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Small two piece pink depression glass nesting objects
What is this small two-piece pink glass object with fitted circular rims and narrow openings?
This is approximately 1.5 inches long and appears to be pink Depression glass. Both pieces have a molded flower design, beaded edges, and a flared tab at one end.
The circular rim on one piece is slightly smaller than the other, allowing them to fit together with the flower designs facing outward. The rims have notches that leave narrow openings into the hollow center when assembled. An opening would barely accommodate a chopstick.
I haven’t noticed any maker’s marks. Photos show the pieces separately and fitted together. Does anyone recognize what this was used for?
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Right; people seem hung up on the “glass” part of the question, and whether or not glass is ever used for this application, instead of noticing how these particular glass objects are probably not furniture coasters for many other reasons.
My grandmother also had glass ones protecting the wool rugs from pointy feet. These look smaller though. They remind me of the old waxy balls of perfume. They were often kept in stone and glass cases.
A local place near me is a dumping ground for old thick glass tiles. In my experience, thick glass doesn’t tend to crack or break it tends to chip. I have collected a lot and more often than not they are only chipped. I havent had any that shattered
Four hundred upvotes for a comment that makes no sense. They are made of glass, they don’t look like they’d coast at all and they nest for some reason. Last thing I’d think is furniture coasters. Is this the dead internet theory and the post was made by a bot that did a reverse image search then was upvoted by bots or something?
More hung up on the repeated denials that focus on every specific reason why people think these are that (glass, nesting, common misnomer as "coaster" leading to misunderstanding of purpose) as "reasons these aren't that." It's human nature. I'm certainly guilty of it. Brain goes from "well it is reasonable to think that because of..." and is totally sidetracked.
On topic, while these superficially resemble furniture casters because of all those things, that doesn't make sense because:
of the basic shape of them. Most were bilaterally symmetrical, these are not.
they are too small. Furniture casters would be at least slightly bigger than this or they wouldn't serve the purpose.
at least one side would have to be smooth, to set the furniture on. (Yes, it would be reasonable for the floor side to be bumpy, some were. But if the furniture side was bumpy it wouldn't sit steadily.)
Meanwhile, your smartphone is glass on front and back, and I just scrolled past a an all glass swimming pool that stretches between two buildings. Glass has many formulations and is very strong when thick.
The whole point of glass coasters for under the furniture is to make it leave less of a mark on the floor, these would leave more of a mark than a piece of furniture would
Well, yes and no. They were primarily intended to be used with heavy furniture that had narrow little legs/feet, to prevent them from digging into and permanently marking rugs or carpets. The glass caster would distribute the weight over a bit more surface area. Think about something like a heavy piano with spindly feet on an expensive carpet. They could definitely scratch a polished wood floor if you slid them along it, but that wasn't the intended use. The two piece style did allow for a small amount of shifting of weight between the legs without scraping up the floor, but even so they weren't meant to be slid along the floor. Some of them were also used under certain types of furniture with small wheels, like parlor chairs or some heavy cabinets and tables (or again, pianos), to stop the wheels from moving around on the floor and damaging the floor. Before rubber and poly wheels were common for that, they'd be made of metal or sometimes ceramic or glass, which could definitely damage a floor
For some reason this comment gave me the most wonderful feeling of nostalgia for my Grandma and Great Grandma's houses. For a little kid, furniture feet and the things they sat on were endlessly fascinating. And I guess I was small enough to be closer to them all. Ha!
Same! Now I want to go and try to see if I can spot them on old pictures. If I remember correctly, I even pulled some out to use as a «tea set», and my grandparents’ set was coloured glass.
My Hungarian grandma’s house was pretty utilitarian except for three things: African violets on a little plant stand, her crocheted doilies, and the glass coasters under the furniture legs. I thought they were pretty magical and very fancy
FWIW, there are two primary styles of furniture casters, the single piece cupped shape are the more common and most familiar type. There were also two piece nested ones. The two piece design allowed to the legs of furniture to shift just slightly as its weight shifted (like under a chair or sofa as someone sat on it) without damaging the floor underneath. The inner part of these look very much like that. However, the outside if these and the shape doesn't really seem right to me for those.
Why would they be square and not round? It would snag on carpeting. As would that little piece sticking off the side. Not to mention the likelihood of catching your toe on that.
My first thought was it must be for a balm or perfume, and the opening seems to suggest the latter, perhaps as a pomander type of thing one could hold under the nose?
If it’s a solid perfume it wouldn’t spill out, but the notch would allow you to hold the item to your nose and smell it despite being “closed” (both sides interlocked).
Or makeup. Reusable vessels for makeup and other toiletries was common before plastic use overtook the practice. It’s a shame because they were insanely pretty.
This looks like a nice little container for a hard powder (like old school mascara) or a crème (rouge or lipstick) that would go on a woman’s vanity.
(I did an entire research project on this at one point because I became obsessed with making cosmetic compacts in my metalsmithing classes lol)
I like where your head is at, but it looks like the bottom of the notch is level with the bottom of the bowl, so there is nothing to keep the makeup from spilling out/leaking/getting full of dust.
In the 1920s (eyeblack) mascara/eyeliner came as a solid block: you used a wetted brush to apply. Generally water was used but some people used spit. Solid meant it wouldn't spill out.
It looks like a cigarette snuffer. Although I've never seen one quite like that, you could place a lit cigarette into the nook, then placed the lid on top. It would extinguish your cigarette without crushing it.
I have seen metal ones in nearly the same shape, not seen glass but it absolutely makes sense. They look like something cute for a ladies purse since cigarettes were smaller and more expensive back in the day. Women in particular would just smoke part and save the rest for later. I imagine the glass is neater in a purse and does a better job at locking in the smell than the metal ones.
My only thought with this is that OP said the notch was about as small as a toothpick? oops read too fast. They said chopstick. I think this guess makes the most sense.
I think they are ashtrays that go with a bridge set, they sit on the corners of the card table and would be emptied after each use. My mother had a few sets this size, they often had matching coasters and snack plates and cups.
This was before filtered cigarettes. See where you can lay the cigarette? The end would not be in the ashtray but on the little piece attached at the corner. My mother was born in 1920. Maybe I’m wrong,but the ones I remember as a child were tiny and emptied using a brass silent butler as soon as the lady would put it out
You're probably right. I don't know much about cigarettes. My grandmother was born in the 20's and collected depression glass and smoked, but I never saw these. I just thought they looked very tiny, but you may be right.
There’s a fairly large community interested in tobacco related objects, lighters, ashtrays,pouches, cases, tabletop sets…, some are really beautiful and unique.
I think they were specifically cigarette snuffers. Just for extinguishing the cigarette, instead of crushing the burning end into an ashtray. Maybe there were matching ashtrays
I can't find any reference links.. but this would have been used to make small 'pat's of butter(lard/fat) for the table.. rather than pressing a family sized Cup of butter..
I thought salt cellars at first, but the notches in the rings would cause the salt to just spill right out.
That kind of look like ash trays, yes. But the notches are extremely small for even a very slim cigarette. And the wells would only hold about one or two ashes.
Then I thought maybe a cord pull somehow? Like the cord is knotted inside the nesting rings and somehow is looped around the two pieces to keep them together? But I couldn’t find anything like that online.
I’m still very stumped
Nah, we had depression glass furniture casters and they were much sturdier than this, like by magnitudes. I highly doubt they’re casters.
The tiniest items I’ve seen in depression glass is salt dips/salt cellars. There are little individual mustard dishes etc but they are bigger. Having a slot for a tiny spoon is not uncommon.
both the holes line up. they look like a stick could be inserted. why it is two pieces? maybe because it is a mould for something. incense, wax, or sugar...
I don't think the candy/butter/chocolate mold is likely to be right given that these don't emboss (ie no pattern would be left on the substance), and since glass is insulating it would be harder to de-mold compared to metal molds. Salt cellar makes some sense but I wouldn't think there would be much of a market for this relatively cheap pressed glass, like the kind of people who use individual salt cellars probably wanted higher quality ones? Cigarette rest seems like the best option to me, maybe cross post to /r/depressionglass to get their opinions.
The divot in one of them reminds me of a lady's style ashtray. There were some small ashtrays they used to make of different styles that were just big enough to sit on a vanity or somewhere.
This makes the most sense to me, because the design of the glass would make a pattern on both sides of the butter. It's not unheard of to serve molded butter pats at fancy dinners.
No, it's definitely related to the Depression Era. Before this, china and crystal were pretty much it. When money got tight, they reverted to the much cheaper material of glass. To compensate, they molded in all sorts of decorative flourishes. It was cheap junk - "all we could afford" for decades, but collectors got hold of it, and the prices rose, accordingly. Glass being fragile, full sets of things were far more valuable.
It reminds me of a number of things that were in my grandmother's "vanity" desk, and somehow, it makes me think of something to do with face powder (ancient predecessor to pancake or foundation).
I'm going to venture in another direction, and say that maybe these are pill crushers. With the crown part that sticks out used as leverage to squeeze together. Put a pill in, sandwich the glass pieces, with the crowns not over one another. With one hand, squeeze together the glass pieces, and the other hand pinch the crowns closer together
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u/lightningusagi Google Lens PhD 1d ago
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer.
Jokes and unhelpful comments will earn you a ban, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them.
OP, when your item is identified, remember to reply Solved! or Likely Solved! to the comment that gave the answer.