The subject is vast enough that the best we can do is give you an overview and point you in the right direction. For anyone who’s interested in going deeper and studying more about the world of crystal, the resources below will give you a great place to continue your learning: · matchyourcrystal.com · drloriv.com/Tips/ID/4265/Lalique · mydaumcrystal.com · glassfromsweden.com/how-to-date-kosta- boda.html ·glassfromsweden.com/how-to-date-orrefors. html One final note: if you want to see a hand- ful of exquisite museum quality pieces of crystal, you can check out the American Collection on the second floor at the Nelson Atkins Museum. They are quite the lookers. Cheers! ^
not. Many of the crystal pieces we sell at our estate sales go between $10 and $25. We’ve also sold pieces between $100 and $500. The difference between the two starts with who made it. As with many categories of items, the company or brand has a huge impact on price. The majority of notable crystal pieces will be marked somewhere on the base of the item. Often it will be an acid-etched or sandblasted logo and/or company name. It’s been helpful for us to divide the main crystal companies we run across into two groups. The first group includes Orrefors, Kosta Boda, Swarovski, and the ever prevalent Waterford. Of the many hundreds of pieces of crystal that we’ve dealt with over the years by these companies, 95 percent have been worth less than $100. The second group of companies is Baccarat, Steuben, Lalique, Saint-Louis Crystal, and Daum. We do not run across these brands very often, and when we do the prices tend to be much, much higher. Is every piece of Lalique worth $100s? No. Neither is every piece of Water- ford worth less than $50, but these are good general guidelines. In addition to identifying valuable brands, finding either a numbered edition, an artist’s
signature, or both etched into the bottom of a piece is always a good indicator of higher value. The numbered edition will show up looking like a fraction 450/3000, as in, this is the 450th piece made out of a total of only 3,000. The smaller the edition number the better. An art- ist’s signature will let you know who originally designed that specific piece of crystal. So if you find a piece of Kosta Boda with Bertil Vallien name on the bottom, it’s generally going to be of higher interest than an unsigned piece. The last factor to mention in determining crystal value takes by far the longest time to learn. As we mentioned, identifying crystal from glass can be learned in a day. Identify- ing the different lines and patterns and which ones have more significant value is a much larger undertaking. The specific pattern, sup- ply and demand, the original retail price, and discontinuation will all affect the resell price. Waterford goblets are a great example, as they are only marked with the company name and not the pattern or line. To an uneducated eye a set of four Waterford Marquis wine goblets and a set of four Waterford Powerscourt wine goblets look fairly similar. The Marquis set sells between $25 and $40, while the Power- scourt set sells between $150 and $200.
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9 vintagekc spring 2016
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