Posted 3 months ago
Lebead00
(1 item)
Hello fellow glass lovers,
*I have a confession: I've been collecting Val Saint Lambert crystal for 20+ years. My wife stopped counting at 1,400 pieces. I sleep surrounded by boxes.*
The hardest part? No single reference book existed. Factory catalogs from 1879, 1889, ... scattered across archives, libraries, private collections. Impossible to find.
Auction prices? Pure guesswork. Is a 155mm glass worth more than a 145mm one? Turns out – yes. Significantly.
So I did what any sane person would do. I built the reference myself.
*For the factory's 200th anniversary (1826-2026), I published the* *"Dictionary of Val Saint Lambert Stemware" . *
It took years, but it's finally done:
1,000 models, named and dated
*800 hand-drawn sketches + 300 photographs*
*500 price ranges from 1,000+ real European auctions (broken down by exact size)*
The book is on Amazon in 7 languages. I'm not here to sell – I'm here because I know how frustrating it is to stare at a beautiful glass and have no idea what it's called or what it's worth.
If you have VSL pieces, post them. I'll dig through my book and help identify them.
Cheers from a crowded house in Belgium,
My sister and I are 5 star etsy sellers specializing in vintage glass. I don't believe we have any of these, but I'll let her know. It's often difficult to get accurate information online.
Love Val St Lambert glass, why don't you post some of your fabulous collection here we would enjoy seeing it
Lebead00:
"So I did what any sane person would do. I built the reference myself."
};-)
"It took years, but it's finally done:
1,000 models, named and dated
*800 hand-drawn sketches + 300 photographs*
*500 price ranges from 1,000+ real European auctions (broken down by exact size)*
The book is on Amazon in 7 languages. I'm not here to sell – I'm here because I know how frustrating it is to stare at a beautiful glass and have no idea what it's called or what it's worth.
If you have VSL pieces, post them. I'll dig through my book and help identify them.
Cheers from a crowded house in Belgium,"
You are awesome. I salute you.
Hi Daniel,
Congratulations on the dictionary — exactly the kind of reference that's been missing. I have a set of 6 crystal champagne coupes I've been trying to attribute for a while, and I'm hoping you might recognize the pattern.
Details:
Coupe shape (wide flat bowl, not a flute), H 10.8 cm, rim Ø 8.5 cm, base Ø 6 cm
Multi-knopped baluster stem (3 knops)
Continuous engraved garland around the rim: a chain of interlocking oval/hexagonal loops tied together at crossing points, with fine multi-line hatching inside each loop, bordered by a band of thin parallel horizontal lines above
Hand-wheel engraved — visible seam/irregularity where the pattern closes at one point on the circumference, consistent across the set
No visible maker's mark or acid stamp on the base
Bought at a Catawiki auction (listed only as "French crystal, 1975-1999" — a dating I'm fairly confident is wrong; the stem and engraving style point to 1900-1930s)
I've checked catalogue plates from Baccarat 1916, Saint-Louis 1930, Vallérysthal 1911, and Meisenthal 1927 without finding an exact match, so VSL is my next best guess. Would this ring a bell from your collection or your research for the book? Happy to send more close-up photos if useful.
Thanks so much,
Vladimir