Dorothy Thorpe 1960s Silver Rimmed Old-Fashioned/Whiskey Tumblers-Set of 8

Vintage Whiskey Tumbler Glasses

Thorpe is best known for her timeless and modern, wide-band sterling overlay glass pieces.

Born in Salt Lake City in 1901, Dorothy Thorpe was a mid-century American artist who designed beautiful glassware and ceramic pieces out of her Los Angeles studio. Like many of her mid-century contemporaries, such as Georges Briard and Fred Press, she was a designer, not a manufacturer, of glassware. She purchased simple blank glassware, mostly crystal, from U.S. and European manufacturers and decorated them with her personal designs. In 1945, Thorpe wrote to a collector that many of her floral motifs, which included eucalyptus, irises, roses and narcissus flowers, were inspired by flora and fauna that surrounded her on trips she took to Hawaii. She created these breathtaking designs by using a sandblasting technique. She was also known for her silver overlay and paint speckled glass pieces which included all types of glassware and punchbowl sets.

While some of Thorpe’s glassware pieces are signed with a large “T” and a smaller “D”, many of her pieces found today do not carry her signature or her original logo sticker on them.