Sun Glass...What Is It?

No matter where I take it, customers always ask about my purple glass collection. Just like many others I didn't know about purple glass until I talked to another collector/digger and found out how unique it was. Purple glass or "Sun Glass" as many call it, came about from glass ware that was crafted prior to World War I. The U.S. glass industry had discovered that by adding manganese to their formula, the glass came out clear and less likely to have that greenish tint that glass had prior to this change. What they didn't realize was that over time the glass would turn purple if exposed to the sun rays. The U.S. glass industry was importing it's manganese from Germany prior to WWI and stopped once Germany entered the war. They didn't use it again. So any purple glass that you find is always at least 95 years old at this point. Most of the purple glass found is not in it's darkest shade, often times it's dug out of the ground around old homesteads and hasn't been in the sunlight. The collector I get my glass from actually sends his glass bottles to a sanitizing company that runs the bottle thru a UV ray machine which turns the bottles into their deepest shades of lavender and purple. In an age when virtually everything was stored or sold in glass as it's packaging, you'll find everything from "snuff" bottles to chili sauce to soda pop. I love to sit the bottles on a sunny window ledge to catch the rays and watch the prisms that they can create! Start your own collection by purchasing some of our purple bottles at The Grapevine! They make great gifts!