Identifying Real Baccarat Crystal Items

By Janet Burns


Baccarat refers to a company established in France, and they started producing baccarat crystal starting 1816. They also own two museums: the Musee Baccarat in Meurthe-et-Moselle and the Musee Baccarat in Paris. The company started creating window panes, stemware and mirrors in 1764, and they started to use the first crystal oven in 1816. They had 3000 workers at that time.

The company also started making jewelry and perfume in 1997. They had stores in around 10 locations in 2010 and by 2012 they opened a luxury hotel featuring crystal chandeliers. If you decided to purchase one item from Baccarat, you know that they are quite expensive and sometimes hard to get, especially the older models. Also, you need to know how to be sure you are not getting any fake products.

Let's see some of the methods that can be used to determine if the crystal item you are after is an original piece. For example, paperweights are usually market with the letter B and when it was created, just the year. If you piece is from 1849 and onward, only the number will be present and they would be of different colors, depending on the year or model.

Perfume bottles created starting with 1920 will have a logo on them and images of a wine glass, a goblet and a carafe, along with the company's name printed in a circle. Various other glass pieces, such as vases, decanters, candy dishes, etc, which were made starting 1936 also have the images and the name in capital letters. Pieces created more recently only have the name of the company and not the images anymore.

If you only see the word "Baccarat" and no other logo, this means that the pieces are quite recent. Other items will have a large B on them or could be labeled with a sticker, which would be quadrilateral or rectangular. The stickers will feature the company's logo and be gold with a black edge, with the name Baccarat in the middle, for the quadrilateral ones, or white with a red ridge for the rectangular ones. The latter could also be solid red and have the text written in gold.

However, if you found an unmarked piece, it is a bit more difficult to determine its authenticity. Start by studying the websites and catalogs of various collectors in order to familiarize with the styles. During the '20s and '50s, cube shapes were popular, while Venetian glass influenced the pieces created in the the 1960.

You can also study the style of the designers that worked for the company, as each of them brought something special to the design. Still, this may prove a bit more complicated if you are not a connoisseur. One more common way to check if your piece is original would be to weight it, as the crystal will be a lot heavier than a fake piece.

If you still cannot be sure about the authenticity of the piece or cannot figure it out, a good idea would be to visit a store near you or contact a representative. They should be able to help you and provide all the answers and information that you need before your purchase. As you surely know, there crystals are extremely valuable and you should know as much as you can about them before you buy them.




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