Sea Glass: Where do the colors come from?

It is easy to guess where the  common green, clear/white, and brown pieces come from. It is the more rare colors that people wonder about.  I recently did some searching to find out the answer to this question.  

Let me remind you how the colors rank in rarity: (Orange being most rare and white being most common.)

Other rare pieces include:  Milk glass (opaque glass that is usually white), two toned glass (comprised of 2 different colors), patterned glass,  and glass in the shape of its original form (ie bottle stoppers, marbles etc.)  

Here is a break down of where the various colors come from:  

www.wiki.com and http://www.bytheseajewelry.com/theglass/color.php  can be credited for the info

Clear/white ( 4 in 10 pieces): 

Can be from a wide variety of sources including various bottles and window panes.  The thickness helps denote to age of the the glass (older glass is thicker).  

Brown (3-4 in 10 pieces):

Brown can be both old or new.  Newer beer bottles come in brown, but old Clorox and Lysol bottles also came in brown.   

 

Common Green (2 in 10 pieces):

Most likely from beer or wine bottles.  

Sea Foam Green and Other Soft Greens (50 in 100 pieces):

They most likely come from mid-1900 Coca Cola, Dr. Pepper, and RC Cola bottles. 

Teal/Aqua (1 in 1000 pieces):

Likely from the 1900s mason jars, electrical insulators, seltzer bottles, and other mid century glass bottles.  

Olive Green and Other Darker Green Shades:  

There is no specific source for these, but they are considered to be on the rare side and quite old. 

Cobalt Blue (1 in 200-300 pieces):

Cobalt is one of the most coveted colors.  The hue is very pleasing to the eye.  Cobalt could have come from several different things.  Phillips Milk of Magnesia, Noxzema, Bromo Seltzer, even Alka Seltzer used to come in a tall blue glass tube. Medicines and even poisons were also bottled in cobalt blue glass. 

Honey Amber aka Amberina (25 in 100 pieces):

This color was used for spirits and decorative items.  

Amethyst/lavender (1 in 300-500 pieces):

Quoted from bytheseajewelry.com  

" This glass has a neat history. You see the chemical used to make glass white (glass in its raw state usually has a greenish tint to it, like an old coke bottle) well, this chemical came from Germany.

When W.W.I broke out the chemical could no longer be used and the replacement chemical that was used turned glass lavender over a period of time. It's kind of neat to think when you find a piece of this color, you can date it!

Lavender glass is abundant in some areas and non existent in others.

True purple glass is much rarer. In our English Sea Glass collection, it averages one in 5000 pieces as true lavender glass was reserved for the Monarchy (showing Royalty) and for the Bishops in the church."   

Cornflower/light blue (1 in 500-700 pieces):

This blue comes from the same sources as the cobalt blue, but is actually a bit older.  The lighter pigment was used before the invention of paper labels.  It was easier to read embossed labels on the lighter shade.  Once the paper labels came about, the pigment was darkened to cobalt.  

UV Glass/Uranium Glass/Vaseline Glass/Lime Green:

This glass has a green glow that can be seen under ultraviolet light. This glass has uranium oxide added to it while it is in the molten phase, and this is what causes the green color and glow. When not under ultraviolet light, Vaseline glass has a yellow-green color that looks oily. This glass was popular for household items such as dinnerware in the 19th century into the early 20th century.  The availability of uranium declined after that. 

Pink and Gray (1000 in 10,000 pieces):

These colors were used as dinner wear (along with the UV glass) in the depression era. 

Red and Orange (1 in 5000 are ruby, 1 in 50,000 are bright red or orange):

Quoted from bytheseajewelry.com 

" Red is the hope diamond of sea glass and will make any sea glass lovers week or year.

One of the most common sources for ruby red glass was made by Anchor Hocking Glass Company for both decorative household items (shown below) and in a 1950's Schlitz Beer bottle (bottle bottom pictured left here with sea glass pieces).

Anchor Hocking discovered a way to use copper to turn glass a red hue instead of the traditional gold, making the cost of producing this glass much more commercially feasible.

I've been told there used to be a brewery on Long Island that made a beer called "Red Bottle Beer" and that you used to be able to find lots of red sea glass, this may have been where this beer was bottled.

True Reds do in fact use gold to turn the molten glass it's vivid red hue. This is why even today, red glass is very expensive.

Other sources of red sea glass could have been running lights on boats (you know - red right return), taillights on cars that were dumped offshore to make reefs, or decorative household glass.

Orange was also most likely from an old decorative household item." 

Yellow: 

Is most likely from decorative items, lights on boats, or 1930s Vaseline containers.  

Milk Glass aka Opal Glass:

Is generally from decorative items and plates in the 1900s.  It mostly comes in white, but can be found in other colors. 

Black:

These pieces are extremely old.  Most likely being from beer, wine, and gin bottles made in the 18th century.   

Marbles:

Marbles were used in the ballasts of old ships and paint cans.  

  

  Here is a photo of some of the nicer colored pieces in my collection

 Bright red, pink milk glass, honey amber, sea foam, lime green, olive green, two toned (emerald green and white milk glass), aqua blue, cornflower blue, cobalt blue, white milk glass, and a nice patterned piece of glass.  

I have been beachcombing at least once per month this summer.  I would go more, if the beaches were closer to my house!  I have been to my usual Chicago spots and Kenosha, WI so far.  I will hit Michigan and Indiana in August, Milwaukee, WI in September, and Virginia Beach, VA in October.  I will also be attending the North American Sea Glass Association sea glass festival in VA. 

I have also enjoyed teaching some newbies how to hunt for these treasures.

Happy hunting to any other beachcombers who are reading this!