Today, jadeite is highly sought after by collectors.
Fire-King ball jug – the holy grail of jadeite collectables. While the fragment we recovered unfortunately does not have a maker’s mark, there are many examples of ribbed jadeite products produced by Jeanette during this period. This tells us that our jadeite was probably made either by McKee or Jeannette, which both used uranium in their production during the 1930s and early 1940s (3). The discerning reader will notice that these later dates of production mean that Fire-King Jade-ite could not have contained uranium. Fire-King Jade-ite was manufactured and sold between 19 and is highly collectable today (6). They also made a highly successful line of restaurant ware that was thicker, heavier, and sturdier than the products intended for home use (6). After World War II, Fire-King began selling jadeite kitchen and dinnerware similar to those made by Jeannette and McKee (6). The Fire-King division of Anchor Hocking was the last of the three companies to start making this product, which they called “Jade-ite” (4). Jeanette coined the term “Jadite” in reference to the product’s resemblance to the semi-precious stone. Jeannette Glass Company, also located in Jeannette, began manufacturing a similar glass product starting in the mid-1930s (4). Beginning in 1930, they produced opaque green dinnerware they marketed as “Skokie” green (5). McKee Glass Company of Jeannette, Pennsylvania was the first to make kitchen and dinnerware from this material. So what’s the deal with jadeite? Or is it Jadite? Jade-ite? All of these terms refer to the opaque, milky green colored glass originally manufactured by one of three glass companies: McKee, Jeanette, and Anchor Hocking (4).
The fact that the fragment from the Brody/Emmons Amphitheater assemblage glows green under black light tells us it contains uranium and therefore that it dates prior to 1943. From 1942 to 1958 civilian use of uranium was heavily regulated, so glassmakers had to find different ways of achieving similar colors (3). Uranium fell out of use after World War II when it became critical to the war effort (think: the Manhattan Project).
Luckily, since these items emit only negligibly tiny amounts of radiation, they are safe to handle, eat and drink from (3). Glass colored with uranium salts is easily identified because uranium fluoresces bright green under ultraviolet light (3). The addition of yellow uranium oxide during the initial glass melting process produces colors ranging from yellow to green, though other hues including pink, blue, and white can be obtained by adding other colorants to the mix (2). Uranium glass was particularly popular in the early 20 th century, when large quantities of uranium salts were being produced as byproducts of the radium extraction industry (1). Jadeite bowl fragment under black lightīefore we continue we should probably address the radioactive elephant in the room: why would people put uranium in stuff we eat and drink from? It might sound strange, but uranium was once a common colorant added to glass and ceramic glazes. If you’re a collector or a frequenter of antique stores, you’ve probably already guessed the identity of our second piece of glowing glass: jadeite, another type of uranium glass.
This week as we continued to sort through the large quantity of glass from the Brody/Emmons Complex assemblage we came across another piece of glowing glass: part of a horizontally ribbed bowl in a striking jade green color. The glass glowed bright green under black light, indicating it contained uranium. Jadeite bowl fragment from the Emmons Amphitheater assemblageĪvid readers of the CAP blog might remember our excitement last year when we discovered a piece of yellow-green vaseline glass in the Gunson assemblage.
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