EASILY CONFUSED VASES:
Vases with Feather Patterns


Fenton's Plume Panels, Northwood's Leaf Columns
Northwood's Feathers and Jefferson's Inverted Chevron

     

From left to right:  Carnival marigold Plume Panels and ice green Leaf Columns vases,
with opalescent white Feathers, green Inverted Chevron and white Plume Panels vases

photos (from left to right) by
johnsjars,  annatiques1,  Elegant Touch Collectibles,
and (right two photos) curculiosglass 

          This is our third guide on how to distinguish easily confused early opalescent and carnival pressed-glass vase patterns (circa 1904-1925).  This guide focuses on vases with feather-like designs:  Fenton's Plume Panels, Northwood's Leaf Columns. Northwood's Feathers vase and Jefferson's Inverted Chevron.  After you've used this guide to identify a vase, you can find additional information about each of these patterns in our guides on Fenton Vases, Northwood Vases and  Jefferson Vases.

Carnival marigold Fenton Plume Panels vase (left),
 and carnival ice-green Northwood Leaf Columns vase (right)
photos by curculiosglass and annatiques1

Fenton's Plume Panels.   Fenton's carnival Plume Panels vases have 6 panels of loosely packed, slightly rounded V's that stack on top of each other to form plume shapes. The plume panels are separated by narrow plain panels.  All panels stop just short of the vase's rim, where a narrow band circles the top. The undersides of the vases' bases are smooth and patternless.  Plume Panels vases were issued in carnival glass by Fenton in 1914, in a variety of colors.  Arguably, the vases were issued in opalescent glass as well; opalescent Plume Panels vases are discussed in the sections below.  Fenton's Plume Panels vases frequently are confused with three other vase patterns:  Leaf Columns,  Feathers and Inverted Chevron.

Plume Panels vs. Northwood's Leaf Columns.  Fenton issued Leaf Columns vases in carnival (but not opalescent) glass in 1911-1912.  These carnival vases resemble Plume Panels very little in squatty form, but as evidenced by the above photographs, Leaf Columns vases can be mistaken for Plume Panels carnival vases when stretched to a tall size.  The two patterns, however, are distinguishable because Leaf Columns vases lack the band at the top found on Plume Panels -- on the blue carnival Plume Panels vase shown directly below, this band is prominently shown.  Moreover, although stretched Leaf Columns vases bear columns of designs resembling feathery shapes, Leaf Columns vases lack plain panels; as noted, on Plume Panels vases, plain panels separate the plume-patterned panels. 

Information on how to distinguish Plume Panels from Northwood's Feathers and Jefferson's Inverted Chevron follows below.

Northwood's Feathers vs. Fenton's Plume Panels
and Jefferson's Inverted Chevron

   

Northwood green carnival Feathers vase (left)
with blue carnival Fenton Plume Panels vase (right)
photos by  mmost and rolantiques

Northwood's Feathers vases were issued in 1904 in opalescent glass, and in 1909 in carnival glass.  Like Fenton's Plume Panels and Jefferson's Inverted Chevron vases, Feathers vases feature plain panels alternating with panels bearing feather designs.  As shown above (and on the photograph of the white Feathers vase at page top), on Feathers vases, a series of V-shapes form a tight herringbone design. 

Carnival Feathers vs. Carnival Plume Panels:  Both Northwood's Feathers and Fenton's Plume Panels feature exactly 6 panels bearing feather designs.  Nevertheless, all Feathers and Plume Panels carnival vases can be distinguished by two differences.  (1) As shown in the photographs above, Feathers vases have a distinctive tight herringbone pattern made up of narrow V's.  The plumes of Plume Panels vases are much thicker, more rounded, and less densely packed, and do not form the same tight herringbone.  (2) As is also evident in the photographs, the herringbone pattern in Feathers vases extends all the way to the rim of the vase.  The rims of Plume Panels vases are edged with plain narrow bands, and the plumed panels terminate at the bands, short of the vases' rims.  Inverted Chevron:  Inverted Chevron vases were not made in carnival glass.

Opalescent Feathers vs. Opalescent Plume Panels and Inverted Chevron:  Opalescent Feathers vases are easy to distinguish from both opalescent Plume Panels and Inverted Chevron, because Feathers vases have only 6 panels of feather designs while opalescent Plume Panels and Inverted Chevron vases have 8. 

Jefferson's Inverted Chevron vs. Fenton's Plume Panels

Blue Jefferson Inverted Chevron vase
and white Fenton Plume Panels vase

Jefferson's  Inverted Chevron vase, issued circa 1900-1907 in opalescent glass only, features 8 panels bearing V-shapes, or "inverted chevrons" that fit together in a feather-like design. These panels are separated by plain panels.  The vases have a narrow band around the top.   The plain panels separating the plumed panels terminate in a teardrop shape near the base.  The V-shapes forming the feather design are thick and slightly rounded. 

Opalescent Inverted Chevron vs. Plume Panels.  Jefferson's Inverted Chevron vase is very difficult to distinguish from what the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 5th ed. (2005), p. 88, deems an opalescent  Fenton's Plume Panels vase.  One author of  the SEOG, p. 88, notes about Inverted Chevron vases, "When I first saw this very attractive vase, I thought it was Plume Panels...But on close examination, it is very different."  The author does not, however, explain the differences.  Nevertheless, the same author, in the Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 11th ed. (2008), writes about 1915 carnival Plume Panels vases:   "there was an earlier vase made in opalescent glass that was a near twin called Inverted Chevron" (p. 215).  We think a fairly good argument might be made that the SEOG mistakenly has assigned two names to one pattern issued by a single maker.

Are "Inverted Chevron" and "Plume Panels"
Two Names for the Same Pattern?

   

Jefferson Inverted Chevron vase (red background)
with a Fenton's Plume Panels vase (blue background)

photos by  jmpqt2u (left) and  curculiosglass

          The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass may have erred in assigning two different names and makers to the vases shown above -- Jefferson's "Inverted Chevron" and Fenton's "Plume Panels".  As errors go, this one's pretty small potatoes, but if you're a collector or seller trying to figure out what to call your opalescent vase, the error might cause you some consternation.  After reading this, you may have to settle for something like, "This is either a Fenton Plume Panels or a Jefferson Inverted Chevron vase -- the two patterns are nearly indistinguishable."

         On close observation, Inverted Chevron and Plume Panels opalescent vases barely differ.  Shown above are examples of vases identified as representing each pattern:   the first was sold by a reputable Jefferson collector as an "Inverted Chevron".  The second vase, identified by a Fenton collector as "Plume Panels," is indistinguishable from the vase labeled "Plume Panels" in the SEOG.  We can find only two distinctions between these two specimens:  the Plume Panels vase has a wide mouth with large ruffles, while the white Inverted Chevron vase has a less flared mouth, and very subtle ruffling.  Second, the feather design of the Plume Panels vase has crisply defined V's, while the Inverted Chevron vase has bulky V's that run together, a feature particularly noticeable near the base, as shown in the above photo, at top left.  The same qualities -- the less flared mouth and the bulky V's that run together near the base, are visible on the green and blue Inverted Chevron vases shown higher up on this page.  While notable, these distinctions are subtle enough that they fall within the range of variation found in vases made from the same mold.

          How did the plume-like opalescent pattern come to have two names?

          The name "Inverted Chevron" was invented by the authors of the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, Bill Edwards and Mike Carwile.  A vase featured under that name appeared in the second, third and fourth editions of the SEOG.  No Plume Panels vase was shown in any of those editions. 

         In the posthumously published Opalescent Glass from A-Z  (2000), p. 91, William Heacock identified a photograph of an opalescent vase bearing a plume pattern as a Fenton "Plume Panels" vase.  As noted above, he assigned the vase a manufacture date of circa 1914.  This book, however, does not clarify whether Heacock simply attributed the opalescent vase to Fenton because it so closely resembled Fenton's Plume Panels carnival vase -- or whether he had another basis for believing the opalescent vase to be a Fenton.  

          Subsequently, the fifth edition of the SEOG, published in 2005, included a picture of a "Plume Panels" opalescent vase, which the authors noted was the counterpart of the Fenton carnival pattern by the same name.  The SEOG further remarked that the vase is found in white, green and blue opalescent. Possibly relying on Heacock, the SEOG also assigned the vase a 1914 manufacture date.  The SEOG's authors, however, never explained their reasons for attributing the vase to Fenton -- or their reasons for deciding that the vase was different from the Inverted Chevron vase featured in the same volume.

         Notably, however, the vase identified in the SEOG as an opalescent Plume Panels vases differs conspicuously from Fenton's carnival Plume Panels vases.  The carnival vases have 6 vertical rows of plumes, while the opalescent "Plume Panels" vases shown above and in the SEOG have 8.  In addition, as Marion Hartung records in Eighth Book of Carnival Glass (1968), p. 22, Fenton's carnival Plume Panels vases have three well-concealed mold lines (seam marks), just visible on the base.  All opalescent vases we have seen have four mold lines.  The tops of the carnival and opalescent vases also are also dissimilar.  As is clearly visible in the photograph of the blue carnival Plume Panels vase higher up this page, the plumes on the carnival vases terminate in distinct rounded tips.  The plumes on the opalescent vases, however, do not.  Finally, the bottom edges of the opalescent and carnival vases are quite different:  while the plain panels of the opalescent vase terminate near the base in a distinct teardrop shape, the carnival vases' plain panels do not.  Why Fenton would have fashioned two such distinct molds for the same pattern is difficult to explain.  

          Authoritative sources on Fenton, such as Margaret & Kenn Whitmyer in Fenton Art Glass 1907-1939 (2003), pp. 16-19, do not list Plume Panels as one of Fenton's early opalescent vases patterns.  Nor do Warman's Fenton Glass or William Heacock's Fenton Glass, The First Twenty Five Years. 

          Evidence that the Jefferson Glass Company first issued a plume-pattered opalescent vase is a little less scanty.  The authors Edwards & Carwile of the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass ascribe the Inverted Chevron pattern to the Jefferson Glass Company, but do so tentatively:  the authors merely assert that they "suspect it may be from Jefferson glass".  Marion Hartung records in the Eighth Book of Carnival Glass, p. 22,  that an opalescent vase "identical" in its pattern to Fenton's carnival Plume Panels vases appeared in early Northwood catalog advertisements.  Since Northwood purchased and re-issued several Jefferson molds, this fact points toward the possibility that the opalescent pattern Hartung described as "identical" was created by Jefferson. 

          Jefferson made several opalescent vase patterns from 1900 - 1907.  (See William Heacock's Harry Northwood:  The Wheeling Years 1901-1925, p.157.)  An array of Jefferson vases can be viewed in our guide on Jefferson vases.  Notably, the tear-drop pattern along the bottom rim of Inverted Chevron vases resembles that found on at least one other Jefferson vase -- the Lined Heart vase.  In addition, blue Inverted Chevron vases are the distinctive hue characteristic of Jefferson's blue opalescent -- a bright, intense aqua unlike that used by other glassworks.  On the other hand, however, the Inverted Chevron vase's patternless, smooth base is not typical of Jefferson vases, and the tallest Inverted Chevron vases are significantly shorter than the usual pulled sizes of Jefferson's other conventionally-shaped vases.  Accordingly, we hope that further information on the pattern's origins becomes available to collectors.

            We would welcome information from E-Bayers on distinctions they have noted between these two opalescent vase patterns. 

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          Many thanks to the following E-Bayers who generously contributed their photographs to this guide:   annatiques1,  Glass Pack Rat (jmpqt2u),  johnsjars,  mmost and  rolantiques.  Special thanks to Elegant Touch Collectibles at rubylane dot com, for lending us the two photographs of the Feathers vase.  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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