Opaline Glass

Opaline glass is also a decorative style of glass made in France from 1800 to the 1890s, though it reached its peak of popularity during the reign of Napoleon III in the 1850s and 1860s. The glass is opaque or slightly translucent, and can appear either white or brightly colored in shades of green, blue, pink, black, lavender and yellow. The glass has a high lead content which defined it as "demi-crystal" or semi-crystal. The primary influences on this style of glass were 16th century Venetian milk glass, and English white glass produced in 18th century Bristol.

Many different pieces were produced in opaline glass, including vases, bowls, cups, coupes, decanters, perfume bottles, boxes, clocks and other implements. The popularity of Opaline glass began during the reign of Napoleon. Cities involved in the production included Le Creusot, Baccarat, and Saint-Louis, Réunion, as well as various locations in England.

All opaline glass is hand-blown and has a rough or polished pontil on the bottom. There are no seams and no machine engraving. Many pieces of opaline glass are decorated with gilding. Some with handpainted flowers or birds. Several have bronze ormolu mounts, rims, hinges or holders. Real opaline glass was produced only in France. In the 20th century Italy produced a similar glass and called it opaline veritable.

Most all opaline glass is not branded or signed.

Portieux Vallerysthal made lots of robin's egg blue glass they call Opaline. This was produced later and in much greater quantity and is not nearly as rare or valuable.

The two best references for French Opaline Glass are Les Opalines by Christine Vincendeau and L’Opaline française au XIXe siècle by Yolande Amic. Both are in French.

Listen to this article (info/dl) Sorry, your browser either has JavaScript disabled or does not have any supported player.
You can download the clip or download a player to play the clip in your browser. This audio file was created from a revision of the "Opaline glass" article dated 2006-06-06, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help) More spoken articles

Glass makers and brands Contemporary companies Anchor Hocking Arc International Ardagh Armashield Asahi Aurora Glass Foundry Baccarat Berengo Studio Blenko Glass Company Bodum Cox & Barnard Corning Dartington Crystal Daum Edinburgh Crystal Fanavid Fenton Art Glass Company Firozabad glass industry Flabeg Franz Mayer Glava Glaverbel Guardian Industries Hardman & Co. Heaton, Butler and Bayne Holmegaard Glassworks Holophane Hoya Kingdom of Crystal Kokomo Opalescent Glass Works Kosta Glasbruk Libbey Owens Ford Liuli Gongfang Iittala Luoyang Johns Manville Mats Jonasson Målerås Moser Glass Mosser Glass Nippon Sheet Glass Ohara Orrefors Glasbruk Osram Owens Corning Owens-Illinois Paşabahçe Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano Phu Phong Pilkington PPG Preciosa Quinn Group Riedel Royal Leerdam Crystal Saint-Gobain Saint-Louis Samsung Corning Precision Glass Şişecam Schonbek Schott Sterlite Optical Technologies Steuben Swarovski Tyrone Crystal Val Saint Lambert Verrerie of Brehat Waterford Watts & Co World Kitchen Xinyi Glass Zwiesel Historic companies American Insulator Co. Bakewell Glass Belmont Glass Company Boston and Sandwich Glass Company Brockway Glass Carr Lowrey Glass Company Cambridge Glass Chance Brothers Clayton and Bell Duncan & Miller Dunbar Glass Fostoria Glass Company General Glass Industries Alexander Gibbs Grönvik glasbruk Hazel-Atlas Heisey Hemingray Glass Company Knox Glass Bottle Company Lavers, Barraud and Westlake Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs Morris & Co. Nachtmann Novelty Glass Company Old Dominion Glass Company James Powell and Sons Ravenhead glass The Root Glass Company Shrigley and Hunt Sneath Glass Company Ward and Hughes Westmoreland Glass Company Wheaton Industries Whitall Tatum Company White Glass Company Worshipful Company Glassmakers John Adams Richard M. Atwater Frederick Carder Irving Wightman Colburn Henry Crimmel Henry Clay Fry Friedrich A. H. Heisey Libbey Antonio Neri Michael Joseph Owens Alastair Pilkington Salviati Otto Schott S. Donald Stookey Lino Tagliapietra W. E. S. Turner Tomasz Urbanowicz John M. Whitall Trademarks and brands Bohemian glass Bomex Burmese glass Chevron bead Corelle CorningWare Cranberry glass Cristallo Duran Endural Favrile Fire King Gold Ruby Gorilla Glass Millefiori Macor Murano glass Opaline glass Pyrex Ravenhead glass Tiffany glass Vitrite Vitrolite Vycor Waterford Crystal Wood's glass Zerodur