Tips on Collecting Art Glass – How to Become an Expert in Art and Glass

While art glass is a field that is subjective like any other field of art, it can be helpful to have some background knowledge before you buy one. The following are some of the things that you can research before going to buy art glass. If you know what you are buying, then at least it becomes less likely that you will be scammed by the seller.
1. Identifying a Piece
Glass blowing objects from most of the 20th century has a complicated issue of whether a signature on the piece is valid or not. Most Italian firms from that time period didn’t sign their piece, whereas Scandinavian glass blowing artists were clearly signed by the company and the designer. Because of this varying degree of validity of marks on art and glass, you should do some research on the type of art glass that you are planning to buy. A Italian glass work with a blatant signature may actually be fake.
On the other hand, precisely because of all the confusion created due to the lack of signatures, most 21st century artists do sign their pieces, some even register and number them.
In any case, invest in a high quality set of books and publications about art and glass. This can be a valuable asset that gives return with a rightly chosen high quality art glass.
2. Visiting Art and Glass Shows
The more shows and fairs you visit, the more knowledgeable you will become. You will get the general idea of the quality, price, and genuineness of an art glass, as well as how to distinguish serious imperfections from natural results of any glass blowing process.
3. Not being scammed
Know that whoever is trying to sell you art works is making a living out of it. This does not necessarily mean that they are liars and scammers. But because they know more about the subject (and should indeed know more), they can provide you with selective information.
Some auction houses place the responsibility of confirming the identification of art and glass on the buyer, and say that it is only ‘their opinion’ that they are giving. Thus, you can only get a refund when you can prove that they ‘deliberately’ faked a piece, which is hard to prove.
This is why some new collectors hire a specialist dealer. And later when they have sufficient experience, they can pick their glass blowing objects on their own.