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| Fakes |
The term "fake" is used here as a catch-all to also indicate similar designs - coincidental and otherwise - and knock-offs.
Italian production glass is often misattributed as Blenko. Given that in the 1950's and 1960's some Italian companies were making outright copies of Blenko designs this is not surprising.
Distinguishing characteristics of fakes:
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Italian copies usually lack pontil marks where they should not. Llearn more about pontil marks on our Basic Characteristics page.
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colors are either notably different from Blenko's or were simply not in a color range that Blenko produced at the time that the original Blenko design was in production. See our Colors page for detailed information.
- stopper stems are often not fully ground. Learn more about Blenko's ground stoppers on our Basic Characteristics page.
- mold lines where there should be none; the overwhelming vast majority of Blenko has no mold lines. |
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| Top 12 Worst Offenders |
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Following are picture of 12 Blenko designs which are most commonly confused with fakes.
Listed beneath each image in this order is:
- the Blenko design number
- the Blenko
dimensions as listed in the catalog of the year of production (dimensions are known to regularly vary by up to 1" in either direction)
- years of production so that you may compare on the Color page to see what colors the Blenko design was produced in
- in parentheses: who made the fake followed by distinguishing characteristics of the fake
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920L, 21.5", 1953-65
920, 16.5", 1949-65
920S, 10.5", 1951-65
(fake by Pilgrim, Italian and others: may have flange rim or mold lines, the Blenko original is
always gracefully curved) |
921, 12", 1949-54
921M, 9.5", 1949-57
(fake by Bischoff WV & Italian: almost always in deep 'bottlegreen' and often with noticably fewer or more indentaitons) |
5433, 10" tall, 11" long, 1954-75
(fake is Italian: almost always with crystal body and colored eyes & fins, form is noticeably different) |
5922S, 14.25", 1959-61
(fake is Italian: stopper stem is hollow and not fully ground) |
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5937, 22.75", 1959-60
(fake is Italian: no pontil, stopper not fully ground) |
6027, 17", 1960-69
(fake by unknown: always crystal stopper) |
6310, 14", 1963-64
(fake is Italian and has one fewer small 'bump' on the lower left) |
6315, 15.75" tall 10" wide, 1963 only,
(fake is Italian: evenly stippled surface, unground stopper stem, often with plastic gasket ) |
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639, 14", 1963-64
(fake is Italian: extra leaf on stem base. Bird or grapes image instead of flower) |
6525, 13.25", 1965-66
(fake is Italian: unground stopper, stopper under head missing attaching glass blob) |
6629, 12.5", 1966-67
(fake is Italian: stopper sits lower in neck and not fully ground, lighter, thinner glass ) |
6937, 22.25", 1969-74
(Greenwich Flint Craft, IN: shorter, often with longer neck) |
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Click on this link for a list of 55 Blenko designs for which similar non-Blenko versions are known. |
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Similar Glass |
The production of other contemporaneous West Virginia glasshouses is often mistakenly attributed to Blenko. This is not surprising given that they share similar basic characteristics (bright colors, simple forms, rough pontils) and because they were often influenced by or copied Blenko's designs.
Additionally, there is comparatively little accessible public information on the other companies – people are more familiar with Blenko and so incorrectly identify other WV items as such. Further complicating matters, Wayne Husted also designed some items for other glass companies after Blenko (Bischoff WV, bought by Indiana Glass and later named Greenwich Flint Craft, Colony of Italy, etc), as a result some of these other companies' designs clearly exhibit his aesthetic.
Companies' whose work is commonly mistaken as Blenko:
Bischoff, WV
Chalet (Canada)
Erickson Glass, OH; primarily the "Holliday" line desinged in 1958 by Irwin Kalla for Raymor
Greenwich Flint Craft, IN
Italian; various Empoli region companies sold by a multitude of US importers unders different names
Morgantown, WV
Pilgrim, WV
Rainbow, WV
Viking, WV
Zeller, WV
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Further Reading on similar companies' work |
Various monographs & catalog reprints available from The West Virginia Museum of American Glass, from their website |
West Virginia Glass Between the World Wars, by Dean Six, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd 2002, ISBN 0-7643-1546-3
Overview of the work of 23 WV glass companies, 2 pages on Blenko. Useful for contextualizing Blenko's early years within WV glass production. |
Viking Glass 1944-1970, by Dean Six, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, 2003, ISBN 0-7643-1859-4 |
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