Nickel-Plate Glass Company - Double Greek Key - Nickel Plate Vase - Celery Vase

Opalescent Vase Identification Guide:
Celery Vases of the Nickel Plate Glass Co. (1888-1894)

by curculiosglass

  

A blue opalescent Double Greek Key celery vase
issued by the Nickel Plate Glass Company, circa 1888-1894
photo courtesy of bloxam

INTRODUCTION

           This guide is part of an ongoing series on early American opalescent vases (1880-1912).  The purpose of the guide series is to educate buyers about glass, and to provide more specific information on particular pieces and glass makers than what is currently widely available.  This guide features pressed opalescent glass issued by the Nickel Plate Glass Company of Fostoria, Ohio, circa 1888-1894.  The pattern featured here is Nickel Plate's unique Double Greek Key celery vase.

          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 the Nickel Plate Glass Co.

A Nickel Plate Glass Company advertisement
featured in the February 28, 1889 Pottery & Glassware Reporter

               Nickel Plate was a short-lived glass works located in Fostoria, Ohio, which produced glass from 1888 to 1894.  During this period, at least seven glass companies were in operation in Fostoria:  the town boasted an abundance of natural gas resources and access to five major railroad lines.  Nickel Plate was founded in Fostoria on February 21, 1888.  Its original five stockholders and incorporators were a distinguished group:  J. B. Russell, the former manager of Hobbs, Brockunier, who would go on the manage United States Glass; Benjamen Hildreth, who had been a salesman for Hobbs and who later would serve as secretary for Beaumont Glass; August Rolf and Peter Cassell, who both would become directors of Central Glass; and A. J. Smith, formerly of La Belle Glass.  Smith became Nickel Plate's president and Hildreth served as its secretary.

          By October, 1888, the Pottery & Glassware Reporter had announced that "The Nickel Plate Glass Co. have a handsome line of stripe, white and blue, opalescent lamps ... They also have a tableware line in white and blue opalescent."   Three months later, the January 24, 1889 Pottery and Glassware Reporter wrote: 

        This works started in August last and has been running full tilt ever since and kept as busy as possible.  They stopped only one day since they commenced -- Christmas day.  They make both crystal and opalescent ware, the latter in three colors, red, white and blue.  Their new blown line of table ware and bar goods, with key border, known as the Grecian key, is a very handsome pattern and will prove popular with the trade.  They have this in crystal and blue opalescent.... their assortment at present, considering the short time they have been in operation, is highly creditable to  them, both in extent and variety.  Of the quality and appearance of these goods it may be said that they will pass muster with the best.

On February 28, 1889, Nickel Plate Glass placed an advertisement in the Pottery & Glassware Reporter featuring blown tumblers, bar goods and "a handsome line of Tableware and Lamps, in Crystal and Opalescent".  By July 18, 1889, the Pottery & Glassware Reporter had announced:

         This firm makes the nicest opalescent ware in the country. Their "Key border" line in this ware is very complete and it has a great sale everywhere. ... No. 90 line of opalescent twist in ruby, white and blue is very elegant ware.... We desire to call special attention to their combined lemon juice extractor and receptacle, for which there is an immense sale.  Attached to the juicer is a saucer with handle and lip and a more convenient, useful, simple and cleanly article cannot be found.

Such nearly comical enthusiasm about Nickel Plate's reamer was echoed by the May 6, 1891, China, Glass and Lamps:  "It is always ready for use, needs no tumbler and is easily kept clean.  It has no place for the accumulation of dirt."  Reamers were first patented in the United States around 1867, but single-piece reamers with raised rims preventing juice spillage were the result of twenty years of reamer innovation.  A blue opalescent Nickel Plate reamer is shown below:

 

Nickel Plate's opalescent juice reamer, with a Nickel Plate advertisement
featured in the May 23, 1889 Pottery & Glassware Reporter

photo courtesy of farmmarket

        Two years later, the January 14, 1891 China Glass and Lamps remarked on the extensive glassware production of the Nickel plate company, noting that its lines of blown and pressed opalescent ware included "pitchers of several sizes, molasses cans, sugar sifters, salts, peppers, oil bottles, water bottles, finger bowls, etc.; also staples, such as tumblers, goblets, ales, beer mugs, berry set, lamps, etc."  In early February of the same year, Nickel Plate would merge with a new company, U.S. Glass.

Nickel Plate's Merger with U.S. Glass

A Double Greek Key master bowl, circa 1888-1894
photo courtesy of Grace Sisters Antiques & Fine Collectibles

        On February 9, 1891, the New York Times reported that "The leading table glassware houses of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia made application to-day for a charter for a corporation which will be known as the United States Glass Company".  The consortium of glass companies included seventeen factories, among them Nickel Plate.  According to the Times, the glass consortium comprised "one-third of the tableware factories of the country".

         Nickel Plate operated from 1891 through 1894 as "Factory N" of the U.S. Glass consortium.  During 1894, however, outbreaks of fire were frequent in Fostoria -- perhaps as a result of the abundance of natural gas piped into factories -- and in 1895, a fire consumed the Nickel Plate Glass Company.  Efforts were made to rebuild it, but these were ultimately unsuccessful, and the factory closed.   (See fostoriaglass.com/glassplants.htm and Paul H. Krupp, Fostoria, Ohio, vol. II, p. 57.)

          According to Paul H. Krupp, a long-time columnist for the Fostoria Review Times, during its six years of operation, Nickel Plate was known for its blown goblets, milk glass, cranberry glass and "all kinds of tableware and lamps" (see Krupp, p. 57).  The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., p. 9,  records that Nickel Plate issued opalescent glass in a variety of colors, including blue, white, cranberry and canary.  Its best-known EAPG patterns are Frosted Circle, Richmond, Akron Block, Fluted Ribbon, and Nickel Plate Thumbprint.  Its opalescent patterns include Wide Stripe, Swirl and Double Greek Key, as well as the juicer shown above.

         Available photographic documentation of Nickel Plate's opalescent ware is surprisingly scarce.   Heacock features photographs of several Double Greek Key pieces in Opalescent Glass from A-Z,  including a blue opalescent pitcher, covered butter dish and toothpick  (pp. 121, 125, figs. 140, 206-207).  The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., features the same blue opalescent pitcher and also shows a blue opalescent pitcher in Nickel Plate's Oval Stripe pattern, and a white opalescent lampshade in Nickel Plate's Wide Stripe (pp. 53, 143. 161).  We welcome photographs of Nickel Plate's opalescent ware from E-Bayers.

Photographic Gallery of Vases

            

Nickel Plate's 6" Blue and white opalescent
Double Greek Key celery vases,  circa 1888-1894

photos courtesy of bloxam (left) and kittykatcrafts.com (right)

          The striking celery vases shown above were made by the Nickel Plate Glass Company, circa 1887-1894.  Nickel Plate's Double Greek Key vase features two rows of eight repeated geometrical fret designs, or "Greek keys," separated by a ring of sixteen "wedding bands," or interlocking rings, which encircle the vase's middle.  The fret and ring patterns are raised on the outer surface of the vase, and are milky-opalescent glass against a transparent blue or colorless glass background.  The vase rim has an unusual scalloped edge with ten toothed and rounded points:

Detail of rim of Double Greek Key celery vase
photo photos by kittykatcrafts.com

This particular type of toothed scalloped rim is uncommon on early opalescent glass, and is usually found only on very old pressed glass -- examples are Ball Foot Hobnail bowls, issued by the New Brighton Glass Company in 1889, and Daisy & Button spooners issued by U.S. Glass/Gillinder & Sons in 1891.

          Greek Key vases also have remarkably detailed decorations on the bases:  as shown below, the Greek Key pattern encircles the vase's skirted base, and the base's underside is decorated with a design of interlocking rings:

  

Details of base of Double Greek Key celery vase
photos by kittykatcrafts.com

Greek Key celery vases are found in white and blue opalescent glass, as shown above.  On both blue and white vases, opalescence is heaviest near the vase's base, in the raised impressed fret and ring designs, and in the top toothed edge of the vase's mouth.  The vases are approximately 6" tall (a trait that helps distinguish them from Nickel Plate's Double Greek Key spooners, which look quite similar in photographs, but which are shorter).  The vases' bases measure 3 1/2" in diameter and the vase mouths have a spread of just under 4" in diameter.

           As noted in this guide's preceding section on the history of the Nickel Plate Glass Company, this pattern was originally called Grecian Key in early trade journals.  According to William Heacocks's Opalescent Glass from A-Z, rev. ed., the name "Double Greek Key" was assigned to the pattern by Ruth Lee (p. 53).  The pattern is also known by collectors as Wedding Band and Greek Key & Wedding Ring.

        The Double Greek Key pattern is referenced in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., at p. 53.  The SEOG notes that Double Greek Key glassware was issued in a variety of shapes, including mustard pots, butter dishes, creamers, pickle trays, pitchers and tumblers, shakers, spooners, sugars, toothpick holders, sauce bowls, and (shown higher above) 8" master bowls.  Nickel plate produced its Double Greek Key ware in clear crystal as well as in white and blue opalescent glass. 

            Nickel Plate's Grecian key design may well have influenced two opalescent Grecian key patterns later produced by the Northwood Glass Company in 1905 and 1907, known by collectors as Greek Key & Scales and Greek Key & Ribs.  These patterns are easily distinguished because, as the names suggest, the Northwood patterns feature scales and ribs; they also lack the toothed edge and interlocked rings of the Nickel Plate design  (see SEOG, 6th ed., p. 64).   Neither Northwood pattern appears in opalescent vase shapes.  Greek Key is a classic design, used on glassware and pottery pre-dating the Victorian era through the present, and it is is found on a variety of EAPG, carnival and opalescent glass produced in the late 1800's and early 1900's. 

Recommended Resources:

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

Carwile, Mike, Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed.  Paducah:
         Collector Books (2009).

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Other Curculiosglass Opalescent Vase ID Guides

Celery Vases - A. J. Beatty & Sons
     Ruffled Celery Vases - Northwood / National Glass
Celery Vases - Aetna Glass & Mfg. Co.
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 bloxam, farmmarket  and  kittykatcrafts.com,   for generously contributing photographs of the celery vase to this part of our guide.  Special thanks to Grace Sisters Antiques & Fine Collectibles @ rubylane.com ( rubylane.com/shops/grace-sisters ), for the photograph of the Double Greek Key bowl.  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.