Aetna Glass Co. - Diamond & Dewdrop Vase - Hobnail in Square - Opalescent Vase
Celery Vases - Gonterman Swirl - Adonis Swirl - Fenton's Diamond Lace

Opalescent Vase Identification Guide:
Celery Vases of Aetna Glass (1880-1889)

by curculiosglass

   

A white opalescent Adonis Swirl celery vase with amber rim,
issued by the Aetna Glass & Mfg. Co., circa 1888-1889

photo courtesy of wismar869

INTRODUCTION

           This guide is one of an ongoing series of guides on early American opalescent vases (1880-1912).  The  guide focusses on opalescent celery vases issued by the Aetna Glass & Manufacturing Co. of Bellaire, Ohio, from 1880 to 1889; and showcases the patterns Adonis Swirl and Diamond & Dewdrop.  This guide is linked to four other guides providing information on opalescent celery vases of the Beatty, Nickel Plate, Northwood / National Glass; and Model Flint glassworks.  The purpose of the guides is to provide more detailed information on these companies and their glassware than is offered in generally available resources. Our other celery vase guides can be accessed by clicking the links on the Table of Contents at the bottom of the page.

          These guides are made possible by the many E-Bayers who have contributed photographs to them.  Please leave feedback by clicking the button at the bottom of the page.  To access our other guides, click here:  GUIDE INDEX.  

History of Aetna Glass & Manufacturing Co.

A October 13, 1887 Aetna advertisement
featured in Pottery & Glassware Reporter

        In the late 1800's and early 1900's, Bellaire, Ohio, was home to a number of glass works, among them Aetna; Belmont; National; Goblet Works; Ohio Glass Works; Rodefer-Gleason; and the prominent Imperial Glass company, which produced its first glass in 1904.  The Aetna Glass & Manufacturing Company was founded in 1880, with Owen Meehan as its president and E.B. Bowie as its secretary.   Aetna operated for nine years, until closing in 1889.

        According to David Peterson, Aetna had its own foundry and produced its own molds as well as molds for other companies (see vaselineglass.org).  In its first years of operation, Aetna primarily produced crystal goblets. The company advertised blown goblets and stemware as its specialty and also made a variety of pressed table and barware. 

        Aetna began issuing opalescent glass in 1887.  The June 23, 1887 American Pottery & Glass Reporter announced:  "No. 335, [Aetna's] new diamond and dew drop table set promises to sell well ... The manager, Mr. Shelly, has been experimenting on opalescent with success."  By September 29, 1887, the same journal proclaimed:  "The opalescent ware now being made [at Aetna] is pronounced the finest in the market."

An Adonis Swirl sauce bowl, in white opalescent glass,
with an applied amber glass ruffled rim, circa 1888-1889

photo courtesy of curculiosglass

          Very little has been written about Aetna's opalescent patterns.  Documented patterns include Diamond & Dewdrop, Adonis Swirl, Adonis Pineapple and Adonis Hobnail.  The last three of these share an interesting feature -- a top fashioned of clear amber or blue glass, joined with a bottom section made of satin or opalescent glass.  An example is the Adonis Swirl berry bowl shown above, which is white opalescent glass with an applied amber rim; the bottom opalescent portion of the 3 1/2" bowl shows a fiery red opalescence when held up to light. 

          To our knowledge, Aetna produced only two opalescent vase patterns:  Adonis Swirl and Diamond & Dewdrop.  Both appeared in celery vase shapes.  These are discussed below.

        .

Aetna's Celery Vases:
Adonis Swirl and Diamond & Dewdrop

 

Adonis Swirl celery vase,  1888-1889
photo by wismar869

            Adonis Swirl.   Aetna's Adonis Swirl line was first heralded in the December 21, 1888 Pottery & Glass Review, which reported: "The Aetna Glass & Mfg. Co. is out with a full line of glassware which is bound to sell.  The Adonis pattern, in tableware, made under a patent, is entirely new and original and will have to be seen to be appreciated.  It is made in four different combinations, with twisted fluted bottom on the base and crimped top."

          Adonis Swirl has an interesting history.  William Heacock orginally attributed this unusual pattern to Hobbs, Brockunier, referring to it as Gonterman Swirl in Books 1,2,3 and 6 of his Encyclopedia of Victorian Colored Pattern Glass.  Heacock based this attribution to the appearance on some pieces of an impressed date (August 8, 1876), which coincided with Hobbs' production years.  The berry bowl shown in the preceding section, for example bears lettering on the bottom rim that reads: "PAT D Aug 5, 1876".

          Heacock subequently learned, however, that the date referred to a patent granted to Louis Wagner of Wheeling, West Virginia, who had invented the process that allowed a separately formed opalescent-glass (or satin-glass) base and a transparent-glass rim to be joined into a single piece.  In Collecting Glass, vol. 3 (1986), Heacock announced that "one of the the most important retractions this author has ever had to report is this one,"  and explained that Wagner had shared his patent for the two-glass process with Hobbs as well as Aetna, but that the pattern known as Gonterman Swirl had been produced by Aetna Glass in 1888-1889 (p. 12).

        Adonis Swirl celery vases appear in both satin and opalescent glass, which was pressed while hot into molds that imparted a swirl (or Twisted Fluted) design on the vases' bottom sections.  The pattern is quite similar to the pattern known as "Beatty's Swirl," ssued by the Beatty glass company during the same general period.   The tops of Adonis Swirl vases are crimped at the rim and made of transparent blue or amber glass.The vases' bases are impressed with an intricate design comprised of an inner concentric ring framing raised dots that increase in size as they radiate outward from the center:

          Celery vases in this pattern are 5 5/8" high, a trait that helps distinguish them from Adonis Swirl spooners, which are quite similar in appearance, but which stand 4 1/2" tall; and Adonis Swirl toothpicks, which are 2 1/2" high, but which can be mistaken for vases in listings that do not specify size.  (An opalescent Adonis Swirl toothpick with a ruffled amber top can be viewed at the website PatternGlass dot com, at  patternglass. com/Store/Toothpicks/index.htm).  

          Adonis Swirl appears under the name Gonterman's Swirl in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., which reports the pattern in table, water and berry sets, cruets, syrups, lamp shades, celery vases and toothpick holders (p. 72).  

 

A white opalescent Diamond & Dewdrop celery vase
issued by the Aetna Glass Co., circa 1887-1889
photo courtesy of sandysplace25

           Aetna's Diamond & Dewdrop pattern surfaced as "Aetna's #335" line in the October, 1887 Pottery and Glass Reporter advertisement shown above in the preceding section of this guide.  Diamond and Dewdrop is also known as Hobnail-in-Square, and it appears under this name in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., p. 79.  The SEOG notes that, in addition to the celery vase featured here, Aetna issued the pattern in water, table and berry sets, mugs, salt shakers and compotes.  

          The Diamond & Drop pattern consists of hobs (raised dots) set inside diamonds formed by a latticework of cross-crossing lines.  The celery vase shown above is 6 3/4" tall.  Its body in cylindrical, sloping inward toward the bottom and belling out over the base.  As shown above right, the diamond points of the lattice pattern form twelve nodules that stick upward around the rim.  The base's underside is impressed with an inner circle, inside of which are two concentric rings of hobs, which in turn encircle a single hob at the center:

Base of Diamond & Dew Drop Vase
photo by sandysplace25

          The August 23, 1888 Pottery & Glassware Reporter announced the production of Aetna's #335 Diamond & Dewdrop line in both "opalescent and satin finish."  McCain's Field Guide to Pattern Glass reports that Aetna's Diamond & Dewdrop has been documented in white opalescent glass, in crystal, and in transparent colored glass in at least four shades -- amber, blue, apple green and canary (p. 111).  Author and vaseline glass expert David Peterson has documented a Diamond and Dewdrop mug in transparent canary glass at his website (see vaselineglass.org).  

Diamond & Dewdrop Reproductions

Fenton's Diamond & Lace fan vase,
in blue opalescent glass, circa 1949

photo courtesy of richtiques

          The word "reproduction" generally conjures up images of crude imitations of a glorious original, but this is not the case with Fenton's opalescent glass lines that continued Aetna's early Diamond & Dewdrop pattern.  Fenton, to the contrary, seems to have seized on what was best about Aetna's early pattern, bringing it back to life in elegantly styled glassware.  Fenton renamed the original Aetna pattern Diamond & Lace.  

          Fenton's Diamond & Lace glassware first appeared as "Fenton's No. 1948"  in blue and French (white) opalescent glass in the company's 1948-1949 catalogs (see Heacock's Fenton Glass:  The Second Twenty-Five Years, pp. 110-111).  Pieces issued included the the 6 1/2" footed fan vase shown above; a 61/2" DC footed vase with a ruffled mouth; an epergne; ruffled bowls in three sizes; a footed cake plate; novelty items including cornucopia vases and candlesticks, top hats and slippers; a salver; and footed comports. 

          After the 1940's, Fenton continued to issue Diamond Lace in a variety of shapes in French, green and Topaz (vaseline) opalescent glass, and in iridescent, transparent and milk glass.  Fenton's production of the pattern continued through the 1990's (see Margaret & Kenn Whitmyer's Fenton Art Glass patters, 1939-1980, pp. 285).  This Fenton pattern is also called Vesta by collectors. 

Recommended Resources:

"A History of Bellaire," from website of Bellaire Public Library.
        bellaire.lib.oh.us/bellairehistoryv3.htm (April 1, 2009).

Felt, Tom (compiler), Opalescent Glass 1883-1934:  Original advertisements
        & trade journal reports (Monograph No. 49 in the glass study series of
        WVMG).  Weston:  West Virginia Museum of Glass, Ltd. (2005).     

Heacock, William, Collecting glass, vol. 3.  Marietta:  Antique Publications
         (1986).

Heacock, William, Fenton Glass:  the Second Twenty-Five Years.
        Marietta:  O-Val Advertising Corp. (1980).

McCain, Mollie Helen, Field Guide to Pattern Glass.  Paducah:
         Collector Books (2000).

Whitmyer, Fenton Art Glass Patterns, 1939-1980, 2nd ed.  Paducah:
        Collector Books (2004). 

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Other Curculiosglass Opalescent Vase ID Guides

Celery Vases - A. J. Beatty & Sons
Celery Vases - Nickel Plate Glass Co.
     Ruffled Celery Vases - Northwood / National Glass
Celery Vases - Model Flint Glass Works
Jefferson Glass Co. Opalescent Vases
Opalescent Vases with Carnival Twins
Miscellaneous Opalescent Vases

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Many thanks to E-bayers  richtiques,  sandysplace25  and  wismar869,  for generously contributing photographs of the celery vase 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.   To access our other guides, just click here:  GUIDE INDEX.