers, goblets etc... in clear glass.

It is always fun to find something unique at a thrift store or a garage sale, pawn shop.  Because of the uneven edge, I mistook some of that for a few chips.  I looked at it much closer yesterday and could only find a couple of very tiny chips.  I paid $1.50 for it and with the tiny chips I don't think it's worth top dollar, but I'd place it's value between $5.00 and $10.00.  Depending on the rarity of the piece, though it might be worth more.  (As if I'd ever sell it).  I believe it is fairly rare because it was a difficult pattern to track down.  When I did find it, I had to piece the information together from several sites, and even then I don't believe I have a complete picture of this pattern. 

I found very few vintage pieces for sale anywhere online.  A few pieces of the green on Ebay, but no pink.  There were a few pieces on esty, but once again, mostly the newer pressings.

The pattern was re-issued in clear and other colors in the 1980's.  Those pieces are a lot easier to find.

Twiggy, under UV light