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Reference Desk

Hazel-Atlas or Federal Glass? The mark decides

Two Depression-era makers, two signatures you can read in three seconds, and one reissue that carries neither.

Last verified 16 September 2026 against 556 live US listings for Hazel-Atlas and Federal Glass, pulled from retailer product feeds the same morning

The two marks, and the one they are confused with

Both of these companies pressed enormous quantities of inexpensive tableware in the 1920s and 1930s, both sold it through the same dime stores, and both signed a good deal of it on the underside. The signatures are not alike, and neither needs a loupe.

The third row is the one that matters. The Hazel-Atlas H-over-A is frequently confused with the trademark used by the Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation, in the words of the reference most dealers work from — and an anchor is not an A. If the shape under the H has a crossbar and a curved bottom, you are holding Anchor Hocking, and our Anchor Hocking price page is the one you want.

Two dates are worth carrying because they bound what a mark can mean. Hazel-Atlas was formed in 1902 from the merger of the Hazel and Atlas glass companies of Washington, Pennsylvania; it became a division of Continental Can in 1957, and by about 1964 most of its plants had gone to Brockway Glass. Federal ran from 1900 until the Columbus factory closed in 1979. Neither mark has been applied to new glass in your lifetime unless you are reading this in a retirement home.

What each maker actually put on a shelf

Books list about twenty patterns per maker. A shelf does not. We priced every US listing the two names return in the affiliate catalogue this morning and counted which pattern names actually appear in the titles — a different question from which ones exist, and the more useful one if you are trying to recognise something.

Hazel-Atlas, by pattern

Federal Glass, by pattern

Two judgements from reading those rows, which we will sign. First, Ovide and Capri are the Hazel-Atlas names a buyer meets, not Royal Lace — Royal Lace is the pattern the price guides open with and it appears in none of our 269 listings. Second, Madrid is Federal's expensive name: fifteen listings at a $35.99 median against $13.99 for the seed as a whole, and the dearest Federal piece in the whole pull is a green Parrot footed tumbler at $179.95.

Note what the pattern columns do not add up to. 162 of 269 Hazel-Atlas listings and 217 of 287 Federal listings carry no pattern name in the title at all — they are described by form and colour, as “clear flat tumbler” or “chartreuse creamer”. If you are searching by pattern you are searching a minority of the shelf.

The reissue trap, and it has a date on it

Federal made a Madrid revival for the 1976 Bicentennial and moulded 1976 into it, which is the single most helpful thing any American glass company ever did for a buyer. Then the factory closed, and some of the Madrid moulds were sold to Indiana Glass — with the 1976 date removed. The result is a later pressing of a 1930s pattern, made from the original moulds, carrying no date and no F-in-shield.

This is the same shape of problem as the one we wrote up for Pyrex and its reissues and for carnival glass reproductions: the mould outlives the company, so the object is old and the glass is not.

When there is no mark at all

Plenty of both makers’ output was never signed, and the reference literature is blunt about what that costs you. Federal's Show Off kitchen storage jars, made 1972–1979, carry no bottom mark and are “often wrongly attributed” to L. E. Smith Glass Company, Imperial Glass Company or Indiana Glass Company; none of those attributions is correct. Small glass toy mugs were made by at least ten different companies and most of the older ones are unmarked.

The honest rule: an unmarked piece is attributable by pattern, not by feel. If the pattern is documented to one maker you have a name; if it is not, you have a nice piece of 1930s pressed glass and no attribution, and a seller who tells you otherwise is guessing in your direction.

What the two makers cost today

The medians are close enough that neither maker is “the expensive one”. What separates them is the tail: Federal's dearest listing is $179.95 and Hazel-Atlas's is $169.00, and in both cases the money is in green and cobalt hollowware rather than in plates. A saucer is a saucer either way — $1.99 buys one.

One shop, and what that means

Here is the part a price guide will not tell you. Across both names, 555 of 556 listings come from a single retailer, Replacements Ltd., the replacement-china dealer — 268 of 269 for Hazel-Atlas and all 287 for Federal. Every row is marked Used. There is no new-old-stock aisle here and no second shop to compare against in this catalogue.

Two consequences. A single-seller median is one dealer's pricing policy, not a market; read it as a reference point and not as a valuation. And availability means something specific here: only 82 of 269 Hazel-Atlas rows and 84 of 287 Federal rows say they are in stock, because a replacement dealer lists the catalogue and fills from what comes in. A listing is a record that the piece exists, not a promise that it is on a shelf this week.

Method, and what this cannot show

Two keyword searches — hazel atlas and federal glass — against the CJ shopping-product API on 16 September 2026, US advertisers, three pages of 100 each, deduplicated on retailer, title and destination URL, and filtered again on each row’s own country field. 269 and 287 US rows survived. Asking price is the sale price where a retailer publishes one and the list price otherwise.

What it cannot show. It cannot tell you what a piece sells for, only what it is listed at; we have no completed-sale data. It cannot see unmarked pieces sold under a pattern name we did not search. And because one dealer supplies nearly every row, these medians would move if that dealer repriced tomorrow — which is an argument for reading the range rather than the middle.

Sources checked for this page

• Hazel-Atlas Glass Company — Wikipedia
• Hazel-Atlas Glass Company — Glass Bottle Marks
• Federal Glass Company, Columbus, Ohio — Glass Bottle Marks
• Depression glass — Wikipedia

Frequently asked

Is an H over an A the same as Anchor Hocking?
No. Hazel-Atlas used a capital H with a smaller A under it. Anchor Hocking used an anchor superimposed over an H, or an anchor inside a rectangle. The two are routinely confused because both sit under an H.

When did Hazel-Atlas and Federal Glass stop making glass?
Hazel-Atlas became a division of Continental Can in 1957 and most of its plants were sold to Brockway Glass by about 1964. Federal Glass closed its Columbus factory in 1979. Neither mark appears on newly made glass.

How do I tell a real Federal Madrid piece from the reissue?
An F-in-shield means Federal. A moulded 1976 means Federal's Bicentennial revival. Madrid moulds later went to Indiana Glass with the 1976 date removed, so an unmarked, undated Madrid piece is most likely that later pressing.

Why is so much of this glass unmarked?
Both companies left a great deal unsigned, and some lines were never marked at all. Federal's Show Off storage jars carry no bottom mark and are widely misattributed to three other companies. Unmarked pieces are attributable by pattern, or not at all.

What does a piece cost?
Across 556 live US listings on 16 September 2026, Hazel-Atlas ran a $15.99 median with a middle half of $8.99 to $29.99, and Federal Glass a $13.99 median with a middle half of $8.99 to $19.99. Saucers and cups start under $5.00.

How this page was made. Drafted with AI (Claude); not yet independently re-checked. How we work