What is a Celery Vase?

          Indigenous to Great Britain, wild celery was a weed called smallage with dangerous narcotic properties, found growing in sea-side paths and roadside ditches.  The first edible celery was cultivated through a labor-intensive process that required the farmer to mound dirt around young shoots to make them emerge pale, tender and subtlely flavored.  Thus, celery was quite expensive.  According to the Strong Museum of Rochester, New York, in the nineteenth century, celery was considered a luxury food in America, a vegetable of the privileged.  Celery appeared at the dining table in fine cut-glass and silver vases.  (See www.strongmuseum.org/ and Dorothy Daughterty's Celery Vases, p. 6).  

          Over time, however, hardier celery strains were cultivated that produced a tolerable taste without the need of mounding, and the price of celery dropped.  As celery became common fodder for ordinary Americans, it lost its glamor.  By the turn of the nineteenth century, the average American ate his celery out of a celery dish.  In the early 1900's, celery vases all but vanished from glassware catalogs, along with the Victorian Era. 

           Celery vases are thus one-time products of luxury, designed exclusively to hold celery.  Such glassware, advertised specifically as "celery vases" in wholesale and factory catalogs, could be stemmed and footed or rest on a flat base.  Stemless vases such as those shown here tended to run between 5 1/2 and 7 inches in height, just short enough to let the celery shoots extend attractively and accessibly from a vase without toppling it over.  Celery vases were produced by a long list of American glass-makers in a wide variety of forms, including cut, blown and pressed glass.  This guide features opalescent pressed-glass celery vases issued by the A. J. Beatty Company of  Steubenville, Ohio during the heyday of celery, from 1887 to 1890.

History of A J. Beatty & Sons

An advertisement showing opalescent glassware
in A J. Beatty & Sons' Rib pattern, from the
May 3, 1888 Pottery & Glassware Reporter

           In 1845, two business partners, Joseph Beatty and Edward Stillman, founded a glass works in Wheeling, West Virginia.  A few years later, they relocated their glass factory to Steubenville Ohio, taking over the site of the Kilgore & Hanna factory.  In 1852, Joseph's brother, Alexander J. Beatty, bought the Steubenville glassworks, and when his sons joined him ten years later in 1862, the company was renamed A. J.  Beatty & Sons.  Throughout the Civil War and the next twenty-five years, the company made cut, pressed and blown glass, specializing in tumblers.  By 1881, A. J. Beatty was producing 350,000 dozen tumblers per week, as well as other tableware and lamps (see Neila & Tom Bredehoft's A J. Beatty & Sons:  1862-1892, pp. 1-5.) 

          Beatty began producing opalescent glass in 1887.  A Beatty advertisement placed in the January 27, 1887, Pottery & Glassware Reporter offered opalescent tableware in three colors:  white, blue and canary-yellow.  The February 10, 1887 Crockery & Glass Journal reported that Beatty was producing "an elegant line of ware in opalescent, the novel design of which at once strikes the fancy of the trade."  The March 17, 1887, Pottery & Glassware Reporter annnounced that the company's "opalescent  goods, numbering thirty pieces" were selling well.  From 1887-1888, Beatty produced a number of opalescent patterns and an array of opalescent ware, including three of the celery vases shown here  (see Neila & Tom Bredehoft, pp.6-7).  

          In July 1888, A.J. Beatty signed a contract with the city of Tiffin, Ohio, agreeing to relocate the Beatty glass works to Tiffin.  Over the next year, A J. Beatty moved all its equipment to Tiffin and eventually began producing glass there in late 1889.  During the same period, the Tiffin Glass Company opened near Beatty's Tiffin plant site -- and thereafter, Beatty's history became entangled with that of Tiffin Glass. 

          In July, 1892, both Beatty and Tiffin joined a consortium of 19 glass companies known as United States Glass, chartered a year earlier.  Distinguishing which plant of the U.S. Glass consortium produced specific glass pieces is often difficult, and David A. Peterson writes in Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary that he has trouble deciding whether he should "list Beatty under Tiffin or Tiffin under Beatty" (p. 13).  Beatty's Tiffin plant became known as "Factory R" of the U.S. glass consortium, and its Steubenville plant as "Factory S" (see Neila & Tom Bredehoft, pp. 10-11).  The Tiffin Glass Company's plant eventually became the home office of U.S. glass. 

         The opalescent pieces shown here, however, predate the years in which Beatty became entangled with Tiffin Glass and subsumed within U.S. Glass, and all are Beatty products:  Beatty's Rib and Overall Hobnail were first issued in 1887; Beatty Honeycomb in 1888; and Beatty's Swirl by 1889 at the latest.  Although Beatty signed its contract with the city of Tiffin in 1888, complications prevented actual construction of Beatty's Tiffin plant until much later, and Beatty's Steubenville plant still remained in operation in 1889 (see Patricia Patterson Allen, personal monograph).  Beatty did not announce its change of address from Steubenville to Tiffin until August, 1889 (see Neila & Tom Bredehoft, p. 13).  

          Beatty's Tiffin plant began production only after September of 1889, and the plant was not in full operation until early 1890 (see Neila & Tom Bredehoft, at pp. 8-9).  Thus, although all four of the vase patterns shown here continued to be advertised after 1889, all were conceived before Beatty's relocation to Tiffin was complete and years before Beatty joined the U.S. Glass consortium.  Beatty's Rib, Hobnail and Honeycomb patterns were also initially produced in A.J. Beatty's Steubenville glassworks, and Beatty's Swirl may have been as well.

Photographic Gallery of Vases

A 6 1/4" Beatty Rib celery vase
in white opalescent glass, circa 1887

photo by nickadaemous

Beatty Rib.  First issued by A. J. Beatty in 1887 under the name  "No. 87 Opalescent," this pattern often appears listed under the alternate name name Beatty's Ribbed Opal, first adopted by Marion Hartung in her 1971 Opalescent Pattern Glass.  Hartung wrote that "this simple pattern depends on clean lines and fine quality of both glass and workmanship for its appeal.  Unlike many of the patterns made in glass before 1900, its angularity blends well with modern accessories" (p. 11).  The appealing simplicity of the pattern makes it a favorite among Early American pattern glass collectors.

The Beatty Rib pattern features raised parallel ribs with an opalescent treatment, set against a background of colored or clear transparent glass.  The ribs extend under the vase's base and meet in the base's center.  The above piece is identified as a celery vase in William Heacock's Opalescent Glass from A-Z, which shows an identical vase in blue (p. 120, fig. 129).  Such vases are approximately 6 1/4" tall, with rims measuring 4" and base dimaters of 3 1/2".  According to Heacock, Beatty Rib pieces were issued is blue, white and canary opalescent, and they are scarce in canary (p. 30).  To date, Beatty Rib celery vases are documented in blue and white only.

According to Neila & Tom Bredehoft, Beatty first advertised its Rib pattern as early as 1887 (see A.J. Beatty & Sons:  1862-1892, p. 7).  Beatty's May 3, 1888, advertisement shown at the top of this guide's preceding section featured illustrations of the company's Rib pattern, and ten weeks later, the July 19, 1888 Pottery and Glassware Reporter announced that Beatty's "No. 87 new opalescent line is the neatest thing out."  A report from a January, 1989, Pittsburgh glass exhibit noted that Beatty's "No. 87, crystal and opalescent, though in the market for some time, is still running as strong as ever"  (see Neila & Tom Bredehoft, p. 8).  After Beatty relocated to Tiffin, Ohio, the company continued the pattern:  Beatty's Rib is featured prominently in Beatty's 1990 catalog.

The Beatty Rib pattern is referenced in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., at p. 21.  The SEOG notes that the pattern was made in a "vast array" of shapes, including table, water and berry sets, mugs, nappies, mustard and cracker jars, match and toothpick holders, salt, pepper and sugar shakers, and salt dips -- as well as celery vases. 

  

Beatty Swirl.  Shown directly above in white, and at the top of this guide in blue, this pattern's graceful and elegant simplicity is Beatty's opalescent glass at its best.  Beatty Swirl celery vases feature evenly-spaced undulating curves that stretch from the base to the rim.  The undersides of the bases are impressed with a bulls-eye design of concentric rings, and the top rims have twelve points alternating with twelve rounded scallops.  Four mold lines run from the rim to the base.

Beatty produced its Swirl pattern in a number of shapes, including table, water and berry sets, mugs, water trays and syrup holders.  The above 5 3/4" piece is identified as a celery vase in William Heacock's Opalescent Glass from A-Z (p.  197 & 217, fig. 1212).  The vase's rim measures slightly over 3 1/2" in diameter, and the base measures slightly under 3".  According to Heacock, Beatty's Swirl opalescent glassware is found most often in blue and white.  Heacock deems canary opalescent pieces to be "very rare" (p. 31), and to our knowledge, no celery vases in this color have been documented. 

Heacock notes that Beatty Swirl is also known as Beatty Swirl Opal, the name used by Marion Hartung.  According to Hartung's 1971 Opalescent Pattern Glass, Beatty Swirl was issued as a companion pattern to Beatty Rib (p. 12).  Beatty Swirl is referenced in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., which similarly calls Beatty Swirl and Beatty Rib "sister" patterns (p. 21).

Unlike the other vases shown in this guide, Beatty Swirl did not appear in the Beatty company's 1990 catalog.  Heacock approximated the manufacture date of Beatty Swirl at 1889 (p. 30).  David A. Peterson sets the date somewhat earlier, in 1888, and notes that the pattern was continued by U.S. Glass in 1891 (see Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary, p. 13). 

An illustration showing an Overall Hobnail celery vase,
from an 1890 A.J. Beatty catalog

Overall Hobnail.  A. J. Beatty's hobnail pattern, originally listed as "No. 100" in A.J. Beatty & Son catalogs, is generally known as Overall Hobnail, but is also called "Crested Hobnail" and "Dew Drop" by collectors.  Beatty produced the pattern in a variety of shapes, including the 6" celery vase shown in the above catalog illustration.  As is evident in the illustration, the celery vases have four distinctive feet.  The vases also have hobs on the bases' undersides -- which accounts for the name, "Overall Hobnail".  According to  Peterson' s Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary (p. 14), Beatty's Overall Hobnail appears in white-to-clear, blue and canary opalescent glass.  To date, the celery vases have been documented in blue and white only. 

This celery vase's attribution to Beatty has a convoluted history.  A photograph of a vase in white opalescent appeared in an article written by William Heacock, "Glimpses at Old Glass," which appeared in the July, 1976, Rainbow Review Glass Journal, vol. 6, no. 7 (July, 1976).  Heacock reported that he had been "given the privilege of studying a box filled with pieces of glass turned by Melvin Murray, author of 'History of Fostoria, Ohio, Glass,'" which Murray had unearthed from diggings at the Nickel Plate Glass Company site.  Accordingly, Heacock attributed the Overall Hobnail pattern to Nickel Plate.  Later, however, the Overall Hobnail pattern was pinpointed in Beatty's 1890 catalog, and the Nickel Plate attribution proven to be erroneous.  It is notable, however, that William Heacock recorded he had seen the pattern in three hues: "lovely opalescent colors of canary and blue, as well as a very milky white opalescent" (p. 12).

Hobnail patterns were issued by a variety of American glass companies during the late 1800's and early 1900's, and the truly tedious task of sorting through the subtle differences among various pieces in the forest of hobnails is enough to make any glass collector give up glass and turn to model trains.  Fortunately, Beatty's Overall Hobnail celery vases are easily distinguished by the distinctive feet on the vases' bases.   These are shown clearly in the above illustration and in the detail photographs below:

Details of feet on Beatty's Overall Hobnail,
and of  hobs covering the base's underside.

photos courtesy of oxbeetle

Beatty began producing its Overall Hobnail in 1887.  According to Neila & Tom Bredehoft, on February 24, 1887, Crockery & Glass Journal reported that Beatty had been granted a license to produced glassware under Hobbs' "patent of nodule ware in opalescent" -- that is, Hobbs' patent for hobnail ware (see A.J. Beatty & Sons:  1862-1892, p. 7).  By December of that year, Beatty had designed its own hobnail ware featuring distinctive footed bases and begun advertising its "No. 100" Overall Hobnail.

Although Beatty's hobnail pieces, and its celery vases in particular, generally can be distinguished by their feet, Hobbs' and Beatty's hobnail vases are similar in other respects -- which is hardly surprising, given the common origin of the two companies' hobnail.  Accordingly, Hobbs' hobnail vases are often confused with Beatty's and tend to appear on E-bay misidentified as Beatty creations.  According to Peterson, Beatty's Overall Hobnail can be distinguished from Hobbs' hobnail by at least two features in addition to the distinctive feet:  the bottom skirting on the Beatty pieces tends to be flared out; and on the pieces' undersides, "the center is filled in with hobnails, which is the reason for the designation"  (see Peterson at p. 14).  It is notable that this second feature, shown in the above detail photograph, is found on both vintage and contemporary hobnail issued by other makers both American and foreign; the "overall" hobnail effect on Beatty's celery vases bases is nevertheless still helpful in telling Hobbs from Beatty.

Many collectors believe that Beatty and Hobbs pieces can be distinguished by the presence of a polished pontil on Hobbs' hobnail, but we counsel buyers and sellers to disregard this myth, as it leads to misidentification of pieces.  For many years, glass experts, William Heacock included, held that Hobbs' hobnail pieces were blown glass and thus had pontils.  Neila and Tom Bredehoft, however, have established that Hobbs issued press-glass hobnail pieces, which of course lack pontils (see Heacock, pp. 67-68).  A photographic gallery of canary opalescent pieces contrasting Hobbs' hobnail with Beatty's can be found in Peterson's Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary (p. 64, figs. 482-495).

An illustration showing a Beatty Honeycomb celery vase,
from an 1890 A.J. Beatty catalog

Beatty Honeycomb.  First issued as Beatty's "No. 88," this opalescent pressed-glass pattern is also known as "Beatty Waffle," and this alternate name strikes us as the better one, given that honeycombs consist of interlocking hexagons, while this pattern is formed of a network of squares -- squares that fit together in a grid pattern reminiscent of waffles. 

The squares on Honeycomb vases are formed by raised intersecting opalescent vertical and horizontal ribs;  the background glass is clear crystal on white vases and transparent blue on blue vases.  Cylinder-shaped pieces in this design, such as celery vases, mustard jars and sugars, show a spider-web design on the base:  

A 4 1/2" Honeycomb mustard jar, circa 1888,
showing a spider-web pattern on the base

photo courtesy of  hudval333

Beatty Honeycomb is referenced in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed.,  at p.  21.  The SEOG reports that the pattern is found in both blue and white opalescent glass, and that Honeycomb appears in a very wide variety of shapes.  Vases look quite similar to some of the other shapes, especially lidless jars and sugars, but can be distingished by measuring the height and counting the number of squares in a vertical row -- the vases are 6 1/4" tall and 11 squares high.  The rims measure 4" in diameter and the bases 3".   As shown in the above catalog illustration, the bottoms of the vases curve in slightly to meet the base.

According to the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 5th ed. (p. 24), Beatty Honeycomb dates from 1888 and was made in the Beauty's factory in Tiffin, Ohio.  This is not strictly accurate, however.  As noted in this guide's preceding section on the history of A.J. Beatty & Son's, the company's Tiffin plant did not begin operation until late 1889.  The company continued to produce glassware through its Steubenville, Ohio, plant all through 1888 and into 1889.

Nelia and Tom Bredehoft write that in December, 1888, Beatty advertised two new lines of glassware; a month later, a January, 1889 Pittsburgh exhibit described several new Beatty items, including its Honeycomb:  "No. 88 is a brand new complete line, full in all details, comprising set, tumblers, nappies, pitchers, comports, etc." (see A J. Beatty & Sons:  1862-1892, p. 8).  After relocating to Tiffin, Ohio at the end of 1889, A. J. Beatty & Sons included an array of Honeycomb glassware in its 1990 catalog.

Fenton's Reproductions of
Beatty Honeycomb
 

A 4" Fenton's Waffle vase, circa 1960-1961
photo courtesy of oxbeetle

Reproductions:  Buyers should note that Beatty's Honeycomb pattern was reproduced from 1960 to 1961 by the Fenton Art Glass Company as "Fenton's Waffle," in opalescent glass and white milk glass, in a variety of shapes, including vases.  The reproduced pattern is sometimes called by the humorous name "Fenton's Beatty Honeycomb".  

Fenton Waffle pieces are quite nice in their own right.  Vases come in two forms, the short 4" squashed shape shown above, and in a taller stretched vase shape.  A stretched blue example is shown in the SEOG, 6th ed. (p. 184), and short and stretched vases in both blue and green appear in Margaret & Kenn Whitmyer's Fenton Art Glass Patterns 1939-1980 at p. 364, and in Heacock' notes in Opalescent Glass from A-Z (p. 31, figs. 581, 612).  We also have seen one example of a short Fenton Waffle vase in Topaz (vaseline-yellow) opalescent glass.

Fenton also issued a lidded 4" Beatty Waffle candy jar/sugar bowl which, without the lid, looks a lot like a vase, and which is a dead ringer for the white opalescent Beatty mustard jar shown higher up on this page.  The Fenton jars appear in green and blue opalescent in the Whitmyers' book (p. 364), and in milk glass in William Heacock's Fenton Glass, The Second Twenty-Five Years (p. 50).  Heacock notes in Opalescent Glass from A-Z (p. 30), that the Westmoreland Glass Company produced a covered sugar in Beatty's Honeycomb pattern in 1976.  Such pieces are marked with an embossed "WG".

Recommended Resources:

Allen, Patricia, "The Quest," Ohio Geneological Society Newsletter (2002).
        homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bp2000/BeattyGlass/beattyglass.htm

Bredehoft, Neila and Tom, A J. Beatty & Sons:  1862-1892.  Weston:  West
       Virginia Museum of American Glass (2006).

Daugherty, Dorothy, Celery Vases:  Art Glass, Pattern Glass and Cut Glass.
        Atglen:  Schiffer (2007).

Hartung, Marion T., Opalescent Pattern Glass.  Des Moines:  Walllace-
        Homestead Co. (1971).

Heacock, William, Opalescent Glass from A-Z, rev. ed., edited by JoAnn Elmore.
        Marietta, Ohio:  The Glass Press, Inc. (2000).    

Peterson, David A., Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary.  Marietta, Ohio:
        The Glass Press, Inc. (2002). 

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Related Curculiosglass Opalescent Vase ID Guides

  Celery Vases - Nickel Plate Glass Co.
  Ruffled Celery Vases - Northwood / National Glass
Celery Vases - Aetna Glass & Mfg. Co.
Celery Vases - Model Flint Glass Works

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Many thanks to E-bayers   hudval333,  nickadaemous and  oxbeetle,   for generously contributing photographs to this part of our guide.  Rights to all photos belong to the photographers, and pictures should not be used without their permission.  Text is (c) 2009 curculiosglass, all rights reserved.  To locate any E-Bay seller mentioned here,  just click on "Site Map" at the bottom of your E-Bay screen, and then click on "Feedback Forum" at the right top corner of the large menu that pops up.  Type or copy the seller's name into the Feedback Forum's search blank.   PLEASE LEAVE FEEDBACK ON THIS GUIDE BY PRESSING THE BUTTON BELOW.