So just how much is your prized Waterford, Cork, Dublin or Belfast glass worth? Ms Jill Cox of Beaufield Mews Antiques in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, points out a common misapprehension about Irish glass: "You hear a lot about Irish glass having a blue tinge. But it's not. It's the lead, the very heavy lead content that gives Irish glass its colour. And that is not blue. It's a sort of greyish-black. Some glass might have a yellowish tinge, some a greenish tinge. But the Irish is heavy and it has a black-grey colour - not yellow, not blue. That's the first misconception people have."
She also stresses that Waterford closed its furnaces in 1851 and didn't re-open again until 1951. "So it's nonsense to say `Waterford at the turn of the century' or anything like that. So the Waterford that you'll find in the back of your cupboard is very likely to be post-1951."
The best period for Irish glass was from about 1785 up to 1810 or 1820, Ms Cox says. "A lot of the really best glass in Ireland dates from then. It's all handmade, it's all hand cut. There was no machinery and it's got a charm of its own."
Glass from this period was "flat cut". "If you look at a piece of cut glass, you tend to value the Waterford because it's very heavy and it's very thick and the cut is very deep into it. Well now in the 1790s, they didn't cut deep into it. They cut flat. You don't go deep into the glass. But you cut it shallower. It's a completely different effect, a rather charming effect," she says.
The Penrose family started Waterford glass in 1783, while one Benjamin Edwards began designing glass in Belfast in the 1770s. But how can you tell the maker or date of a piece of cut glass?
Very little glass is marked, except in the 20th century so earlier glass is identified by its character, she says. For instance, Belfast decanters tended to be tall and narrow with very sloping shoulders, typical of Bristol glass.
An unmarked Belfast decanter from the turn of the century could be worth around £200 (€254) but if it's marked it would fetch £1,000 or more, she says. An "Act of Union" decanter with the shamrock, rose and thistle sold for £2,000 in Sotheby's last year, she says.
Pieces from Waterloo Glass (1815-1835) in Cork or the Cork Glass Company (1783-1818) are "almost unobtainable. They'd go for somewhere between £1,000 and £2,000 or maybe more," she says.
However, machine-cut glass up to the mid-19th century is worth a lot less, perhaps £200.
Early marked Waterford glass would be worth "big money" while glass by the Dublin maker, Mary Carter, could be worth £2,000. Says Ms Cox: "I don't think anyone would buy a piece of Mary Carter, signed, under £1,000. I'd say it would be more like £2,000."
Unusual glass items include rinsers, toddy-listers and dish rings. Rinsers were used to rinse wineglasses between refills. Straight-sided, about four inches high, with a lip on each side, they are worth about £80 to £90 each.
Toddy-listers were like pipettes, used for dipping into a bowl of punch and transferring it to your glass. They are worth about £125.
Potato (or dish) rings in glass were forerunners to the table mat and are worth about £200.
Deceptively plain-looking Pugh glass from mid-19th century Dublin can also be valuable. Ms Cox says she sold a jug for £750 - "a terrible lot of money for a perfectly ordinary jug with a piece of engraving on it". Straight-sided Pugh water jugs can be worth between £30 and £50 each.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
