“Mary Gregory glass” refers to a style of painted glassware first manufactured in 1879 that usually depicts children in white enamel silhouettes. Sometimes you see flesh colored overpainting or outlining, but the enamel is almost always entirely white. I like them because the figures remind me of little ghosts.

The style came to be known as “Mary Gregory” due to misattribution: For reasons lost to time, collectors in the 1920s started circulating a story about an apocryphal Mary Gregory who worked at the famed Sandwich Glass Company in Cape Cod. Funnily enough, even today, some dealers on the field will try to sell you on a piece of glassware by suggesting, with no evidence, “It might be Sandwich.” No one knows exactly who originated these, but they can be found in catalogs from Bohemia & Germany before 1880. Similar pieces were made right through the 1930s.

This simple, handblown glass tumbler is Victorian and features a girl holding flowers in outstretched hands. Some collectors keep their glasses in the kitchen; others for display. I like to repurpose them to hold pens or flowers.