Crackle Glass
Crackle glass is an antique glass that is dipped quickly in water immediately after being formed. The shock of this contact forms definite fracture lines throughout the sheet. The glass is removed from the water before the sheet can self-destruct. As the glass slowly cools, these fracture lines become embedded in the subsurface. Crackle glass comes in almost all colors, although ranges within a specific color may not be always available. This is a type of “figured” glass with the figurations—the crackling—running throughout the sheet.
It was the Venetian Glass Makers of the 16th Century, who invented this marvelous process. The glass was immersed in cold water while it was molten hot, thereby cracking the glass. The glass was then reheated and either mold or hand blown into the shape the glass blower desired. The reheating of the glass sealed the cracks. If you run your hands over Crackle Glass, you can feel the cracks, but the inside is smooth to touch.
Some of the companies that produced Crackle Glass are: Blenko Glass Company, Pilgrim Glass Company, Mt. Washington Glass Company, H.C. Fry Glass Company, Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, Hobbs, Bruckunier & Company, Cambridge Glass Company, Kanawha Glass Company. Some of these companies are still operating today, making Crackle Glass.
Overshot Glass is the name used in the United States for crackle glass that was made from about 1870 up to the early turn of the century. Like crackle glass, it originated as a way of hiding defects in the surface of glass. There was abundance of items produced, such as vases, pitchers, baskets, ladles, dishes, etc.
Like crackle glass, there were several methods of making overshot. The first way was that the gather of hot glass was rolled over a steel plate that was covered with thousands of very small pieces of glass. They adhered to the glass. They were very sharp, sharp enough that they could cut hands at the slightest touch. The gather was then returned to the ovens and reheated, melting the small pieces of glass, this melting causing them to lose their sharpness. The gather of glass was then reheated and then blown into a desired shape. This produced a wide thickness between the pieces of glass. The thickness varied from one piece to the other, depending how big the piece was made. The surface of this glass was usually smooth.
The second process involved the glass being blown into the original form first, and then rolled into glass fragments. The surface of these items was sharp to the touch with no avenues between the fragments. Some of the companies that produced overshot glass (crackle glass) are: The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, Hobbs, Brockunier & Company, Falcon Glass Works, as well as abroad, such as France, England and Bohemian factories.
Most early pieces of overshot glass (crackle glass) were clear, the colored pieces coming a little later on. Dipping the gather of clear glass into a pot of colored glass produced colored overshot (crackle glass). American overshot glass was never made with the blending of colors such as amberina. The blending of colors was produced by England. All of the colored crackle glass (not blending of colors) was done by Czechoslovakia.
  
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