Weekend show celebrates beauty of Depression glass

Clearly, colorful Depression glassware never had it so good.

Originally given away in boxes of flour, soap and cereal, these machine-made dishes now sell for as much as thousands of dollars apiece. And folks drive hundreds of miles to buy them.

"Because they were cheaply produced, they were not highly thought of. … To someone who lived through the Depression, this is junk," says Edith Putanko, proprietor of Edie's Glassware in South Park Township.

To younger generations, however, such pink plates, green bowls and amber cups serve up plenty of priceless nostalgia. Most were made in the 1920s, '30s and '40s.

"People who have hit their 40s love this. … This is what they saw in their mother's kitchen, or their grandmother's kitchen. Or their aunt had a cookie jar," says Putanko, 67, of West Mifflin, past president of the Three Rivers Depression Era Glass Society, which meets monthly in Canonsburg.

Putanko says she expects to see more than 1,000 people from several states at the society's 25th annual Depression Era Glass and Pottery Show and Sale. The nonprofit event, a three-day sale, opens Saturday at the Clarion Hotel in New Kensington.

"This is considered one of the best shows in the United States, and it's the first one of the season," Putanko says.

About 30 dealers from Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, New York, Minnesota and Pennsylvania will offer tables of Depression glass and Depression-era "elegant" glass, plus kitchenware, pottery, children's dishes and Art Deco pieces. Organizers expect to welcome shoppers from as far away as Canada and Tennessee.

For the uninitiated, a Depression glass cup and saucer typically sells for about $10, but a coveted water pitcher might cost $3,000 or more.

Show chairs Jim and Leora Leasure of Eighty-Four, Washington County, will present a rainbow of decades-old "elegant" glassware once fashioned by hand in U.S. factories.

"I really enjoy looking at it. … I'm crazy about color," says Leora Leasure, president of the Three Rivers glass society, plus a collector-turned-dealer.

"When I want to spoil myself in the evening, I come in and find a goblet — maybe a $150 goblet — and fix myself something to drink, and I sit down and relax with it," says Leasure, who collects Morgantown Glass Co. pieces.

A family friend's set of cobalt blue goblets first intrigued the Leasures more than two decades ago. Since then, the couple have sold such stemware across the United States.

The Leasures' past clients include a White House steward who bought several "President's House" wine glasses — originally ordered by Jacqueline Kennedy and produced by Morgantown Glass Co. — for modern use during West Wing state dinners.

The Leasures offer their elegant glassware on the Internet as Leasures Treasures.

More plentiful machine-molded Depression glassware originated in hundreds of U.S. glass factories, including many in western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia: Hocking Glass, Federal Glass, Imperial Glass, Jeannette Glass, U.S. Glass, Atlas Glass, Paden City Glass and Westmoreland Glass.

Various chemical recipes produced the many colors of Depression glass. Gold, for example, was used to make red pieces. Most common, however, are light pink, apple green and amber dishes. Some were sold in five-and-dime stores. Some were given away at movie houses.

Putanko will be among those offering such pie plates, serving bowls, cups and dinners plates. Putanko became a Depression glass dealer, she says, "when I collected myself out of house and home."

"My mom had four or five pieces. She lived through the Depression, and she really didn't think highly of it at all," Putanko says. "She thought it was terrible for me to be selling this — it was such a reminder of a bad time in their lives. … There was no money. There was no work."

Putanko's personal collection of Depression glass now fills five china closets.

"We use it for Easter, and I will use it for dessert," Putanko says. "I have used it for Thanksgiving, but not for Christmas."

Today's most popular patterns include: "Adam," "American Sweetheart," "Cameo," "Cherry Blossom," "Floral," "Iris," "Herringbone," "Mayfair," "Miss America," "Princess," "Royal Lace" and "Sharon."

"There's a great deal of interest in finding mugs in either pink or green 'Cherry Blossom' made by the Jeannette Glass Co. It is the most popular pattern of all," Putanko says. She recently sold three green 'Cherry Blossom' dinner plates for about $30 apiece. Expect to pay $500 or more, however, for one 'Cherry Blossom' mug.

Depression glass "has probably appreciated more than anything you could put your money into, if you bought it and held it," Putanko says.

In the early 1930s, for example, Sears offered a dozen amber-colored "Madrid" place settings from the Federal Glass Co. in Columbus, Ohio, for $2.98, Putanko says. Today, that set costs $1,200 or more.

Depression Era Glass and Pottery Show and Sale

25th annual show presented by Three Rivers Depression Era Glass Society.

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

$6 for preview between 9 a.m. and noon Saturday; $4 all other times.

Clarion Hotel, 300 Tarentum Bridge Road, New Kensington.

(724) 225-8445.