Today Reiner walked to the Silver Café to meet his pals of the Round Table. You know, the shadow cabinet. The brain trust. A decades old tradition here in Cobalt in which the guys meet for coffee and chew the fat. The café has designated a special room for the group– separate entrance, a large table, and their own carafe of coffee.
He hasn’t been able to attend ever since lockdown in March when the restaurant was forced to close. After it reopened around Labour Day, he was too busy with woodcutting, rockhounding and other last-of-season activities.
Today, he took along a recent acquisition of mine to show his friends.
Art Deco sugar bowl – when I saw it at a yard sale, my heart stopped. Was this Vaseline* Glass?
YES! It glows under longwave ultraviolet light. It IS Vaseline Glass!
At first I wanted to display the piece on the hutch above my desk, but… cats. It now resides safely on the shelf that exhibits other radioactive-related items in the “rock room”, behind closed doors.
Also on display in the rock room. Bart Simpson’s favourite comic book, Radioactive Man. It also glows in the dark under LW UV, I have discovered. Source
The longwave ultraviolet flashlight has been getting quite a workout lately. The sugar bowl makes for a great conversation piece. Also, besides learning that Bart’s favourite comic responds to the UV light, I’ve been wandering around the house, shining the torch on this and that to see if it fluoresces. The dish soap glows yellow-green. Lint, a blue-white. And the blue light filtering eye glasses that Reiner purchased on eBay ($2.00 plus free shipping) also emit an eerie if not comical effect.
Radioactive Man of my own.
* Vaseline glass is also known as Uranium glass due to the radioactive material used in the manufacturing process.
I've got to share this!
Categories: Husband, It's a Hobby
Tags: art deco sugar bowl, Fluorescence, Longwave Ultra Violet light, Radioactive Man, uranium glass, Vaseline glass
Maggie Wilson Author 
Your Radioactive Man is a hoot! Vaseline glass…..gosh, Maggie, I hardly see any of that anymore. Depression glass yes, but not Vaseline glass. Yeah, cats. I hear you. So sweet but lethal to the ‘good stuff.’
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Reiner never ceases to surprise me – the fact that he shelled out for this comic AND the appropriate museum grade protective cover is so not like him!
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Hahaha – love the way the clogs sees look and I need to wast mine but I hate things on my face! Even though I do wear my mask when out!
And I never heard of Vaseline glass so this was fun- and we stayed in the historic art district down in south Florida and your sugar bowl
Wouod fit right I n
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Glad I made you laugh. 🙂 Another name for the glass is Uranium glass – manufacturers used radioactive “salts” to create the distinctive pigment.
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oh thanks – and so nice to learn – also – the Bart comic reminds me again how genius the Simpsons’s writers are — and cool that the book lights up like that
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We didn’t know about that until I toured the house, in the dark, with the UV light – so an added bonus!
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i am kidding with this – but how did things turn out int he bedroom area with that light ?? (kidding)
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LOLOLOL – I was thinking about EXACTLY this as I wrote the post. You win the prize for mind reading!
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hahahaha
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I’ve didn’t know a thing about this kind of glass. What a great find. Cool.
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We’ve been looking for a piece of this to add to the collection for a long time now, but generally prices were out of reach. This was quite affordable. The fluorescence was strong enough that even in sunlight I could detect a glow. When I told a friend about my excitement at finding it among the other knickknacks, she said, “Did you run to the car?” Just about!
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Bah ha ha! Oh hell yeah, it’s time to get back to the round table (safely)! What a lovely piece of glassware — I’d never heard of it before!
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Glad to make you smile.
We here in Cobalt are fortunate in that we are far, far from the hotspots in Southern Ontario. The government will announce new restrictions today – closing restaurants, pubs, etc., but this time, on a regional basis.
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We here in the near-extreme Northeast are fortunate, too. Well, so far, anyhow! Oh, dear… what a time.
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Ha! I love it, Maggie. What a find. That is a very unique piece in many ways.
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🙂 Reiner just bought some more – It appears our collecting focus has shifted from rocks to glass!
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Gosh, you guys are fun ! – always have been, regardless of seriousness of message. It’s the character that counts: the backbone supporting the body of blogging .. and you and Reiner have been forever a pair of stalwarts, even if for him it’s a matter of being represented whether he wills it or no. 😀
(Something tells me he greatly enjoys his appearances.)
The UK’s “Antiques Roadshow” has often featured that glass, btw: it’s valuable, apparently !
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Glad you think so! For someone who is usually very stern, matter-of-fact, and literal-minded, these rare moments of hilarity are rare. And very welcome!
Another collector friend says the glass once was desirable, but very recently has lost appeal.
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Alas – whose nose ?!
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A pretty vase.
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I love Art Deco… and that sugar bowl is gorgeous… with or without the UV light. Your UV light reminds me of the blacklights that were so popular in my hippie days. I just did a quick search and I guess they are similar but not necessarily the same.
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I ❤ art deco too! I could take or leave the green colour, truth be known, but the radioactive/fluorescent feature compensates for all that.
UV lights come in an assortment of wavelengths. Long, short, and in between. The blacklight poster variety is different than the one we use, but I can’t say how.
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Love the bowl! What a find. I’m witb the others who never heard of this Vaseline glass. Reiner appears a good sport here.😀
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Thanks, Colette. I forgot to add a detail to the body of the post – another name is Uranium glass.
Yes, Reiner has a surprising wit that crops up now and again. 🙂
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That is lovely Maggie, but just how radioactive are these things?? I just read The Radium Girls, a book that detailed women who were exposed to horrendous amounts of radioactive material as they painted watch and clock dials so when I hear of things that glow I get a bit nervous!
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Thanks Deb – You ask a good question. The glass measures just above “background”. That is, the needle on the scintillometer moves, but not by much. We keep the “hot” stuff in a well-ventilated room, away from traffic.
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Wow! Gorgeous piece! I have never heard of Vaseline glass before. Learned something new. Thanks, Maggie 😁
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Glad you like it! Vaseline glass is also known as uranium glass.
Are you familiar with Fiestaware? Brightly coloured dishes of assorted brilliant hues? The reds, oranges, and some greens in the earlier material were made by using uranium salts, too. The later products have none.
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I’ve heard of Fiesta ware but didn’t know that’s how it was made. Cool!
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I am unfamiliar with this glass. We had depression glass when I was a kid (along with various jelly jars!) but none of this one. I love the design.
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I like the design, too – not as frilly-dilly as other depression glass patterns: too much for my taste. I have more to learn about the addition of uranium to colour glass – how long and where it was manufactured – but I do know that it fascinates!
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Frilly-dilly? I would have described as hobby-nobby! 🙂
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I’m going to remember hobby-nobby! Love it!
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That’s a really interesting find. Glass on shelf with cats is not a good combination.
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Thanks, Dan – yes, cats and anything movable is fair game, so to speak. You’d think I’d remember that by now, yes?
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I’ve never heard of vaseline glass but I love the effect with a black light – both on the glass and Reiner 😆
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We had a long and laboured “discussion” about why it’s called Vaseline glass, including a trip to the medicine cabinet to compare the petroleum jelly to the dish. You’ll be happy to learn that real vaseline ALSO fluoresces!
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Whaaat?!! Now that’s a cool piece of trivia. It makes me want to go out and buy a light so I too can test things around the house.
We’re so easily amused 😉
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Right? Lockdown has its upsides. So I tell myself.
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Countless ways to amuse ourselves … we have the imagination and are prepared to use it 😜
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What a fun and educational post! I think the bowl is gorgeous, glow or not. I’m not a collector anymore, but in an earlier time… The Reiner photo is a hoot. Glad he has a sense of humor.
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Interesting – I wasn’t much of a collector at all until I met Reiner. I’m curious – what was the focus of your collection?
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Well, I still collect books😉 There have been bottles, rocks, shells, stickers, probably stuff I can’t even remember. Usually had to get rid of most of it whenever I moved.
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What a clever costume for Halloween Reiner has! But where is the photo of Maggie Curie holding her fancy Vaseline beaker?
(Miss you, now that I’m offline, Was lovely to dip in a catch such a terrific post!!)
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BABE!!! What a thrill to see your profile pic here today! So glad to hear from you. I’ve missed you, too. Do take care.
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Just in time to scare the trick or treaters! (if there are any this year!)
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That would certainly be effective – but as you say, “if…”
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Wow – it’s amazing how it glows under ultra-violet light.
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Isn’t it fascinating? I’ve been shining UV lights on things for years, now, and it still amazes me.
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