Sun Purple Glass

3/19/2014

I can almost hear you asking yourself what the heck am I talking about?  What I'm talking about is glass that when left in sunshine, turns purple - really.  

In the mid 19th century, glass contained manganese dioxide, popularly called "glassmaker's soap," began to be used by American glass manufacturers as a decolorizer.  By including a small amount of this ingredient in the melt, they could produce glass that appeared virtually colorless.

An interesting characteristic of colorless glass, which contains magnesium dioxide as a decolorizer, tends to turn different shades of purple when exposed to the rays of the sun or to other ultra-violet sources.  This changes the manganese compound into a form that causes the glass to turn purple. 


I'm pretty sure there isn't a huge market for sun purple glass and I doubt that if you were to try and sell it, you wouldn't be able to demand a high price.  My favorite colors are lavender and purple, so when I saw glass in various shades of purple, I was hooked.  My pieces even though they have remained by windows, has never gotten any darker, but I'm fine with the lavender.  I'm pretty sure the newer generations simply don't know about this special kind of glass.
   

This is a sample of sun purple glass.  The longer you leave it in the sunlight, the darker (i.e., purple) the glass will become.  I own several pieces of sun purple glass and unfortunately most of my pieces are generally light lavender.  Even though they have never turned to deep purple, they are still beautiful - to me.

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