Featured Rare Cobalt blue glass pig

Here is some raw glass Dorflingers used to blow glass called a pig. This is the rare cobalt blue. Also pictured is green and clear glass slag from the factory this is melted glass leftover from the process. The last picture is a piece of the cobalt blue I cut and polished you can see how vibrant the cobalt is when cut.

 

Cool.
So I saw in an earlier post that you are in the town where Dorflinger had their plant.
I also saw the post of the unfinished piece gifted to you.

I must have missed your introductory post.
Are you a descendant of the family?
Just curious how you have so many interesting historical pieces.

I really like the cobalt iridescent piece shown in picture 4.
Thanks for posting. It's interesting.

 

I'm not a descendant, I was raised in one of the workers house in White Mills PA where the factory is. Mine was the one on the left.

My yard was used as a dump for the slag and broken pieces so as a kid i would find pieces of slag and broken glasses/dishes ect.
The house to the right of ours was turned into a museum : see here >http://dorflinger.org/historic-white-mills/glass-workers-house/
The bathroom in my house was the workstation where some of the first paperweights made in the usa.
My wife grew up on the next block in what was the town hall when the factory was operating.
I started to collect what i could find over the years . The last family of glass cutters lived across from us they are still cutting today (the latournous family) .
I recently sold the house circa 1856 to the Dorflinger museum so it is being preserved.
Strange story about the workers houses it was a superstition to not get rid of your boots and shoes so when they preserved the house next to mine they discovered 100's of pairs of boots and shoes under the floorboards! lots of history in that village. I suggest you visit if you are in the area.

 

Thank you.
I enjoyed exploring the site.

Really 100 pairs of old boots and shoes?
What was the reason behind the superstition?

 

The superstition from what I was told was they believe spirits could possess your shoes if you left them outside so when they got new shoes the old ones got put under the house so the spirits could not reach them.
Here is a pic of some of what they found.

 

VERY neat with a wonderful story!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!!!!!

 

I once had a spirit in one of my shoes...it was some athletes foot !!

 

Thanks so much for sharing ! Great story.
PS_I have an American Brilliant cut glass collection...so even more interesting to me.

 

Do you have any dorflingers in your collection?

 

Not that I know of . As I am sure you know...so much ABCG is unsigned!!!
As is the case with most of my collection...!! And even though I have so many reference books...my ability to idenify patterns is horrible!

 

Not yours then?
ew

 

Far from Reading?

 

I have some great reference books to identify dorflingers if you ever need the resource I can help out.

 

It is in northeast pa

 

Thanks !!! Hoping someday soon to get back to researching some of my pieces...

 

giantbike I have 4 glasses that 'were thought to be Dorflinger' - can I post photos for you to have a look and see what you think?

 

Absolutely

 

thanks giantbike, I'll get some photos tomorrow

 

@giantbike here are some photos of the glasses - each one is about 5"H, all have the cherry inside. I think with the cherry inside they were thought to be Dorflinger.

 

I was unable to locate a line drawing or an example in the catalog with the cherry in the glass.
However i do recall seeing one of these at the factory showroom it was clear with simiar cut . i am 90% sure these are dorflinger there may be an older book available that shows them.
The cut to me looks correct to me they had a distinct style vs Hawkes ect.. The best resource on dorflilnger glass was Ray Latournous which has passed away. He was the go to guy for all things Dorflingers. His family is still cutting glass in Hawley PA you might want to contact them they may have some resources to help confirm.