Orange Sea Glass
By Rebecca Ruger
The Holy Grail of sea glass, orange sea glass is considered by most to be the rarest of colors. You likely know several people who have never found even one piece or have only found one piece. (And you don’t want to be that person who sadly informs the happy sea glass hunter that what they’ve found is actually amber glass, not orange—a common mistake.)
Why is orange glass so rare? It had limited uses, as in, it wasn’t mass produced as bottles or jars or containers—the origins of the vast majority of our sea glass. It was made as art glass, and more decorative items and, of course, as tail lights for cars and boats.
Decorative glass has a much smaller chance of becoming refuse and thus finding its way into our lakes and oceans.
The chemical element cadmium, together with selenium, can be added to a glass recipe to produce shades of orange. Silver compounds can also result in orange glass. As with most glass coloring processes, an additive’s resulting color is usually dependent upon the heating and cooling process.
The Viking Glass company, which began as the New Martinsville Glass Company in 1901 in Virginia, added orange glass to their product line in 1964, calling it persimmon. Viking produced hobnail glass items, art glass, ashtrays, vases and many other items in persimmon over the next few decades. Fenton Glass produced many ornamental glass pieces in orange as well, including marigold carnival glass items and their own version of hobnail glass in orange.
To some sea glass hunters, discovering an orange shard remains still on the bucket list of colors to find. But take heart, even though orange glassware was possibly the least color ever produced, the number of items manufactured was in the millions!
This article appeared in the Glassing Magazine September/October 2018 issue.
Other articles about sea glass colors:
- Colors of historic bottles ›
- Sea glass color rarity ›
- Milk glass: opaque, translucent, and opalescent glass ›
- Chemicals used to color glass ›
- The ever-elusive red sea glass ›
- Why is the color red so fascinating?
- Schlitz Royal Ruby Red glass ›
- Why is there so much green sea glass?
- Color-changing neodymium purple glass ›
- Pastel-colored sea glass ›
- Multicolor sea glass from Seaham, England ›
- Multicolor sea glass from Davenport, California ›
- Leland Blue Stones slag glass ›
- Dragon glass slag glass from Shippersea, England ›
- West Indies: Treasure Trove of Black Glass ›
- Identifying your sea glass with Richard Lamotte ›
- More articles about sea glass and where it comes from ›
3 comments
I have a piece that I still can’t tell if orange sea glass or plastic. I’ve tried all tests I can think of but still inconclusive
Orange sea glass is super powerful. Was just talking on the beach with my girlfriend about how rare orange seaglass is and I promise on everything one washed up right next to me. So overwhelmed with joy and magick and salt vibes 🧡🧡
I love the beach and the beach loves me and it’s always been good to me and I love this app and I love orange sea glass I’ve been a collector for years and years ever since I was a little boy Burnin Up by the sea by Santa Monica and Venice in Malibu😎😘😍👻
