Glassies? WHW Glass "Tinnies"

[Greg]

Anybody else here collect these things? These particular ones are from the 19-20 September 1942 WHW collection drive. I pick them up from time to time because I like the designs and detail. I don't have all 16 designs yet (17 if you count the two different Aachen designs), and who knows how many different colors and shades of colors were used.

I'd be interested if anyone knows how these were meant to be displayed. I often find them with little cords attached, but if you hang them from the cord, of course they're upside down. I've seen a photo of a full box of the complete set http://www.pressglas-korrespondenz.d...ichen-1942.pdf but it doesn't look like there's any stand or whatever in the box to display them.

The 16 types were:
Aachen Rathaus (and the rarer Kaiserpfalz Aachen)
Berg Isel Denkmal
Brandenburgertor
Garnisionskirche Potsdam
Hermannsdenkmal
Holstentor Lübeck
Karlstein bei Prag
Mahnmal München
Marienburg
Prinz Eugendenkmal Wien
Reichsehrenmal Berlin
Strassburger Münster
Stephansdom Wien
Tannenberg Denkmal
Völkerschlacht Denkmal
Wawal Krakau

Why they chose those particular buildings and monuments, I don't know. I would have thought there would have been one for the Feldherrnhalle, even with a separate one for the Mahnmal.

Best,
Greg

[Greg]

A few of the ones that I like the best .... the upper left one is the Kaiserpfalz Aachen, which I like most because it was only EUR 2,00!

[Bob Hritz]

I collect only the Mahnmal glass 'tinnies' and makes sets of all the colors. I saw an original display. It was with a painted wooden base with tiny pins sticking up that held the glass pieces in blace by being inserted into the bottom hole.


Bob Hritz

[Br. James]

Quite impressive, Greg! I recently purchased a set of the 'Mahnmal, München' glassie in four different colors. I had no idea that there were so many different subjects; the ones I bought were the first I'd ever seen. Do you think these WHW tokens were produced for collection drives other than the September 19-20 of 1942 you displayed, or are all of these pieces created for just that one drive?

Most helpful information -- many thanks!

Br. James

[Greg]

@ Bob - now that would make sense (the stand with the little pins). I'll have to make something like that.

@ Br. James - thanks much! Apparently this Deutsche Baudenkmäler set was all for that one drive 19-20 Sep '42. The interesting part is that I thought there were only 8-10 or so primary colors, but there seem to be an almost infinite variety of shades; some are solid colors, some are clear glass with painted highlights, some are translucent, etc.

Best,
Greg

[der-hase-fee]

My green Mahnmal has a deeper base on which it can stand, a little tilted backwards. It came out of a set of maybe 10, different motives like shown above, all of them with the same base.

[Greg]

Hi Andreas,

Thanks; that sounds like the ones I have, with the small hole in the base. Seems they would fit best on small stand(s) with pins for the holes.

Best,
Greg

[Greg]

I found a boxed set of these things ... still nothing in the box to indicate how they were supposed to be displayed, although the Mahnmal one has the remains of a small wooden pin in the hole, and maybe it was displayed in the type of stand Bob mentioned.

Best,
Greg

[Greg]

.

[Br. James]

The four Mahnmal glassies I have are blue, green, orange and pink; each of them has a small hole in the base, and all bases are slightly tilted backward when each piece is stood up. The beautiful boxed set that you display, Greg, only includes one Mahnmal piece, in blue. If this were the only time that these sets were given for WHW donations -- 19-20 Sept 1942 -- does that mean that it was possible to collect at least four different boxed sets of these glassies, with each piece in the set in a different color?! Wow! Seems like a lot of variance for a two-day collection campaign!

Br. James

[Br. James]

For those who have already received their copy of Joseph Cassidy & Chrystopher Alexander's new reference volume, "Winterhilfswerk," you'll find some nice pix of this set of glassies on P.80-82, including a 17th example -- apparently the sculpture on the glassie titled "Aachen Rathaus" was also used for the one titled "Kaiserpfalz Aachen" though this latter example is much rarer than the first.

Br. James

[der-hase-fee]

I found a boxed set of these things ... still nothing in the box to indicate how they were supposed to be displayed, although the Mahnmal one has the remains of a small wooden pin in the hole, and maybe it was displayed in the type of stand Bob mentioned.

Best,
Greg

Super find, Greg. Were you time traveling again ? Congradulations !

[Greg]

Andreas and Br. James - thanks for the comments!

@ Br. James - in my short experience with these things, there seems to be an almost unlimited variety of color shades that they were made in! I have now seen this boxed set and photos of four others, and the colors (and the order of the badges) were different in all five. I would assume that to fill the boxes, the workers at the A. Wall company in Graz simply grabbed whatever colors they wanted to, as long as one each of all 16 types was included in the box. If the A. Wall company even made the "glassies" themselves ... that company made the boxes (and the company still exists in Graz and still makes cardboard boxes among other things), but whether they made the pressed glass pieces ... I don't know.

Yes, there were actually 17 different designs if you count the Kaiserpfalz Aachen that has the same building image as the Rathaus Aachen. In Post #2 is the Kaiserpfalz Aachen that I have; the one in the box (top row 2nd from left) is Aachen Rathaus. So far I have only seen Kaiserpfalz Aachen in light green, but of course it may have been made in other colors.

The colors and shades I have observed so far -

Cobalt blue

3-4 different shades of translucent light blue - many of these seem to have had paint applied to the image (I've seen dark blue, light blue, gray and black paint on these blue ones), but some seem to have had no extra paint

Bright red (not translucent)

Light red translucent (sometimes with reddish paint on the image)

Pink translucent

Orange translucent

Amber translucent (sometimes with a dark paint)

Gray translucent (sometimes with dark gray or black paint)

A bunch of different shades of light green translucent (sometimes with dark paint)

Dark green (so dark as to to be just barely translucent)

Clear (I think these must have always had some paint on the design)


So I don't think I will try to find one of every shade!

Best,
Greg

[Greg]

I forgot a color - Violet translucent!

[CM Alexander]

Hey Guys,

You are gonna go nuts tying to figure out what pieces came in what colors! To my knowledge nobody really knows this for sure. Early on I had set out to collect them all...but after years of seeing this stuff I came to the conclusion that there is just no way of knowing.

The Aachen variant piece only exists in green and the glass Hitler head pieces only exists in clear. And for those of you that have any green glass pieces...try and use a black light in a dark room with them...you may find quite a surprise! (you'll think twice about sticking your fingers in your mouth after handling them!)

As to the firm A. Wall, to my understanding only made the boxes that house the pieces themselves. If you look in our book all of the 'boxed' sets that we show are from the A. Graz company. In my research it seems likely that A. Wall supplied the cardboard boxes for the various pieces made by the small 'mom & pop' companies and various artists that were employed. This is of course just my opinion...I have nothing to factually back that up.

It is nice to see discussion on WHW pieces

Regards,
Chrys