The Libbey Glass Company Blank Catalog
About the Undated Libbey Blanks Catalog
The online catalog available here is based on an original screw post bound hard cover catalog purchased by LABAC early in 2012 It was was reprinted in the LABAC 2012 “PBL” book. The cover is 15 3/4” x 11 1/2”, and each one-sided landscape format page is 14 7/8” x 10”, including the portion “under” the left-side binding.
The “Bon Bons 4” page reprinted as page 253 is an old photographic copy that was found folded and inserted (unbound) at the back of the original catalog. Since the Bon Bon blanks are not included in the Index, it is likely that the Bon Bon blanks page might have been released by Libbey after the catalog was published.
There were no page numbers printed on the sheets in the original Libbey blanks catalog, so we elected to post online page images carrying numbers identical to those of the corresponding reprint pages of the LABAC PBL book.
Brilliant Era Libbey cutting blank catalogs had not been previously available. However, we have been able to assemble a great deal of information about Libbey cutting blanks from other sources. First, surviving original Libbey Brilliant Era cut glass catalogs usually describe pictured pieces with shape names, blank numbers, sizes (when multiple sizes are offered), and cutting pattern names or numbers. Libbey cut glass advertisements of that era sometimes carried similar information.
Second, many of the later Brilliant Era cutting blanks sold to other cutting houses bore a Libbey-applied etched acid “Star in Circle” signature, as described by Craig Carlson in his definitive analysis “It's Not What You Thought It Was,” Hobstar, May 2000 (CNP 3319, 3326-3335), updated in Research Notes Volume Five, by Craig Carlson, 2008. Numerous Libbey blanks were cut in patterns developed by at least eleven (and perhaps thirteen or more, see RN5 p. 48) different cutting houses. Many examples are pictured and described in RN5.
This blanks catalog suggests that Libbey offered for a few shapes (especially vases) a surprisingly wide range of sizes, and that Libbey may not have cut some of their patterns on the full range of sizes made as blanks. Examples surviving in the largest sizes may have been special order items.
Analysis of the index pages appearing at the front of this catalog clearly indicates that all indexed pages are present in the surviving catalog. However, some Libbey distinctive blanks known to have been sold to other cutting houses (e.g., loving cups, the pentagonal nappy, the rolled in rim square bowl of RN5 Figure 20) are not offered for sale in this document. Perhaps Libbey wasn't selling some of these blanks to other cutting houses when this catalog was issued? Alternatively, some of the blanks may have been special-request items.
This catalog hints at a future area of investigation and research related to rim cutting profiles. Clearly, Libbey provided blanks having precut standard rim profiles called “rings.” For example, Ring 104 is a ring treatment that appears on several bowls (e.g., blanks 1211, 1496), saucers (35) and nappies (35, 1219).
Another potentially fruitful area of research would be to determine when various Libbey blanks were in production. Clearly, this information can be developed by combining data accumulated from dated catalogs, dated advertisements, and dated promotional booklets. Once the blank production date ranges have been established, it should be relatively easy to date the present catalog, which must have been published during the production date ranges of all blanks appearing in the catalog. Preliminary investigation of this area suggests that Libbey may have changed blank numbering sometime in the late 1890s: the first two examples developed were blank Nos. 81 vs. 423 and blank Nos. . 211 vs. 1211.
Notes
The undated Libbey Blanks Catalog was reprinted in Brilliant Cut Glass Catalogs, Pitkin & Brooks, Libbey (Blanks), Alford, Higgins & Seiter, Kranz, Smith, Benner, Hoare, Kruth, 480 pp., ISBN 978-0-937508-34-3 (hard-bound only), co-editors Val and Rob Smith, V-R Information Systems, 2012. . ISBN 978-0-937508-34-3.
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