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Childhood memories of my grandmother's house revolve around little glass baskets filled with candy and ornate glass cake pedestals topped with her famous lemon cake. I don't believe it was the glass that impressed me then, but it is what impresses me today.

It seems I am not alone in my nostalgia. Glass — in all shapes and styles — comprises a comeback medium on today's table. Consumers seek a variety of styles — from retro to contemporary — for a variety of purposes, including dinnerware, serveware, drinkware, and more.



A Primer

Glassmaking was spread throughout Europe some two thousand years ago by the Romans who made bottles, vases, and hollow vessels to supply the needs of their empire. When the Roman Empire collapsed, glassmaking began to decline until those craftsmen were drawn to Venice's successful trading center. It was here that glassmaking became an art form. Italian glass, particularly Venetian (Murano), remains one of the most popular styles today.

"There's a lot more art glass out there — tabletop art glass, not 'for display only' art glass. Our customers love it. We're having a great response," said Linwood Bradley, assistant housewares manager for Chapel Hill, S.C.-based A Southern Season. "We bring in full lines generally geared toward Italian. There is such a delicacy and clarity to Italian glass and Venetian glass has its own wonderful style."

It's as if technology has caught up with consumer desires. Decorative glass techniques are being used to create everyday tabletop items, filling both a functional need and a stylish demand.

"The glassware market is booming, whether it be stemware, barware, dinnerware, or decorative accessories," said Tony DeMasi, National Tabletop & Giftware Association executive director. "Generally speaking, right across the board, each segment has a vast selection of designs and styles in a wide range of prices."



A Tall Drink Of Water

The word 'stemware' most often conjures images of clinking champagne glasses and fabulous wine glass collections. Today's consumer has widened the demand for stemware in every style from margarita glasses to martini glasses. Beverageware is also hot as whimsically hand-painted versions and colorful additions drive retail sales.

"Because entertaining at home is popular again, and the fact that drinking cocktails is once again chic, stemware and barware sales will continue to climb. Retailers should stock every style of glass possible, as well as know what each glass is for," DeMasi said. "There's no such thing as the 'all-purpose glass' anymore. Retailers have learned by way of customers' demands that white wine takes one glass, red takes another, and that just about every cocktail takes a specially shaped glass."

Seattle-based Sur La Table's glassware sales have centered on fun lately. Owner Renée Behnke said her customers are stocking up on festive, decorative glassware.

"We're doing well with hand-painted glasses. Not the bridal registry kind, more like the painted butterfly glass used for iced tea — not a wine goblet but a fun drink glass," Behnke said.

Hand-painted glassware sales at A Southern Season are also focused on fun, entertaining selections. Bradley pointed out that hand-painted martini glasses and pitchers are selling better than wine goblets.

"During the holidays last year, hand-painted cocoa mugs with holiday charm sold well," Bradley added.

Other glass varieties attracting attention at Sur La Table range from Carnival and Mexican glass to high-quality lead crystal. Behnke said customers' requests for a high-end crystal selection led to a recent addition.

"We're bringing in Riedel for the first time. We've never had glass that is lead crystal, never mind $25 a glass," Behnke said. "We carry Stoelzle-Oberglas and they do a great job. The next step is lead crystal. I have had many customer requests, but it's a big commitment because you can't just bring in three styles."

As primarily a tabletop retailer, Panamai Manadee, owner of Boston-based Bliss, began her company with crystal products with the goal of distinguishing Bliss from "category killers."

"It's easy to up-sell crystal because so many people have had durability issues with glasses they bought elsewhere. Both iittala and Fire & Light pieces have heft to them. I use the iittala glasses myself in the store and at home. I just throw them into the dishwasher."

Dishwasher safe — that's a quality high-end crystal and decorative glass couldn't claim until recently. Technological advancements and new manufacturing processes have created a new generation of glass products that consumers can appreciate.

"Colored glass sells well in our store because colored glass isn't what it used to be. The glass is colored before it's blown, making it dishwasher safe," Bradley said. "Iridescent is also difficult to create in a dishwasher-safe version, but it's being done well now. We have a great new cordial glass that's very popular. The technology has improved, which makes it an easier sale."

Casual stemware and barware is also selling extremely well. Glass designs that match everyday dinnerware are doing particularly strong business. An area showing strength is quasi-casual/formal stemware — stemware with a clear bowl but colored stem (or visa versa). Tracee Clepper, manager of Carlisle, Penn.-based The Kitchen Shoppe recently brought in an open-stock line of glasses with colored bowls to complement an existing tabletop pattern.



In The Pantry

The entertainment trend is increasing demand for long-forgotten styles as well. Remember those tall parfait glasses that mom used to serve up Cool Whip layered with Jello? They're back.

"Entertaining at home has also resurrected demand for styles of glasses that were doomed to the clearance section just a few years ago. For example, parfait glasses are selling at record speed. Saucer champagnes are back, but being used to hold frozen desserts, shrimp cocktail, and other foods instead of sparkling wines," DeMasi said. "Ice cream sundae glasses are also growing in demand again as low-fat but high-enjoyment 'gourmet' ice creams become chic desserts again. An area where I see growth is in glass tea and coffee cups. I think we'll see this area really take off."

Kitchen Shoppe customers are interested in a wide range of glass products. Clepper said those products straddle the fence between housewares and tabletop.

"The best glass products, aside from measuring cups and the like, would be our gravy separator and trifle bowls," she explained. "They can't seem to make enough trifle bowls for us. It's a thing of the past, but our customers love them. They can't seem to get enough of them. Other good-selling glass items include pitchers, iced martini bowls, and caviar bowls."

A Southern Season customers also appreciate a range of specialty glass products, including cake pedestals, colored dinnerware, and centerpiece designs.

"Our customers are going for fruit bowls — glass centerpieces with grapes, apples, and oranges in the design," Bradley said. "Anything with a pedestal is hot these days, especially pedestals using fruit as the stem."


A Plated Selection

When you're looking at your glass selections, be sure to inventory your dinnerware. Glass isn't simply for glasses anymore. What was once thought of as expensive museum glass is making its way to the dinner table as dinner plates, serving bowls, and centerpieces.

"Glass dinnerware is a rising star. Look at the incredibly wonderful designs by Peggy Karr and AnnieGlass, among others. They're forging a new dimension in tableware," DeMasi said. "The super glass companies, such as Arc International and Libbey, are also seeing growth in glass tableware sales. This is definitely a trend worth watching."

Bowls, pitchers, trays, and such that a few years ago might be relegated to being decorative accessories are now being used as tableware accessories. In the kitchen and on the table, Behnke said green glass continues its popular reign. One problem the style witnessed was an overstocking by national discount stores who in turn priced selections for clearance, thus the style value was lost in consumers' minds.

"We haven't marked it down and it still sells for us. I think that people like the color, although it may becoming oversaturated," Behnke concluded.

Terry Monroe, a partner in Stillwater, Okla.-based Murphy's Department Store, said his customers appreciate functional glass items, as well as fashionable statements.

"For us, useful items — bowls, cake plates, lighting pieces, vases — do better than strictly ornamental items," Monroe said. "We have tried a wide range of hand-painted glassware items and these did well over the past year. Glass is becoming popular again. We are increasing our stock of colored informal crystal and glass."

Manadee said her customers continue to enjoy colored glass selections and she is pleased by the line extensions that manufacturers are introducing.

She continued, "iittala expanded their Verna style of colored tumblers to include plates and bowls. The color palette of clear, green, light green, cobalt, and sky is also carried over into the Kartio series by Kaj Franck. iittala has started to do pieces in a smoky grey, which adds a modern touch to their designs. These new pieces have gotten a strong response. Customers with plain white dishes can instantly jazz up their tables by interspersing colored bowls, plates, or tumblers."

Manadee said style, function, and economy play an important role in her decision to complement her tabletop collection with glass accessories.

"Glass is often an effective way to add sparkle to your table. The same items in porcelain and metal can cost a lot more, depending on the manufacturing process," she said. "I think the fact that glass can take so many different looks contributes to its popularity as a medium."


Keeping Stock

With such wide-ranging product and the subjective aspect of tabletop purchases, it's hard to decide exactly which glass products to stock. Behnke makes her selections on an item-by-item basis. She doesn't carry complete lines from decorative glass companies, but chooses products she believes will complement her existing inventory.

"We have every pepper grinder you can buy," she said. "But when it comes to tabletop, we deal with items."

Clepper also purchases open stock to minimize the store's inventory risk. Products are limited to those which complement existing patterns from well-established tabletop manufacturers.

"We carry open-stock pieces, rather than boxed pieces, with prices ranging from $2.50 a stem to hand-painted pieces such as Portmeirion's at $20 a stem," she said. "We only stock items if they cross-merchandise with other tabletop products we have in the store."

She continued, "Durand came out with some inexpensive stemware with colored glass bowls that we thought would cross-merchandise well with Portmeirion's glass chargers and bowls in the same colors. We just purchase a few pieces at a time to build on the pattern and extend the line."

Murphy's glassware is merchandised in three primary places, including a separate crystal section of the store where oversized pieces and the cased crystal colored pieces are displayed.

"We display most of the hand-painted glassware by collection in our Housewares Department on wood fixtures. And, the highballs and DOFs are located in our China Department where we feature them periodically in displays, on tabletops, or in seasonal window displays," Monroe said. "Since they cover everything from formal to very informal looks and reach prices from around $5 to over $250 and fit in with several departments, we do incorporate them in a number of displays and themes."

With the ever-increasing wealth of product and some very successful designs upon which to draw, it's a great time to rethink where specialty glass products might fit into your inventory. With the holidays nearly upon us and a well-educated army of selective shoppers at your door, opening your mind to an innovative open-stock glass statement might just bring a sparkle to your holiday sales.

Glass Definitions

Milk Glass is a term used by glassmakers for opaque white glass. Milk glass looks like white porcelain. It was first made in Venice in the 14th or 15th century, and later in just about every country that made glass. The opaque white color is usually made with tin oxide. Manufacturers often made other colors in the same patterns, especially blue, and this has given rise to some glass experts applying the term "milk glass" to other colors in opaque glass.

Cranberry Glass is another type of red glass made from gold, but the color is paler (usually a delicate pink) because there is less gold chloride in cranberry glass than in gold ruby glass. The secret of making red glass was lost for many centuries and rediscovered during the seventeenth century in Bohemia. At the time, this was a blow to the pride and prominence of Venetian glassmakers who had tried unsuccessfully for years to make red glass.

The process of cutting Crystal and Lead Crystal involves pressing the completed glass object against a large rotating wheel usually made of iron or stone. The wheel cuts grooves into the glass, which have straight, sharp angles. The effect is to greatly increase the sparkle of the glass by adding more light-reflecting surfaces.

The best effect is obtained by using glass with a high lead oxide content. Usually called "crystal glass" or "lead crystal glass," this type of glass has a very high brilliance and shows the cutting to greatest effect.

Depression Glass was produced in the U.S. during the Depression years of the 1920s and 1930s. Generally, it was made by machine in a range of colors and a vast amount of it was tableware and kitchenware. Not all pressed glass made in the U.S. during the Depression years falls into this category. The most common colors were amber, blue, black, crystal, green, pink, red, yellow, and white. Depression Glass was often given away as promotional gifts with other purchases. It was sometimes packed with breakfast cereals, put into flour sacks, or just given to customers in grocery stores, gasoline stations, or movie theatres.

Crackle Glass or Ice Glass has an uneven surface resembling cracked ice that has partly remelted. It is made by dipping the molten glass item into cold water for just a moment, and then reheating and blowing it to widen the cracks.

Contemporary Glass or Studio Glass is glass made by the master glass artist him- or herself, usually in a small studio workshop. Though the studio glass movement began in the late 1950s, dramatic developments in glass design and the innovative and creative techniques needed to form these designs have occurred over the past three decades.

Pressed Glass is formed by placing a blob of molten glass in a metal mold, then pressing it with a metal plunger or "follower" to form the inside shape. The resultant piece termed "mold-pressed" has an interior form independent of the exterior, in contrast to mold-blown glass, whose interior corresponds to the outer form. The process of pressing glass was first mechanized in the United States between 1820 and 1830.

Carnival Glass is pressed glass which has an iridized surface treatment. It is made by exposing the newly formed hot pressed glass to sprays, fumes, and vapors from heated metallic oxides. These form a lustrous coating on the surface of the glass. It looks as if it has rainbows on it like the rainbow colors on the surface of a soap bubble. What you are actually seeing are light interference patterns produced by constantly shifting wavelengths.

(Courtesy of The Glass Encyclopedia at www.glass.co.nz/encyclopedia)


Read more from our 2001 Tabletop Series:

2001 Tabletop Series, Part I

2001 Tabletop Series, Part II

2001 Tabletop Series, Part III

2001 Tabletop Series, Part IV