THE CAMBRIDGE GLASS RAINBOW OF COLORS
When I think of the Cambridge colors manufactured over the past century, I tend to think pretty much in terms of crystal, pink, moonlight blue (light blue), topaz (yellow), emerald green, amber, heatherbloom and ebony. But the Cambridge color palette was extensive, with many variations on basic glass colors. Cambridge experimented with different colors and came up with subtle variations to complement their lines.
Cambridge expanded on the basic amber to include Madeira and mocha. Madeira was a light golden shade, somewhere between canary yellow and the deeper amber. Mocha is a much softer shade of amber and a bit easier to confuse with Madeira. The Cambridge amber color is much darker than madeira or mocha.
Mandarin gold is a medium shade of yellow and deeper in color than gold krystol Gold krystol is actually closer to yellow than amber.
Azurite, Avocado, Windsor blue, crown Tuscan, jade, primrose, helio, violet and ivory were opaque colors manufactured by Cambridge over the years. Azurite is a light opaque blue while Windsor blue is a shade again lighter than azurite. Helio is an opaque light purple color and violet a similar color but a slightly darker. Crown Tuscan is an opaque pink color and ivory a light cream color. Avocado is a greenish yellow color while primrose is a true yellow.
Cobalt blue, moonlight blue, royal blue, ritz blue, bluebell, willow blue are the various shades of blue in the Cambridge lines, and for me, extremely confusing. Cobalt blue is actually a medium shade of transparent blue. Then there is ritz blue, and I can’t tell the difference between this blue and the cobalt blue. Bluebell is a medium shade of blue. And then there is willow blue and moonlight blue — again, I can’t really see much difference, perhaps if I had them side by side. Royal blue is a very deep blue and more in line with what I would consider cobalt blue, except that there is a softness to this most beautiful shade of blue.
Peach-blo is a soft light pink color; larosa is a medium pink.
Carmen is the only shade of red I know of, and what a shade it is! While there may be some variation in the shades, it is always Carmen and I never saw a piece that didn’t stand out.
Topaz is yellow-green color often referred to as Vaseline.
Heatherbloom is a quite beautiful shade of lavender that changes color from orchid to lavender depending on the lighting; amethyst is a deep shade and mulberry somewhat close to amethyst, perhaps a bit lighter.
Forest green is the darkest shade of Cambridge green while emerald green is a lighter transparent green. Pistacchio would be the lightest shade of green.
There were other colors such as Mardi Gras, rubina, ebony and smoke. There is no difficulty in distinguishing these wonderful colors.
Not every color is described in this article, but I believe that most of them are. For the best information, with pictures and values, I recommend “Colors in Cambridge” by National Cambridge Collectors, Inc. Other colors not mentioned are included as well as a more indepth discussion of the color variations.
