EASILY CONFUSED VASES:
Vases with Loops and Arcs

Pulled Loop, Boggy Bayou and Reverse Drapery

  

from left to right:  Carnival Amethyst Pulled Loop and Boggy Bayou vases,
with opalescent green Boggy Bayou and Reverse Drapery vases

photos by *treasurehunter* (amethyst, left),
katyskloset (green, right center),  and curculiosglass

      This is the second of our short guides on how to distinguish easily confused early pressed-glass opalescent and carnival vase patterns (circa 1904-1925).  This guide focuses on vases with loop and arc designs:  Dugan's Pulled Loop vase, and Fenton's Boggy Bayou and Reverse Drapery vases.  Multiple photographs of each pattern are provided here.   If you find this guide helpful, please leave feedback by clicking the button at the bottom of the page; this makes the guide easier for E-Bay buyers to locate.

     

Blue opalescent Pulled Loop vase
photos by curculiosglass

Pulled Loop Vases.   As shown directly above and at page top, Pulled Loop vases feature a design of  narrow plain panels separating columns containing five arcs each; the arcs look like upside-down u's.  Pulled Loop vases were first made by the Dugan Glass Company in 1906 in opalescent glass, and from 1913-1928 in carnival glass. Opalescent Pulled Loop vases are quite scarce, and most "Pulled Loop" vases on E-Bay are really mistakenly identified Fenton Boggy Bayou vases.  If you think you have a Pulled Loop vase, be sure to count the arcs:  Although the Pulled Loop and Boggy Bayou patterns are similar, each column of interlocking arcs on Boggy Bayou vases has eight arcs, while Pulled Loop vases have only five arcs per column.  To read more about Pulled Loop vases and the Dugan-Diamond Glass Co., see our guide on Dugan vases. 

Blue and amethyst opalescent Boggy Bayou vases
photos by n_it_to_win_it (right) curculiosglass

   
Boggy Bayou.   The Fenton Art Glass Company issued Boggy Bayou vases in 1907 in opalescent glass, and in 1910 in carnival glass.  The pattern features 6 panels sporting columns of 8 interlocking arcs; these panels are divided by ribs.  The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 5th ed., p. 128 cautions collectors to be careful not to confuse Boggy Bayou with the very similar Fenton opalescent pattern called Reverse Drapery.  Issued at the same time as Boggy Bayou, the Reverse Drapery pattern also features narrow ribs alternating with six panels of 8 interlocking arcs.  Boggy Bayou vases, however, have a geometric pattern on the marie base that is strongly visible even when viewed from above.  By contrast, Reverse Drapery vases have a many-rayed star on the base that is not easily detectable from above:

         
     

A blue Boggy Bayou vase with a geometric design on its base,
beside a green Reverse Drapery vase with a many-rayed star on base:
also note the collar of smooth, unpatterned glass just above the
base of the green Reverse Drapery vase.

photos courtesy of curculiosglass

Reverse Drapery.   Fenton issued these vases in 1907 in opalescent glass and, as noted, the pattern features series of 8 interlocking arcs separated by ribs -- thus, they are easily distinguished from Pulled Loop vases, which have columns of 5 interlocking arcs.  Reverse Drapery vases were whimseyed from bowl molds.  As noted, this pattern is distinguished from Boggy Bayou by a glimpse at the Reverse Drapery vase's base, which bears an impressed many-rayed star.  Reverse Drapery vases have a second distinctive feature that is less easily detected in photographs -- a smooth collar of glass that runs around the vase, just above the base and just under the bottom edge of the arcs pattern.  All three of the vases below, despite their varying appearances and heights, have clear collars measuring approximately 3/4" in width.  Reverse Drapery vases often have the slightly flared points at the top shown on the green vase below, but the vases' mouth vary greatly:  they may also have flared mouths with rounded points, or ruffled mouths, as evidenced on the blue and white vases below.   Reverse Drapery vases are found in both squatty and tall sizes.  The vases shown here range in height from  6 3/4" (squatty blue),  to 10 1/4" (green) to a tall 14" (white).   Both the squatty and pulled sizes of Reverse Drapery whimsey vases have a base diameter of 3 1/4". 
 

   

White and green opalescent Reverse Drapery vases pulled to tall sizes,
with a squatty blue opalescent Reverse Drapery vase

photos courtesy of krd (white vase) and curculiosglass

A brief note on Frank Fenton's perspective on
 Boggy Bayou vs. Reverse Drapery vases 

            In Opalescent Glass from A to Z, p. 95-96, William Heacock quotes an excerpt from a 1998 letter by Frank Fenton,  in which Fenton complains about the name "Boggy Bayou".  Fenton asserts that "Different writers named the patterns differently and, of course, we didn't name any of those patterns, we just used numbers and descriptions... Bill [Heacock]'s name of Boggy Bayou just doesn't seem to belong in the naming category,  Yet since he was the first one to recognize that pattern and name it, it seems to have stuck with some of the Carnival glass people.  We have used the name Boggy Bayou on only one piece in the Museum, and I am planning to change the label on that piece to Reverse Drapery or Fenton's Drapery." Heacock's inclusion of this letter in his book strikes us as comically irreverent -- and despite Fenton's curmudgeonly disapproval of the name, "Boggy Bayou" has continued to stick.  Fenton's letter, in addition, skirts the issue of the differences between the two patterns.  Nevertheless, the argument might be made that, despite the differing bases, Reverse Drapery vases are a whimsey version of the same pattern shown on Boggy Bayou vases.

To read more about Boggy Bayou and Reverse Drapery,
and the Fenton Art Glass Co., see our guide on Fenton Vases.

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         Many thanks to E-Bayers  katyskloset,  krd,  morcovelo,  n_it_to_win_it  and  *treasurehunter*  for generously contributing their photographs to this guide.  Rights to all photos belong to the photographers, and pictures should not be used without their permission.  Text is (c) 2007 curculiosglass, all rights reserved.  To contact any E-Bayer whose name is mentioned here, or to visit his or her store, simply click on "SITE MAP" on the bottom of your screen, and then click on "Feedback Forum" on the right top corner of the screen that next appears.  Type or copy the E-Bayer's name into the search blank.

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