Depression glass is clear or coloured translucent machine made glassware that was distributed free, or at low cost, in the United States and Canada around the time of the Great Depression. Depression glass is called such because collectors generally associate mass-produced glassware found in pink, yellow, crystal, or green with the years surrounding the Great Depression in America.
Growing up in Corning NY (some call it the ‘glass capital of the world’!), many school field trips for Cecilia Charlton were to the Glass Museum, where a visitor can see examples of glassware from Ancient Egypt to Contemporary Art Glass. Depression Era glass always struck her with its beauty, its iridescence, its relationship to the glass of the Ancient Egyptians with scar¬ab-beetle colours. Made during the 2020 lockdown this series had a historic significance for the artist.