Antique Dealers to Exhibit, Sell Beautiful, Beguiling Glass from the Great Depression at the Vanderbilt Museum

Long Island Depression Glass Society Show Set for August 8

Remember that gorgeous, clear, colored glassware from your grandmother's kitchen? You can see hundreds of pieces of Depression glass on display on Sunday, August 8, from 10:00 to 4:30 p.m. at the Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum. You also can purchase some for your own kitchen or antique collection.

Sixteen Depression glass dealers from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania will set up booths in the Vanderbilt's wedding tent, overlooking Northport Harbor. The glass show is free to visitors, who will pay general museum admission ($7 for adults, $6 for students and seniors, $3 for children 12 and under), which also entitles them to explore the museum collections and grounds of the William K. Vanderbilt II estate. The event will include a raffle for a Depression-glass dinner service for four in the pink "Cherry Blossom" pattern, made 1930-1939 by the Jeanette Glass Co. Tickets: $1.00; six for $5.00.

From the late 1920s through the early 1940s, Federal Glass, Anchor Hocking, Indiana Glass and other companies created molded, low-quality glassware in beautiful colors that is now called Depression glass. Today, collectors particularly prize glassware in the colors pink, cobalt blue and green.

Depression glass was distributed free or at low cost—as little as five to ten cents per piece—during the Great Depression. Food and soap manufacturers placed pieces of glassware in boxes of their products to entice buyers. Movie theaters and businesses handed out pieces to customers who walked in the door. More than 20 manufacturers created more than 100 patterns, and entire dinner sets were made in some patterns. Common colors were clear, (crystal); pink, pale blue, green and amber. The glassware has been highly collectible since the 1960s.

The Long Island Depression Glass Society, Ltd., is a non-profit organization founded in 1975. The aim of the society is to study, preserve and foster the understanding and appreciation of Depression-era glassware.

The Vanderbilt: 100 Years on the Gold Coast, 60 Years as a Suffolk County Museum

The Vanderbilt Museum is celebrating the centennial of its beginnings. A century ago—on May 27, 1910—global explorer, adventurer and railroad heir William K. Vanderbilt II purchased 20 acres on a rolling hillside above Northport Harbor and began building his historic estate, Eagles' Nest, which became one of the grand Long Island Gold Coast estates. In 1947, the Vanderbilt family bequeathed the estate to Suffolk County, which began operating the museum in July 1950.