Swing into the Story of Swung Vases

I do not know much about collectible glass but doing a part-time gig at an antique mall has been an education and has expanded my knowledge on a variety of things. Sure, I know some stuff about usable “kitcheny” glassware like Pyrex, Corning Ware, Fire King, and Hazel Atlas, but as far as art glass goes – it has not been in my wheelhouse.

One of the styles of art glass I have become more familiar with are swung vases. Swung vases are typically tall, slender pieces of glass with ruffled “mouth” openings at the top. They come in a variety of colors like amber, orange, bittersweet, gold, lilac, green, and blue. Some vases come with uranium in the glass so that they will glow under a blacklight. As a teenager, I actually had a swung vase, but I never knew what it was called. It was tall and orange and I kept peacock feathers in it. Come on! It was the seventies!

Swung glass is a style of glass blowing with a distinctive shape and technique. Made in the 1960s through the 1980s and mainly in the United States, swung glass is pressed into a mold, then, while slightly cool, picked up by the “neck” and “swung” in a pendulum motion to elongate and then stylize the “mouth” of the vase, making each a unique and one-of-a-kind piece. The vases can stand two to three feet tall and have the appearance of “melting” at the “mouth” of the vase. Value is sometimes based on how many “fingers,” which are the ruffled curved pieces of the “mouth”. (I know, I know. This is starting to sound more like an anatomy lesson.)

In past articles, I have shared with you the collectibility of Green Stamps, blow molds, and Singer Featherweight sewing machines, and this just provides another example. Currently, swung vases are super popular and desired, so if grandma has one, please do not throw it out or store spaghetti pasta in it! Display it front and center and dazzle your friends with your newly-acquired knowledge about your very own swung vase.

Keeping It in Stitches and you in the art glass know.

[Side Note: Following my first draft of this article, while at a community yard sale I was able to purchase not one, but TWO swung vases! One in green and one in amber. Oh, oh, could be the start of my own collection!]

By Diane K Clow

Quilter and Sewist Picker And, hopefully, Good Friend