My Love For Vaseline Glass
When I was in the 3rd grade my class took a school trip from Norfolk, Virginia to Jamestown and Williamsburg. This was the most exciting school trip ever, because of the distance. However, the only thing I remember about the whole trip was being in what seemed like a cave, watching men blow glass. What a fascinating and magical experience watching the fire, the glow, the colors, and the seemingly liquid glass. It definitely left an indelible impression on me.In the early 80s I decided I wanted to collect some type of beautiful glass. I was living in Harlem in a large, beautiful brownstone and I believe this environment prompted my fascination with things old. Now I had to decide what kind of glass to collect. Cobalt blue glass was out of the question because it was already so ubiquitous. The red glass was very expensive and reminded me too much of blood. The pink was nice, but what pulled me in was what is known as Vaseline glass a type of Depression Glass.
On the hunt, one night I walked into a store on 125th street that sold secondhand knick knacks. And it was there that I saw my first piece of Vaseline glass. As soon as I saw it, I knew I was seeing something special, something I hadn’t seen before. The piece I saw was a bowl on a pedestal stand. A piece of masking tape was on the bowl and it read $1. My thought was, SOLD!!! I was so delighted to have found something so unique at such a low price. Obviously, the shop owners had no idea what they had in their possession.A block over was an antique store. I went in and showed the shop owner the bowl and it was he who informed me that it was Vaseline glass. He had one piece of Vaseline glass that was for sale, which was bottle. The next day I took the subway up to the Bronx to my friend Pamela Newkirk's father’s antique store and as luck would have it, he had a top that fit into the top of the bottle I had purchased the night before. And that began my love of Vaseline glass and my pursuit of hunting it down.In the early days of Ebay, I got burned when I purchased a fake piece of Vaseline glass through them. It's been many years have passed since I've last acquired any more Vaseline glass.I used to have dreams of shopping for this glass. The color intrigued me. It wasn’t until years later that I found out that this glass glows under a black light and that it is made with uranium. The also began my love of the color chartreuse. It was during the autumn season that I loved antiquing. I haven’t done so in years since so many of the local antique spots closed down, particularly in the city. All the parking lots that were used for antique-selling were torn down to build more high-risers… But it is this season that brings on my nostalgia for things old and Vaseline glass.My only regret is I was never able to find a Vaseline perfume bottle to add to my perfume bottle collection...I had what I thought was a Vaseline glass perfume bottle, but it turned out to be green glass. Do you have something vintage, antique, that you love and collect like Vaseline glass? If so, tell me about it in the comment section.