Collector Guide

Moon and Star: The Signature Tells You Everything

One pattern, four makers, a hundred and thirty years. The current producer signs every piece specifically so the older ones can be told apart — which makes this one of the easiest patterns to date once you know the rule.

Owl & Twig Vintage8 min read

The short version

The original was called Palace, made by Adams & Company of Pittsburgh from the 1890s.
L.G. Wright revived it in the mid-1930s, with L.E. Smith pressing much of it from the late 1940s.
Weishar signs everything. A signature means 1993 or later.
No signature does not mean old — but it does rule out the current maker, which narrows it to Adams, Wright or Smith.
Most L.E. Smith is unmarked. A few pieces carry an S, G or C mark and those are hard to find.

One pattern, a very long story

The design collectors call Moon and Star started life under a different name. It was originally known as Palace, produced from the 1890s by the Adams Glass Company of Pittsburgh, and later by the United States Glass Company after it absorbed the Adams firm. Those early pieces are more delicate than what came later.

It was revived in the mid-1930s by L.G. Wright, who did not make glass himself — he commissioned it and sold it to department stores, gift shops and antique dealers. A 1938 inventory shows bowls and goblets in the pattern; blue opalescent joined the range in mid-1940s brochures. From the late 1940s L.E. Smith was pressing Moon and Star for Wright, and the pattern became one of the designs Smith is best known for.

Then in the 1960s J.D. and Joseph J. Weishar reproduced more than a dozen of the original items in conjunction with L.E. Smith, and the pattern expanded into something like a hundred new shapes and sizes.

The pattern and the rule. Raised circular moons with pointed stars filling the spaces between them. On the base, a Weishar signature dates the piece to 1993 or later.

The rule that makes this easy

Here is the part that makes Moon and Star unusually friendly to collectors, and it is worth stating plainly.

When Weishar Enterprises introduced its own full-size Collectible Line in 1993, the pieces were made from the original moulds — but the moulds were altered to include the Weishar signature, the signature of the late Joseph J. Weishar. Some pieces carry an outline of West Virginia instead.

That was a deliberate choice, and a generous one. Previous makers typically did not mark their work, so signing the new production meant the older Wright and Smith pieces could keep their identity and their value rather than being swamped by indistinguishable reproductions.

A signature means Weishar, 1993 or later. No signature means you are somewhere in Adams, Wright or L.E. Smith — and that is where the older money is.

Working out which of the earlier three

Once you have ruled out Weishar, the harder question begins. There is no single mark to settle it, so you are working from form, colour and quality.

Maker	Notes
Adams & Company	The 1890s original, as Palace. More delicate than the twentieth-century versions. Later production under United States Glass.
L.G. Wright	Mid-1930s revival onward. Wright commissioned rather than manufactured. Blue opalescent from the mid-1940s. The company closed permanently in 1999.
L.E. Smith	Pressing for Wright from the late 1940s and producing under its own name. Mostly unmarked; a few pieces carry S, G or C.
Weishar	Half-scale mini water sets from 1989; the signed full-size Collectible Line from 1993. Now the only producer.

Weishar bought all the Moon and Star moulds at the L.G. Wright auction in the mid-1990s, with a couple of exceptions, which is why the current production can be mould-accurate to the older pieces.

What to check

The base, for a signature. First thing, every time. It settles the era instantly.
Press quality. Moons should be crisply domed and star points should be sharp, not soft.
Colour. Amber and green are the workhorses. Blue opalescent, ruby and unusual colours carry more.
Form. Some shapes only existed in certain eras. Toothpick holders, compotes, lamps and canisters all have their own history.
Chips on the moons. Raised circles take knocks first. Check the rim and the foot too.
Scale. Weishar made half-scale mini water sets from 1989. A small set is not necessarily a child’s piece from long ago.

“Antique” on a signed piece. A signature puts it at 1993 or later, whatever the listing says.
Assuming unmarked equals Victorian. Unmarked covers Adams, Wright and Smith — a span of about a century.
Late-1990s price expectations. The pattern was extremely hot in that period, with some pieces reaching four figures. Check current sold comps rather than old guides.
Mixed sets sold as matched. With four makers and a hundred-plus forms, sets get assembled from different eras. Look at the whole group.

Worth knowing: there is an active collector body, the Society of Moon & Star Pattern Glass, and a dedicated reference book covering all four makers. For a pattern this tangled, a reference with photographs is worth more than any general price guide.

Where this comes from

Weishar Enterprises company history on the Palace pattern and the signed Collectible Line

West Virginia Explorer reporting on Weishar and the Moon & Star pattern

L.E. Smith and L.G. Wright collector references on marks and production chronology

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Made by Matt at Owl & Twig Vintage.
We buy and sell this stuff ourselves in Michigan — everything here comes from handling pieces, getting it wrong a few times, and reading the sold comps. Spotted something we missed? Tell us and we will fix it.