Jeannette Swirl Depression Glass – Simplicity and Color Looking for a collectible you’ll enjoy, use and have fun collecting? Don’t want to spend a fortune yet want something pretty? Try Jeannette Swirl depression glass in teal or pink – beautiful an
News-Antique.com - Jan 11,2011 - Jeannette Glass made Swirl during the later part of the depression, from 1937 to 1938. Some collectors call this pattern Petal Swirl because pieces have lightly scalloped edges.
Swirl is a pressed pattern which means Jeannette could mass produce it at low cost. Living as we do in an era when almost everything can be mass produced we may not realize that prior to about 1920 glass companies had limited capability to make glass items quickly. Glass dishes and tumblers were costly and fragile until the 1920s when glassmakers developed fast machines.00 In the 1930s glassware was cheap enough that grocery stores and movie theaters gave it away as premiums. Depression glass was pretty, colorful and priced right – free! – so most families acquired a set or two.
Swirl is an interesting pattern. The centers have concentric rings and the rims have deep grooves pressed in a swirl that extend out on the rim edge as little scallops. The scallops range from slight waviness on the creamers and sugars to small nubs on dinner plates to wider, elaborate scalloped rims on bowls.
As typical of Jeannette depression glass, you can find standard dinnerware and lunch pieces, such as plates, small bowls, cups and saucers, and you can find interesting decorative accessories like two candle holders, vase, coaster, candy dish and console bowl. This is a good assortment that makes it fun to collect because you have unusual pieces to look for, yet the pieces are useful and you don’t have to worry about having to choose among five or six similar tumblers or serving pieces.
Some of the prettiest pieces are the console set, with candle holder and deep bowl, and the footed tumblers. Of course you don’t need these to have a usable set for lunch or dessert, but they add pizazz and are the perfect finishing touch for your glass.
Jeannette Glass made Swirl in pink, ultramarine and a few pieces of Delphite blue. Jeannette’s pink is light and transparent and it’s a friendly, easy-going color that blends well with other pinks plus blue, green or yellow. That is good because you can combine your Swirl with your current china or with other depression glass and have something pretty.
The ultramarine is a transparent, deep teal. Jeannette is the only depression glass company that made this color and they used it for Swirl, Doric and Pansy and their Jenny-ware line of kitchen glass. The ultramarine is beautiful and looks rich and enticing. The one thing to be careful of is that the color varied a little within the blue-green hue. They all go well together so it’s a matter of your personal preference whether you will pursue only the teal or green or use them all.
Delphite blue is translucent medium sky blue. Jeannette only made about a third of the Swirl pieces in Delphite but you can collect a nice set for lunch, dessert of dinner. You won’t find the butter dish or tumblers in blue.
