Sometimes when I’m at an auction, the color or shape of a thing stops me.
Take cobalt blue, for example. There’s no color to match it for its bold beauty and striking complexity. What color blue is it? Not dark enough to be navy but not light enough to be sky.
It is truly brilliant. I recently ended up with a large lot of cobalt blue glassware for $2 at an auction, when all I really wanted was a set of six blue glasses. The glasses are just gorgeous, and so are the vases and pitchers that came with the lot. You can’t gush like this over glasses you buy at Walmart (even though I do shop at the store).
All this gushing got me to wondering about where the color comes from. So, I Googled and then went to Wikipedia: One account says a Swedish scientist isolated the color blue from a pigment called smalt during the early part of the 18th century, and a Frenchman developed the actual cobalt blue color in 1802 after being asked by a French official to improve on the color palettes of artists. American artist Maxfield Parrish used it in his works, so much so that it is sometimes called Parrish blue.
The color and texture of this next piece of glassware captured me at first glance. It’s an emerald green swan flower frog. These frogs are collectors items and are very popular (There’s a website for collectors called Flower Frog Gazette). They can sell for a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. It’s reported that Jackie O collected a few. They can be glass, pottery or metal, and come in different colors and sizes.
Why they’re called flower frogs stumped me. An FAQ on the Flower Frog Gazette website says this slang term for flower holders, arrangers and blocks was in use by the 1940s. The best guess, according to the FAQ, is that they got their name because they sit in water just like a frog.
Take a look at the swan. It’s lovely even without flowers:
Flower frogs don’t have to just hold flowers. The round ones would work just as well for pencils and pens on your desk. The metal spikey ones could be used to hold family photos or notes.
I’m in awe of the deep color in this handpainted Erphila pitcher (far left) made in Czechoslovakia. It has bold 
orange poppies and green leaves. Just exquisite in a very clean and simple sort of way.
Take a look at this lovely tulip apertif glass (near left). It speaks for itself.
