Collecting Fenton glass: hobnail, milk glass and dating

The signature timeline

• Before 1970 — no mark at all. Fenton used paper labels, which almost never survived. An unmarked piece is not suspicious.
• 1970 onward — an oval Fenton logo moulded into the base.
• 1980s — the oval logo gains a small 8 for the decade.
• 1990s — a 9.
• 2000s — a 0, and from here pieces are frequently artist-signed on the base in script as well.

So the decade digit dates a modern piece to ten years without any further work, and its absence on an oval logo puts you in the 1970s.

Hobnail milk glass, the one everybody knows

The bumpy white glass. Fenton made it in enormous quantity from 1940 into the 2000s, which means most hobnail you meet is common and inexpensive — and also that it is a lovely, forgiving place to start collecting.

What lifts a hobnail piece above the pile: unusual form (epergnes, lamps, large baskets), a coloured body rather than white (cranberry opalescent especially), and crisp undamaged hobs. Run your palm over the whole surface — a single flat-topped hob means it has been ground down after a chip.

Opalescent, carnival, and the finishes worth knowing

• Opalescent — the milky white edge that glows against a coloured body. Cranberry opalescent is the one people chase.
• Carnival — the iridescent metallic finish. Fenton made it early (1907–1920s) and again from the 1970s. Early carnival is a serious collecting field of its own.
• Burmese — pink shading to yellow, heat-sensitive glass. Usually later and usually hand-painted and signed.
• Silver Crest — milk glass with a clear ruffled edge. Common, pretty, cheap.

Reproductions and look-alikes

Fenton itself reissued old moulds, which muddies things: a 1990s piece from a 1940s mould is genuine Fenton and still a 1990s piece. The decade digit is your friend here.

The bigger confusion is other makers. Westmoreland, Imperial and Indiana all made hobnail milk glass, and plenty of what gets sold as Fenton is theirs. Westmoreland hobs tend to be smaller and more pointed; Indiana's glass is often slightly greyer. None of that is a defect — just not Fenton.

Buying without getting burned

Hold it up to a window. Look for straw marks (fine surface lines from the making, which are normal and fine), then for the things that are not normal: hairlines running from the rim, ground-down chips, and repaired handles. A torch held against the base shows a hairline crack that a room light hides.