Uranium Glass

Glassmaking, with its radical conversion of materials into frozen ephemera, has mesmerized artisans since the very earliest civilizations of man. It held a value at least on a par with gold in ancient cultures in Egypt and Mesopotamia. While its origins may have been accidental, artisans have used glassmaking and glazes to extraordinary effect since the effect of heat on certain minerals was stumbled upon. Each generation has built on the knowledge of the last.

Uranium glass possesses an attraction based on the aesthetics it possesses as art glass as well as its place in modern art glass history. Uranium glass is not just a colorful name applied to the green colored glass.  Uranium glass's character was produced by introducing Geiger-counter-activating uranium to the molten glass mixture. Genuine uranium glass glows under black light. Diamonds radiate; uranium glass irradiates.

Uranium glass is the evolutionary predecessory of varieties of glass that have come to be called things like Vaseline glass (due to the Vaseline-like color and slippery look), carnival glass, Fenton glass, and Fiestaware. Fiestaware was made possible by significant amounts of radioactive material in the early glazes. Dinner ware manufacturer Homer Laughlin promoted Fiestaware as mix and match  from among a rainbow of colors. Eccentric solid color was marketed as a strong design element set amid a high contrast Art Deco milieu featuring black and white coloratura that promoted sanitation, efficiency, and modernity in the American domestic opera.

In all the high color glass art forms, there is an iridescent energy and/or intensity of color that gives the impression fairies of some sort (albeit wearing lead aprons) must have been engaged in the manufacture. If there was ever a means to paint with fire, uranium glass and its offspring are arguably the highest proof. There’s always a celebratory feeling about the pieces that hang upon the uranium glass branch of art glass evolution.
Transformation and color are at the spiritual core of all of the offspring.

A Baccarat box of uranium glass.

Content of uranium in uranium glass varied and actually dropped to 0% in the late fifties when the Cold War intensified. At that time all industrial uses were cutoff from the supply of uranium as part of the effort to keep the world safe for democracy. The hunt was on for alternatives among glassmakers.

The Fenton Glass Company began production of what it branded as Iridill around the turn of the 20th Century, well before the uranium impound. The company pursued the art of glassmaking as ersatz Steubens and Tiffanys, but the depression era or tastes thwarted the demand for it as high art glass. Its greatest distribution occurred as it was marketed to retailers, banks, and carnivals to function as promotional items and prizes eventually leading to it being known as carnival glass. Iridill has the appearance of gasoline on top of water. It shimmers and is rainbow like. This “poor man’s Tiffany” has an avid following and Fenton has done well in the manufactured collectible arena producing series of items like eggs on pedestals and glass baskets. The novelty of the items continues to draw collectors.

"I like the variety of it,” Julie (not her real name), a second generation collector says. Julie leans away from what could be called the more high intensity pieces and prefers the subtly of a satiny, alabaster appearance being used in some of the pieces produced by Fenton in relatively recent years. But the glow around Fenton glass will always come from a Cold War-free, pre-depression use of uranium dioxide in glassmaking that dates back to the First Century, Bohemian glassmaking, and early Baccarat. Long may it iridesce.

Fiesta Ware: A Little Collectible Book (Little Books (Andrews & McMeel))