Sunday, March 3, 2013

Purple Haze

One week until my booth at
Goliad Market Days

Furniture is painted, crafts are made, things are priced
I think I'm almost ready

Saturday morning
hubby and I
loaded up the furniture
for my booth and took it to my friends house

This special lady helps me at the market days
(can't find a better friend than that!)
she will haul the furniture to Goliad this Saturday
and my car will be packed to the brim with everything else!

While we were at her place she said
"let's go down to the barn, I want to show
you some things you might want"

She pulled out an old box and started to
pull out bottles.......purple bottles

Are you familiar with purple glass
if not here is a little history lesson

Why does this glass turn purple?
Beginning in the 1860's, glass makers in the United States started using manganese to give glass clarity instead of lead due to lead shortages created by the Civil War. Glass containing manganese eventually turns a light purple when exposed to sunlight, a side effect that was unknown at the time that this practice started. By roughly 1915, most companies in the United States switched from manganese to selenium to maintain clearness in their glass. Thus, with a few exceptions, including Heisey, Fostoria and Imperial, companies that produced this type of glass likely manufactured it from the 1860's to the years around 1915.


You will find the glass in different shades of purple


Isn't it pretty


She also gave me this great bottle

I'm not sure what it was originally used for
but  think it's a great piece

My friend has a wonderful collection of purple glass
I feel so lucky that she let me have these
pretty pieces

Every Little Birdie says -


Hope your weekend was good



1 comment:

  1. Wow, I learned something I never knew! Thanks for sharing. I'll be on the hunt for purple glass now...

    ReplyDelete