Comprehensive Identification Guide for Canadian Vintage Art Glass Leaves
- lunasabrina
- Jul 17, 2024
- 11 min read
Updated: Oct 13, 2024
Table of Contents
Introduction to Canadian Vintage Art Glass Leaves
6. Conclusion
Introduction to Canadian Vintage Art Glass Leaves
The three Canadian vintage art glass houses, Chalet, EDAG, and Lorraine, primarily produced glass for the Canadian market, resulting in various unique leaf designs. While the maestros and glassblowers in Murano occasionally made leaf or leaf-like pieces, they were not as prevalent as the glass leaves made in Canada.
The Jordan Importing Company (JI Co.), an American import company that imported Murano glass from the 1950s to 1970s, produced an abundance of leaves, including stylized Maple leaf designs, as shown in the first photo panel below. One hypothesis for this could be that since these pieces were making their way to North America they were creating styles of glass that would cater to that particular market. Other Murano glass makers, like Fratelli Toso, created biomorphic leaf designs or those more similar to birch leaves. In the second photo panel below from left to right we have a Fratelli Toso leaf with avventurine and then Murano made leaves of unknown makers. The leaf in the middle has very thin glass and elegant lace work ,latticino, in both white and blue. The last leaf is an 'end of day' leaf, these pieces were created with a combination of whatever glass was left at the end of the day to make use of the mixes.
In Canada, it was a straightforward decision to start creating these pieces, especially those resembling maple leaves. Each glass house produced its own unique styles, and this article will explore their leaf collections. We will learn how to identify them and view the vast array of colours, forms, and details that make these pieces highly treasured in today's market. This guide will also cover some leaves made by other Canadian glasshouses, notably Mosaic Artistic Glass and Altaglass.
Before we get into the leaves, let's start with a brief tutorial on leaves, focusing on the most prized leaf in Canada: the maple leaf. Maple leaves come in various types, depending on the tree. The most recognized maple leaf in Canada belongs to the red maple, which appears on our country's flag. However, there are many other types of maple leaves, including the black maple, sugar maple, and silver maple. The diagram below highlights some of the different maple leaf shapes and appearances.
In Canada we also have a lot of birch trees and therefore the birch leaf is also worth nothing for this article, see the image below.
Leaves have several characteristics that help with identification. As a biologist specializing in plant research, I will teach you how to use a few of these characteristics to identify glass leaves. The first characteristic is the number of teeth or serrations on a leaf, which create the leaf's points. The second characteristic is the lobes, which are the prominent sections of a leaf. These can be smooth or serrated. These two guidelines will help us identify the glass leaves as we explore them.
Canadian Vintage Art Glass: Lorraine Glass Leaves
Lorraine Glass Industries mainly produced a leaf reminiscent of a maple leaf. It has three distinct lobes, each with three serrations, totaling nine points. Using our leaf guide, this Lorraine leaf is most similar to a black maple leaf which has around nine serrations and three distinct lobes. It also resembles a douglas maple since it has three prominent lobes These leaves come in sizes ranging from 10 to 12 inches in length and 11 to 12 inches in width, with the average size being 12 inches in length and width. When examining the leaf, you can see ribs appearing from the base structure, adding the look of veins. The leaves also feature a stem that usually bends to either the right or left. At the tips of the highest serration, distinct tool marks from the pulling process can be seen. The base is molded with 14 points, a characteristic feature of Lorraine pieces, which helps distinguish them from Mosaic Artistic Art Glass (click here to learn more about Mosaic).
These leaves come in a variety of colour combinations, with most having a two-tone colour scheme and a few in solid colours. The two-tone colours include:
· Green-over-blue
· Amber-over-blue
· Olive-over-amber
· Red-over-green
· Olive-over-blue
· Red-over-blue
· Green-over-amber
· Red/orange-over-amber
· Root beer-over-amber
· Dark-amber-over-light-amber
· Purple-over-blue
· Green-over-clear
These two-tone leaves feature varying aesthetics depending on the thickness of the top color. For example, the red-over-blue and green-over-blue leaves below demonstrate how this difference significantly affects the overall appearance of the leaf, adding to the variety of potential colour palettes to collect.
As for the solid colors, this form of Lorraine leaf has not been found in a solid color to date, suggesting that they may not have been produced in solid color palettes. This is a similar trend which we see with the Lorraine Iris vases (click here to read the article), where the solid colours are harder to find suggesting they were produced in lower quantities. Although some may appear to be one colour upon closer inspection an evident two-tone colour line can be seen, an example of such a piece is below.
However, when it comes to solid coloured leaves, Lorraine produced a different form which has been found in blue and olive. This leaf differs in both form and size. The blue leaf shown below still retains parts of the original "Made in Canada" sticker, commonly found on Lorraine glass. These leaves share the same overall leaf shape with three lobes and three serrations each. However, the difference lies in the length of these lobes; they are pulled longer, creating an overall longer and more slender leaf shape. The underside of the leaves features indentations created by glass blowing tools (click here for more about tools). The base of these leaves is also markedly different from the others, resembling a segmented base with three to four segments. They are generally 16 inches in lenght by 16 inches in width.
Lorraine Glass also produced birch leaves, which are completely different in form and have been found with Giovanni Creations stickers, a distributor at the time. The birch leaves have been discovered in solid colours like purple, red, amber and olive but also in a unique blue colourway, featuring clear glass with blue blotches and lines. This blue piece bears a Giovanni Creations label and is distinctive in its colourway, a first for Lorraine. The olive birch leaf was designed as an ashtray, identifiable by the “butt” rest. These leaves share the same 14-point moulded base as the maple leaves mentioned above. They are generally 8.75-11.5 inches long and 7.5-11.5 inches wide.
Canadian Vintage Art Glass: Chalet Glass Leaves
Chalet Artistic Glass took a different approach with their main leaf design, closely modelling them after the ultra-Canadiana red maple. They also created other variations for their distributors and boutiques. This article will explore as many Chalet leaves as possible.
The main large leaf design features five distinct lobes, with the two closest to the stem being smaller, mimicking the red maple's aesthetic. Each lobe has three serrations at its tips, and the bottom of each lobe has four U-pushes: three in consecutive order and then a space for the largest, most prominent U-push. This tooling creates a textured underside. The stem is usually straight with minor variations but does not take a sharp angle in either direction. The base has six distinct sections, including the protrusion for the leaf’s stem. This leaf design is particularly famous and sought after due to its limited quantities and its link to Expo ’67, when it was presented along with other Chalet glass pieces (Andrus, 2017). These leaves come in two size variations: one 15 inches in length and width, and a smaller version which is 12 inches in length and width. The red and blue 15 inch leaves were present at the Expo '67 with ther smaller versions in a variety of colors like amber, blue and green, were available at retail sales on the Universal Exhibition site (Andrus, 2017). The smaller leaves carried through production since the blue-over-green design was seen in a 1971 catalogue page (Andrus, 2017).
These leaves have been found in solid colours as well as two-tone colour-ways, including:
Solid blue
Solid red
Solid amber
Solid olive
Solid orange (not pictured)
Blue-over-green
To keep in line with this leaf form, Chalet created a similar yet larger rendition. This version has longer lobes, creating an elongated look. Each lobe has three serrations. This leaf has been seen in the red-over-green colorway and bears the Chalet acid etch. Like the previous leaves, this one has four U-pushes under each lobe. The stem on this version ends in an inward dent, resembling the end of a fallen leaf. This leaf is exceptionally rare, with only a few known examples.
Chalet also created a smaller leaf design intended as an ashtray, identifiable by its "butt" rests. These leaves, while resembling red maple leaves, are thicker and have distinct tool marks. One example, shown below, has four "butt" rests and features an olive to light olive colorway. The underside lacks any U-pushes, and the base transitions smoothly into the piece. The stem is straight and thick. This leaf measures 10 inches long and 9.5-10 inches wide and bears the Chalet etching on the bottom. A variation on this style features thinner glass pulls, four lobes with two serrations each, and a slightly bent stem. Both variations have similar undersides with four distinct glass veins and some side pushes in between.
A similar ashtray leaf was created for Russell’s, a department store of that era, as evidenced by the Russell’s acid etch on the base. These have been seen in amber, olive, and blue, all bearing the Russell’s branding.
Lastly, in the maple leaf-inspired designs are the delicate and small leaves created by Chalet for Chantili, another glass distributor. These pieces feature five lobes without serrations and come in elegant amber to clear glass, olive to clear glass, and a light green hue. The leaves have a twisted aesthetic and a textured back. These leaves measure 5 to 5.5 inches in length and 6 to 7 inches in width.
Similar to Lorraine, it seems that Chalet created a birch leaf design. The one shown below has a Birks engraving, for the Birks department store still in operation today . This leaf is a light amber hue with scalloped edges. The base has a similar molded look but is drastically different in appearance. It has 18 lobes, not including the one that turns into the stem or tip. The lobe closest to the tip of the leaf is very large and thick. The majority of the lobes are concentrated on the left and right sides of the base. This could be a very important tool to distinguish them from the Lorraine variety, especially when they lack any maker's signature, etching, or sticker. This leaf measures 12 inches in length and 8 inches wide.
Exploring a slightly different leaf type, the unique clover leaf features a rare acid etch for Hals Hart. The marking indicates "Hals Hart Canada," suggesting that Hals Hart was a Canadian entity involved in the art glass industry. Active in the 1960s-1970s, Hals Hart likely functioned as a boutique or distributor specializing in unique decorative items. This leaf, in a lovely blue hue with a thick clear glass edge, features a three-leaf design. It measures 7 inches in length and width.
Canadian Vintage Art Glass: EDAG Glass Leaves
EDAG glass has a different history when it comes to art glass leaves. To date, two distinct leaf types have been found that deviate greatly from those of the other two glasshouses. The first is a blue leaf with a red rim, similar in shape to a maple leaf, but with three pronounced lobes lacking serrations and two smaller lobes near the base. The lobes are slightly twisted, giving a lovely textured effect. This leaf bears the gold and black EDAG sticker and measures 8.5 inches long and 6.5 inches wide. It was created as a compact hand ashtray, given its small size and the butt rest at the bottom end where the stem would be. The base has no unique characteristics for identification, as it is a common base seen on a variety of art glass.
The second leaf is also a light unique blue which transitions into a dark blue core with serrated edges, resembling a birch leaf, and also bears the EDAG sticker. This piece is 7.5 inches long and 4 inches wide, even smaller than the first leaf. It lacks any indications of being an ashtray and seems to have been created for décor or catch-all purposes. It is not surprising that EDAG’s glass leaves differ from those of Chalet and Lorraine, as they produced more Murano/Venetian style glass.
Canadian Vintage Art Glass: Mosaic Artistic Glass Leaves
Mosaic Artistic Glass was a short-lived Canadian glasshouse operating out of Cornwall, Ontario. to learn more about Mosaic click here and to learn about its opening and closure dates click here. These leaves are very reminiscent of the Lorraine Maple leaves, which is not surprising, as it is believed that the company was founded by former Lorraine glassblowers. The base of these pieces bears a similar mold but has the 16-lobed Mosaic base we explored in one of the Mosaic articles published here. The leaves are slightly different in that they are pulled further and appear more slender. So far, they have only been seen in single colors like green, olive, and red. The leaves below have been attributed to Mosaic using a known leaf that bears the Mosaic sticker; the features, base lobes, and style are identical. It is very possible that other color combinations exist or that some leaves have the iconic Mosaic ribbing pattern. These leaves measure 12 inches in length and width.
Canadian Vintage Art Glass: Altaglass Leaves
Altaglass was another Canadian vintage glasshouse producing art glass out of Medicine Hat, Alberta. To learn more about it, click here or refer to the book entitled Swan Song: The Story of Altaglass with a Guide to Identification & Values by Derek and Ann McNaney. Altaglass produced leaves resembling a stylized maple leaf. One leaf form has pointed lobes and an overall shape characteristic of many maple leaf varieties, particularly those with a more dramatic, star-like silhouette such as the Sugar Maple. The artistic interpretation enhances the leaf’s natural symmetry and decorative appeal. This leaf also has a deep body, possibly created to serve as a centerpiece, and features bullicante (bubbles) inside the glass. This leaf design measures 8 inches in length and width.
They also created another leaf with a stem, which is less stylized and more similar to the leaves we have been seeing so far. These come in large and small sizes, 8.5 inches in lenght and 10 inches wide as well as 4.5 inches in length and 5.5 inches wide, respectively. This list is not exhaustive and shows only a small selection of potential colourways and form, but it can help in identifying future pieces.
Conclusion
In conclusion, examining the Canadian vintage art glass leaves from Chalet Glass, EDAG Glass, Lorraine, Mosaic Artistic Glass, and Altaglass uncovers the key to understanding these works of art. Each glasshouse brought its unique style and interpretation to the iconic maple leaf and other leaf designs, contributing to a diverse and treasured collection of art glass. Chalet Glass and Lorraine focused on intricate maple and birch designs, while EDAG combined Canadian and Murano influences for vibrant, distinctive pieces. Mosaic Artistic Glass leaves reflected the craftsmanship of former Lorraine glassblowers, and Altaglass produced both stylized and functional leaf designs.
By exploring this article, you should be equipped with more knowledge for your glass 'toolbox,' allowing you to identify and appreciate these treasured pieces. Whether for collecting, appraising, or simply enjoying their beauty, understanding the characteristics and history of these leaves enriches our connection, appreciation and understanding of Canadian vintage art glass.
Most of the photographs in this article were contributed by David Sutherland. The rights to publish these photographs have been duly obtained and purchased.
Works Cited;
Andrus, Bruno Victor (2017) Trajectoires fluides et croisements lumineux : histoire du verre d’art au Québec dans le contexte d’Expo 67. PhD thesis, Concordia University.
