California Glass Color Guidance: Smoke

By Colin Jung; posted December 4, 2013

View Original (4494 x 2947) 2594KB

 


(L to R): Various shades of brownish and greyish smoke in the following CD's: (top shelf) 102, 114, 121, 145, 160, 161 and 162; (bottom shelf) 166, 178, 187, 208 and 1131. My smoke CD 152 is not depicted.

Smoke is a funny color. You really don't see this color in other insulators made by other glass manufacturers. In California glass, smoke blends into other California glass colors, so there are examples of smokey purple, smokey sage green, smokey sage blue, smokey yellow, smokey peach, smokey olive green and even smokey two tones. Unfortunately, when you get moderate to strong smokey tones, it can really wreak havoc with all those pastel California colors, turning them into muddled messes of unattractive colors.

Corrected text follows (posted 5/7/2014): Smoke should be treated as a separate color, as opposed to it being an artifact of the glass making process. I have just acquired an unusually colored CD 166[010] that has distinct areas of yellow color glass and smoke colored glass. Although the most common condition would have the smoke and other glass color(s) blended together in a more uniform mix.

I am looking for smoke examples in CD 133, CD 200 and CD 260.

390771002