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Neodymium Glass
by L. Cale
Neodymium Glass is a generic term applied to glass made with the rare earth binary compound, neodymium oxide, added to the glass batch to give it is characteristic dichroic color. Dichroic means that it will show two distinct colors. It looks lavender in daylight or incandescent light (a regular light bulb), and looks light blue under florescent light.
Neodymium was discovered in 1885. Limited pieces of glass made with it can be found dating from then through the present time. Glass manufacturers had their own more attractive (and easier to pronounce) names for it. For example, Moser called it “Alexandrit”, Fostoria called it “Wisteria”, Tiffin called it “Twlight”, Cambridge called it “Heatherbloom”. The bulk of it was manufactured from the 1930s through the 1950s. Most companies made it for very limited periods. Companies producing it today do not make table settings, although you can find table setting pieces from earlier times. Current production includes Lotton Art Glass Studios, Mosser, and a few companies in the Czech Republic. All of this is very high quality glass.
Because of its limited production, “neo” glass is not easy to find, and might be rather pricey when compared to other types of glass from the same era. When looking for neo glass in a store or mall, look for the light blue color because most retail establishments use florescent lighting in their stores and in their display cases. Make sure to ask if you can take it to a lamp with an incandescent bulb (the new squiggly low energy bulbs won’t work) to see the color change. If there is not color change, it is NOT neodymium glass.
For a more detailed discussion of neo glass and some very nice photos, you can go to this website:
http://www.mindspring.com/~reyne/neowhatsis.html
Below are photos showing the same piece under different lighting conditions. The item pictured is a perfume bottle of unknown origin. Photo #1 was taken under florescent lighting and shows the characteristic blue color. Photo # 2 was taken under incandescent lighting (regular light bulb) and shows the color change to lavender. We have some pieces of neo glass available at the Old Stone Mill.  
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In order for pottery to earn the “Majolica” designation, it had to be made and decorated in a certain way. Items were fired at low temperatures to the biscuit stage, then painted with metal oxide glazes, then fired again. The process wasn’t cheap, but was still more cost effective than porcelain or china. It was popular in middle class Victorian English homes where the prevailing philosophy was that items should be decorative as well as functional. Majolica fell from favor at the turn of the century. Overproduction had made it common, and poorly manufactured pieces flooded the market.
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