Fostoria Elegant Glass – Fairfax and Lafayette Fostoria plain glass patterns are so elegant and are well-suited to today’s decorating themes of simplicity and shape. We’ll look at Fairfax and Lafayette, glass from the 1930s and 40s, this month.
News-Antique.com - Oct 06,2007 - Fostoria plain glass patterns are well-suited to today’s decorating themes of simplicity and shape; with the undecorated blanks the beauty of the glass itself takes center stage. We’ll look at two of these this month, the more angular Fairfax and rounded Lafayette, which are often confused. These are very pretty as both plain glass and when used for decorations. We’ll publish future articles about Baroque, Raleigh, Century, and Sonata. If you enjoy elegant Fostoria glass these will be useful to help understand the glass you see and appreciate.
Fairfax and Lafayette look similar in photographs, more similar than they are in person. Both patterns have rims on many pieces and both have an optic.
Fairfax tends to be more angular. Plates have definite sides with rounded angled corners; cups have rounded rims and feet; bowls are have rounded angled corners. Many Lafayette pieces have scalloped rims – these are easy to distinguish! Lafayette serving pieces are less angular than Fairfax, but the most fail proof way to tell them apart is to look at the optic. Fairfax has a single wide, softly rounded rib optic on the underside and Lafayette has two narrow rib optics separated with a narrow flat space.
Fostoria made Fairfax from 1927 to 1944 in green, pink, called Rose, crystal, amber, topaz or Gold Tint, plus azure blue, light rose purple, called Orchid, and even some pieces in Ebony and Mother of Pearl. Topaz is a light yellow that is cheerful and fresh. Mother of Pearl is crystal with a light iridescence that is charming and beautiful. The green is especially nice as it is a true, rich green and Fostoria’s pink is a clear, light candy pink. We have the pink demitasse cup and saucer and several pieces in pink and in clear on our website, Cat Lady Kate’s Elegant and Depression Glass. The piece in the top picture is the pink demitasse cup and saucer.
Fairfax was a full line of dinnerware and table service glass, plus stemware and incidental pieces like candleholders, ashtrays, salad dressing bottles and a vase. Pieces you’ll want to find include the serving bowls, shakers and salad dressing bottle.
Fostoria used Fairfax for some of their most beautiful etches, including Versailles, Trojan, June and the brocade patterns. The simple lines look beautiful when etched. These etches are among Fostoria’s more ornate designs and they would look terrible on glass blanks that were fussier.
There was no true stemware in Fairfax. Instead complementary lines were used especially the Petal stem, number 5098 and the Waterfall stem, number 5099. These came in the same colors and in bicolors, with colored bowls and crystal stems and feet.
Fostoria made Lafayette just a little later than Fairfax, 1931 to 1944 and some pieces remained until 1960. It came in crystal and topaz or Gold Tint and selected pieces were made in darker colors, notably Regal Blue, Empire Green, Burgundy, and Ruby. We’ve never seen one of these pieces as they are elusive. Fostoria
