Daisy & Drape Vase - U.S. Glass Vermont Pattern - Boyd's Forget-Me-Not Toothpick

Northwood's Opalescent and Carnival Glass
Daisy & Drape Novelty Vases
and the Vermont Pattern of U.S. Glass

Vermont vase in custard glass with painted enamel, circa 1898
with a very rare blue opalescent Daisy & Drape vase, circa 1912

photos by cobaltdon and jjuli

INTRODUCTION

           This guide is part of an ongoing series on early American opalescent vases later made in carnival glass.  The guide features Daisy & Drape vases made by H. Northwood & Co. in 1912, and the Vermont pattern issued by U.S. Glass at the turn of the century.  It also provides information on contemporary "Forget-Me-Not" toothpicks issued by the Boyd Crystal Art Glass company and others.

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Northwood's Daisy & Drape Vases
and U.S. Glass's Vermont Pattern

A one-of-a-kind Northwood  Daisy & Drape vase
in blue opalescent glass, circa 1912

photo by jjuli

            One of the pleasures of writing these E-Bay guides is the opportunity to witness the discovery of previously undocumented early American glass.  Every year, E-Bay sellers send us photographs of new pieces that have appeared on E-Bay.  The blue opalescent Northwood Daisy & Drape vase shown above is an example.  To our knowledge, this is the only piece of its kind.  The vase was discovered by E-Bayer jjuli, who listed it on E-Bay in August, 2009.

           Author William Heacock did not include Daisy & Drape vases in his comprehensive work, Opalescent Glass from A - Z -- a fact that highlights the rarity of this pattern in opalescent glass.  According to the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., only three opalescent Daisy & Drape vases have been documented -- all are in the vaseline-yellow known as canary opalescent (p. 43).  Emphasizing the vases' rarity, vaseline glass expert David A. Peterson has written that the three made in canary opalescent probably were issued "as a small test run to see how it might sell"  (Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary, p. 194).  No blue opalescent Northwood Daisy & Drape vase has ever surfaced before in glass literature.

           H. Northwood & Co. of Wheeling, West Virginia was founded in 1902, by Harry Northwood, the son of a prominent British glass maker and cameo glass-carver.  Between 1888 and 1899, Harry Northwood engaged in three failed attempts to set up a glass works in Martin's Ferry, Ohio; Ellwood, Pennsylvania; and in Indiana, Pennsylvania.  All three of these glass works produced opalescent glass in a variety of shapes and patterns, and from 1902 to 1908, the far more successful H. Northwood & Co. Company also produced opalescent glass.  In 1908, H. Northwood & Co. began making the iridescent glassware known as carnival glass.  (A more detailed history of Northwood's can be found in our guide on Northwood celery vases.)
          
           Northwood's Daisy & Drape vases are generally thought of as a highly collectible carnival glass pattern.  The vases first appeared in H. Northwood & Co. carnival glass assortments advertised in 1912 Butler Brothers wholesale catalogs  (see Heacock et al, Northwood:  The Wheeling Years, 1901-1902, p. 79).  Presumably the blue opalescent vase shown here was cast from the same molds as Northwood's iridescent Daisy & Drape vases and thus dates from about the same time -- around 1912.  Daisy & Drape vases never appeared in any Northwood opalescent glass assortments advertised in wholesale catalogs predating that year.  

            Northwood's production of Daisy & Drape vases in carnival glass was fairly extensive. Carnival glass expert David Doty documents the Daisy & Drape pattern in a variety of carnival colors, including amethyst, aqua, opal, aqua/teal, blue, green, ice blue, ice green, marigold and white.  Daisy & Drape carnival vases often appear in white or aqua opal (which is unusual because these colors are generally considered hard-to-find by carnival glass collectors).  Conversely,  marigold carnival vases like that shown below are "surprisingly tough to find" (see Northwood Carnival Glass, pp. 42-43).

A marigold  Daisy & Drape carnival vase:
Author Carl O. Burns deems such marigold vases
"surprisingly tough to find".

photo courtesy of bug54

Carl O. Burns writes that ice blue carnival Daisy & Drape vases are quite rare, and that teal, blue and amethyst are scarce.  There are only four known examples of Daisy & Drape vases in carnival green (see Thistlewood website, geocities.com/carni_glass_uk_2000/DaisyDrpGrn.html).

          The Daisy & Drape pattern is unusual and elaborate.  A Daisy & Drape vase has a cone-shaped body resting on three feet.  The feet extend into long buttress-like handles affixed to the vase along its bottom half.  The handles curve outward midway up the vase body and then reattach to it just below the rim.  The handles are decorated with a pattern of symmetrical curved lines evocative of long leaves, and this echoes the design of the vase body, which is impressed with drapery-like folds.  The vase mouth is ringed with a band of five-petaled flowers. 

Detail photos of Daisy & Drape vases
with slightly flared and with inward-turning rims

photos courtesy of oxbeetle and bug54

             There is some slight variation in Daisy & Drape vases -- as shown above, the top flower-decorated rim may be slightly flared or slightly cupped (see Harry Northwood:  the Wheeling years, 1901-1925, pp. 79, 114, 124, 127, figs. 551,680, 738).  In both carnival and opalescent glass, Daisy & Drape vases stand approximately 6 1/4" to 6 1/2" high and 3 1/4" across the mouth.  According to Heacock, the carnival vases usually display Northwood's trademark N-in-a-circle on the base (p. 79).  Although the blue opalescent vase shown here does not bear the Northwood trademark, it is otherwise identical to carnival Daisy & Drape vases -- and all share many features in common with an older pattern, U.S. Glass's Vermont.

 

The Vermont Pattern of U.S. Glass

  

A Vermont vase, circa 1899, in pale custard glass,
with painted-on enamel decoration:  such vases also appear
with red and with purple enamel decoration on the rims and legs.

photos by cobaltdon

             The United States Glass Company was founded in the 1890 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a consortium of glass works that consolidated in order to succeed in the glass market at the end of the Victorian era.  The company's principal factories were located in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and nowadays it is often difficult or impossible to ascribe specific U.S. Glass patterns to specific glass works.  In 1892, U.S. Glass merged with A.J. Beatty & Sons, a glassworks originally founded in Steubenville, Ohio.  Nevertheless, well into the 1920's, the company's products continued to be marked with a paper U.S. Glass  label and the letters "USG" joined within a gold shield.  In 1938, the offices of U.S. Glass were moved from Pittsburgh to Tiffin, Ohio.  U.S. Glass closed in 1963.  The company is also known for its decorated pressed glass and carnival, satin and stretch glass  (see generally, Heacock' et al 1978, pp. 6-11, 181-186). 

 

            Carl O. Burns writes that Northwood's carnival glass Daisy & Drape is a "controversial design" because, "save for the addition of the draped effect on the body of the piece, it is virtually identical to a pattern called Vermont that was produced earlier in non-iridized form by the U.S. Glass Co." (p. 42).  Burns speculates that Northwood either purchased molds from U.S. Glass or simply copied their design.  "Few glasshouses filed for patents on their designs, and copying was quite rampant" (p. 42).

           

 

Illustrations of U.S. Glass's Vermont and Northwood's Daisy & Drape vases,

from advertisements appearing in 1900 and 1912 Butler Brothers catalogs

 

The illustration above left is of a Vermont vase from a crystal assortment advertised by U.S. Glass in the September, 1900 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog (see Six, p. 42).  The illustration at right appeared a dozen years later in an iridescent assortment advertised by Northwood in a 1912 Butler Brothers catalog (see Heacock et al, p. 79):   Like Northwood's later Daisy & Drape, U. S. Glass's Vermont vase features a cone-shape body perched on leaf-like feet that extend into handles that attach to the vase.  At the top of the vase is a band of five-petaled flowers. 

 

            As is evident in the illustrations shown above, Vermont vases lack a drapery design on the body and differ in one other respect from Daisy & Drape vases:  an impressed honeycomb pattern decorates the interior of Vermont glassware.  The honeycomb design on the inside of Vermont vases and other Vermont ware can be viewed and felt on the interior of pieces.   The exteriors of Vermont pieces are smooth, and lack the Drapery design of Daisy & Drape vases.  On opaque pieces, such as the custard vase shown higher above (which bears a honeycomb design inside), the exterior surface appears patternless.  As shown in the photograph of the green toothpick below, on transparent glass examples of Vermont ware, the interior honeycomb pattern shows through and can be viewed from outside:

 

A Vermont toothpick in green transparent glass,
with gilt decoration.  Note the honeycomb pattern
impressed on the piece's interior.

photo by zienty

 

The green toothpick shown above appeared in a U.S. Glass "Green and Gold Art Ware" assortment advertised in the September, 1900 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog (see Dean Six, p. 31).

            First issued under the designation U.S. Glass Pattern No. 15,060, Vermont is also known by the names Honeycomb with Flower Rim, Inverted Thumbprint with Daisy Band and Vermont Honeycomb (Reilly & Jenks, p. 483; Heacock et al, 1978, p. 53).  U.S. Glass introduced its Vermont pattern in 1899 in a custard glass (Heacock et al, p. 53).  Between 1899 and 1903, U.S. Glass issued Vermont in transparent colorless and green glass (plain, gilded and stained); custard glass; chocolate glass; slag; and blue and white milk glass.  Vases specifically have been found in clear, green and custard glass  (Reilly & Jenks, p. 483; Heacock et al, p. 53;  see Dean Six, pp. 42, 65 ).  U.S. Glass's Vermont custard glass pieces are very pale -- they are often mistaken for milk glass -- and appear both without decoration and with painted-on enamel decorations like those on the vase shown here.  Custard glass vases may have turquoise, purple or red enamel decoration on the rims and feet, accompanied by floral decorations on the vase body.

            U.S. Glass produced its Vermont pattern in a wide range of shapes.  The Thistlewood website has a wonderful article on this pattern, accompanied by early U.S. Glass catalog illustrations of Vermont in a variety of shapes (see geocities.com/carni_glass_uk_2000/DaisyDrpGrn.html).

 

Other Vermont-like Patterns of the early 1900's

 

Indiana Glass Co. catalog illustration of  a 7.5-inch "Daisy Comport,"
with a 4-inch green Vermont bowl made by U.S. Glass

photo of bowl courtesy of dolls123

          To our knowledge, only one company in addition to U.S. Glass produced a pattern resembling Vermont in the early 1900's -- the Indiana Glass Company of Dunkirk, Indiana.  Marcelle Bond's The Beauty of Albany Glass (1972) reprints the above illustration from an Indiana Glass catalog of a Vermont-like piece.  The catalog describes the piece as a 7 1/2" "Daisy Comport" (p. 72). 

         Bond did not specify the types of glass in which the Indiana catalog offered its comport.  Nor did Bond note the issue date of the catalog depicting the bowl.  Indiana Glass first opened in 1908, however, and thus at the earliest Indiana's "Daisy" pattern surfaced nine years after Vermont and is clearly a bold imitation of the U.S. Glass pattern.  The bowl-shaped comport depicted in the illustration shown here is essentially identical to the U.S. Glass Vermont bowl shown above it.   A similar custard glass bowl, issued by US. Glass in 1899, is shown in three sizes in Heacock's 1978 Encyclopedia of Victorian Pattern Glass, Book 5:  U.S. Glass from A to Z (p. 53, fig. 276). 

          We believe that Indiana's output of its Daisy pattern was restricted to bowl-like "comport" shapes.  There is no evidence that Indiana issued any vases in this  pattern.

         It is notable, however, that early glass literature confusingly suggested that other Vermont-like shapes were made by Indiana Glass. In A Second Two Hundred Pattern Glass Pitchers (1940), Minnie Kamm reported a Vermont-like creamer issued in clear, gilded emerald-green and deep blue glass, which she asserted had been made "at Greentown, Indiana, around 1903"  (p. 117).  Kamm, who named the creamer pattern "Honeycomb with Flower Rim" initially wrote that the creamer (which had an interior honeycomb pattern) was distinguishable from U.S. Glass's Vermont because she believed that Vermont lacked an interior honeycomb design.  Later, however, Kamm concluded that "Honeycomb with Flower Rim" and "Vermont" were identical patterns and that both had been made by U.S. Glass.  (see A Sixth Pitcher Book, [1952], p. 56 )

          After the publication of Kamm's works, William Heacock also debunked claims that there were two distinct Vermont-like patterns, with and without an interior honeycomb design (see, e.g., U.S. Glass from A to Z, p. 53).  We believe that collectors' assertions that there were two honeycomb patterns -- one with and  one without the interior honeycomb design -- derived from the fact that photographs showing the exteriors of opaque Vermont glassware do not reveal the interior honeycomb pattern while those of transparent pieces' exteriors do.  This effect is evident in the illustrations of the green toothpick and custard glass vase shown above.

 

Boyd Reproductions

A Boyd reproduction of Vermont,
marketed as a "Forget-Me-Not" toothpick

photo by oxbeetle

           If the number of reproductions spawned by an original design is viewed as a testament to its success and beauty, the Vermont pattern certainly has proven itself.  First imitated by Northwood and Indiana, the pattern also has been resurrected by contemporary glass companies.  Many glass collectors are familiar with the toothpick shown above, which appears with great frequency on E-Bay.  This piece is a reproduction of 2 1/2" Vermont toothpickholders.  The reproduction is nearly identical in size and design to the U.S. glass originals.  (The originals are slightly taller and have more crisply defined moldwork, but these differences are very subtle.)   As noted below, however, such reproductions generally can be identified by trademarks.

 

           Initially, in the 1970's, the Crystal Art Glass Company of Cambridge, Ohio, issued reproduced Vermont toothpicks:  they appear on E-Bay fairly often in dark green transparent glass, and in a Jade-green slag glass.  Known as "Degenhart Glass" after the company's owner Elizabeth Degenhart, such pieces were marked on the base with a Degenhart trademark, a D-within-Heart.  This trademark was employed by Crystal Art Glass between 1964 and 1978 (through 1972 on the company's glass owls only; and thereafter on other glassware).

            In October, 1978, following the death of Elizabeth Degenhart, the company passed into the hands of Bernard C. Boyd, a glass maker long employed by Crystal Glass.  Together with his son Bernard F. Boyd, Bernard C. Boyd re-formed the company under the new name of Boyd's Crystal Art Glass of Cambridge, Ohio.  The Boyds purchased many of Crystal's former molds, but the Degenhart trademark was removed from them by Island Moulds of Wheeling, West Virginia, and replaced with the new Boyd trademark, a B-within-a-Diamond.  Pattern glass experts as well as the Boyd company itself have written that Boyd's Vermont toothpick reproductions should bear a Boyd trademark (see Reilly & Jenks, p. 483).  Such trademarks appear along one side of the toothpick, about a fourth of the way up, between the legs.  

           Boyd glass has many aficionados, and Boyd's Vermont toothpick reproductions, marketed under the pattern name "Forget-Me-Not toothpicks," are avidly collected.  In 1978, Boyd began issuing Forget-Me-Not Toothpicks in "carmine" transparent glass.  The company has since marketed such reproductions in a seemingly endless array of colors, some of which are still viewable at the company website (boydglass.com/).  Boyd's reproduced toothpicks have been issued, for example, in transparent colorless, clambroth, blue, vaseline-yellow and amber glass; white opalescent glass; caramel, dark green and blue-and-yellow slag glass; an "oyster slag" that resembles milk glass in photographs; chocolate glass; and several iridescent colors including pink, amethyst and celeste blue.  This list is not exhaustive.  Two reproductions in clear and opalescent glass can ve viewed at the website of PatternGlass.com  (see Victorian toothpickholders, p. 3, patternglass.com/).  A celeste blue Boyd carnival glass toothpick can be viewed at David Doty's website (ddoty.com/toothpickscont.html).

 

           Other Reproductions:  Various E-bay sellers have communicated to us that they believe a third company also may be reproducing the Forget-Me-Not toothpick pattern.  Reproduced pieces have been reported in white opalescent and other colors, which lack either the Degenhart or a Boyd trademark.  On such reproductions, the honeycomb pattern tends to be less well-defined.

 

            A final note:  somewhat confusingly for collectors, past editions of the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass feature Vermont-like toothpicks under the name "Honeycomb with Flower Rim" in the book's section on "Opalescent Glass, 1930-1970" (see 6th ed., p. 186).  The SEOG does not identify the maker.  The piece featured in the SEOG's pages is a reproduced Forget-Me-Not toothpick in white opalescent glass.

Recommended References

 

Burns, Carl O., Northwood Carnival Glass, 1908-1925.  Paducah:  Collector Books (2001).

 

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

 

David Doty's Carnival Glass Website (2009).  See "A Survey of Contemporary Toothpick Holders"  and "Daisy and Drape, Northwood".  ddoty.com

 

Heacock, William, James Measell & Berry Wiggs, Harry Northwood:  The Wheeling Years, 1901-1925.  Marietta:  Antique Publications (1991).

 

Heacock, William & Fred Bickenheuser, Encyclopedia of Victorian Colored Pattern Glass, Book 5:  U.S. Glass from A to Z.  Marietta:  Antique Publications (1978).

 

PatternGlass.com website (2009).  (Look for Victorian toothpickholders section, page 3).  patternglass.com/

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

 

Reilly, Darryl & Bills Jenks, Early American Pattern Glass, 2nd ed.   Iola:  Krause Publications (2002).

Six, Dean, ed., Marketing Glass in America, vol. 1.  Weston:  West Virginia Museum of American Glass (2001).

 

Thistlewood Carnival Glass website, at carnival-glass.net/  (2009).  See  "Daisy & Drape--Northwood" (2007).  geocities.com/carni_glass_uk_2000/DaisyDrpGrn.html

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          Many thanks to E-Bayers bug54, cobaltdon,  dolls123, jjuli,  oxbeetle and  zienty  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) 2009 curculiosglass, all rights reserved.  To locate 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.