By The Sea Jewelry Sea Glass Jewelry And Sea Glass Collecting: Sea Glass Colors

Ruby Red Sea Glass

1 in 5000 pieces

Red is the hope diamond of sea glass and will make any sea glass lovers day, week or year.

One of the most common sources for ruby red glass was made by Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation for both decorative household items (shown left) and in the 1950's Schlitz Beer bottle (bottle bottom pictured below with sea glass pieces).

Anchor Hocking discovered a way to use copper to turn glass a red hue instead of the traditional gold, making the cost of producing this glass much more commercially feasible. While Ruby Red glass has been made throughout history, Anchor hocking found a way to produce it much cheaper and available to the public.

Ruby and red glass using gold (instead of copper) dates back to the 1600's and later became known as the "Purple of Cassius." The high price which this glass commanded and the efforts needed to produce it could hardly be justified by its beauty, but the mysticism connected with gold caused the demand.

However, the Romans made gold ruby glass long before then. The famous Lycurgus Cup (pictured below), made in the 4th Century AD., contains both gold and silver. An exceptional example of the glass-making skills of the Romans, it now rests in the British Museum in London.

The secret of making red glass, lost for many centuries, wasn’t rediscovered until the 17th Century by a chemist from a glass-making family.

While we have many pieces of Ruby Sea Glass in our collection, the Royal Ruby by Anchor Hocking is more available. Some of the jewelry pieces we have using both Royal Ruby and Ruby Reds can be found on our site.