Skip Crystal: The Mid-Century Style Glassware Brand To Search For At Thrift Stores

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

If you love scouring thrift stores for mid-century glassware to add to your growing collection, while you might be thrilled to find Waterford crystal, you also might want to skip the crystal for now and look out for glassware that's not only gorgeous but could also be valuable. In any case, it's highly collectible, and there are plenty of lovely designs for you to search for. We're talking about Georges Briard glassware, manufactured from the 1950s to the 1970s and now a valuable thrift store find. The popular drinkware includes mostly old-fashioned and highball glasses, with many available in sets and with the designer's signature on them.

If you're lucky enough to find one of the rarer designs, like "Name Your Poison" or "Wall Street Bear & Bull", you'll find that a set of two or more could fetch a substantial price if you wanted to resell them. As well as glasses, you might also want to keep an eye out for pitchers, trays, and ice buckets that feature one of the many designs Briard was famous for. The designer was born in Ukraine and moved to the U.S. when he was 20, to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. He started his design career by painting on blank glassware himself, before realizing that it was more beneficial to license his designs instead. 

While there are many different designs created by Georges Briard, some are more sought-after than others, so if you find these at your local thrift store, don't leave them behind. Apart from those already mentioned, "Your Pickled Personality" and "Muddled Wisdom" are also designs to look out for. Designs with gold accents (22-karat gold leaf) seem to be particularly valuable, and can fetch hundreds of dollars if seen by a collector. Make sure the glasses have the designer's signature on them, to ensure they're authentic. This also makes them fairly easy to identify, even if the name is a little faded.

To give you a few examples, a set of eight "Name Your Poison" highball glasses can carry an asking price anywhere from $850 to over $1300. These are easy to identify, as they have the design name around the bottom in gold letters on black, and a skull and crossbones on the top, along with the name of a "poison" in the middle. If you're really lucky, you may even find some "Straight Poison" shot glasses to match the larger ones. The "Muddled Wisdom" glasses have a similar black and gold design, but with an owl at the top. A set of eight highballs can be listed for sale for around $400. Apart from being quite valuable, many of Georges Briard's designs are also quite stunning and worth adding to your collection of mid-century glassware. And while you're thrifting, don't forget to look for some timeless vintage decor items, like plates, candle holders, and silver flatware.