Northwood Vase - Leaf Chalice Vase - Maple Leaf Chalice
Cleopatra's Fan Vase - Opalescent Novelty Vase - Opalescent Vase

Northwood Opalescent
Novelties, Part III  (1899-1907):
Novelty Vases with Leaf-like Legs

by curculiosglass

A Northwood Maple Leaf Chalice 
novelty vase, in blue opalescent glass, circa 1903,
with a pinched neck and four turned-up sides.

photo by unclechamps

INTRODUCTION

           This is Part III of a 3-part identification guide on Northwood opalescent novelty vases and novelties made between 1898 and 1908.  Part I and Part II feature Northwood patterns with twig legs.  This section shows novelty vases with leaf-like legs. 

         This guide is part of an ongoing guide series on early American opalescent vases (1880-1912).  The purpose of these guides is to help E-Bayer identify old glass; to document rare, unusual and notable glass that surfaces on E-bay each year; and to provide more specific information on individual pieces than may be offered in widely available resources.

          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.

Photographic Gallery of Vases 

 

Leaf Chalice.  The Leaf Chalice pattern consists of four impressed leaves that spread wide at the rim to form a chalice-like top.  The chalice rests on two wide, bent legs that are impressed with a leaf pattern.  The legs extend downward to a base formed of four joined leaves that intersect in the middle.  The novelties tend to run from 5 1/2" to  5 3/4" tall.

The Leaf Chalice pattern was identified and named by Marion Hartung, who noted in Opalescent Pattern Glass that Leaf Chalice novelties appeared "only the one year in ... advertising, so perhaps it did not prove to be a best-seller and was discontinued"  (p. 64).  Leaf Chalice novelties were issued in 1903 and made by Northwood / National during the years the company was under Thomas Dugan's management  (Heacock 4, p. 37).

Detail from a May, 1903 Butler Brothers catalog advertisement
offering a Northwood /National opalescent assortment.

Leaf chalice novelties appeared in a single May, 1903 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog advertisement offering Northwood / National opalescent novelties; a detail from the ad is shown above.  The ad featured Leaf Chalice vases in three variations:  with one side pulled down and one up, described as a "fancy flared dish -- for many uses" (above, left); with four sides pulled inward in a hair-receiver shape (second from right); and with all sides pulled up (right):  Leaf Chalice pieces appear in other variations as well - for example, with all four sides pulled down and outward, as shown below:

  

Leaf Chalice vases are often confused with Maple Leaf Chalice novelty vases (shown below), also issued by Northwood.  As shown in the photographs above, however the base of a Leaf Chalice vase consists of four separate leaves that join together at the center.  The base of Maple Leaf Chalice vase, by contrast, is in the form of a single leaf.

This pattern appears in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, which reports them in white, blue and green only (6th ed., p. 91).  Several sources, however, document Leaf Chalice novelties in canary opalescent as well, among them David A. Peterson's Vaseline Glass:  from Canary to Contemporary (pp. 195-196). Hartung reported Leaf Chalice novelties in flint, canary and blue (p. 64).  Heacock listed them in canary, blue, flint and green, but noted that green examples are rare.  Heacock also recorded Leaf Chalice novelties in non-opalescent amethyst glass (Heacock 3, p. 75). 

A  blue opalescent Maple Leaf Chalice novelty vase
in a rare shape, with a pinched mouth, circa 1903

photo courtesy of unclechamps

Maple Leaf Chalice.  Like Leaf Chalice shown above, this vase pattern consists of four leaf-like shapes that join together to form a goblet-shaped cup.  The cup rests on legs impressed with a leaf design.   As noted above, this pattern is often confused with Leaf Chalice (shown in the preceding entry) -- the easiest way to distinguish the patterns is by looking at the base:  As shown above, Maple Leaf Chalice has one large leaf on the base (instead of four), and a stem that protrudes to one side.  Maple Leaf Chalice vases tend to be about 6" high, slightly taller than Leaf Chalice novelties.

 

Blue Opalescent Maple Leaf Chalice novelty vases, circa 1903
with straight-up sides and with a pinched mouth
photo courtesy of unclechamps

The vases usually appear with straight-up sides, as shown above left.  The Maple Leaf chalice vase shown above right and at the top of this section has a pinched neck and a rim that splays into four petal-like shapes -- to our knowledge, this is the only recorded example of this variation on the pattern -- the vase shown here comes form the extensive opalescent vase collection of E-bayer unclechamps. 

According to Heacock, Northwood's Wheeling, West Virginia plant first issued this pattern around 1903 in white, blue, green and canary opalescent glass (Heacock 3, p. 78).   The company simultaneously issued the pattern in purple slag glass, marketed as "Mosaic" glass (Heacock 2, pp. 22-23, 83, fig.  44). 

 

A Cleopatra's Fan Vase, circa 1904
photo courtesy of unclechamps

Cleopatra's Fan (Northwood/Dugan).  This very hard-to-find pattern is also called Shell & Leaf Chalice by collectors and was once known as Northwood Shell  (Heacock 3, p. 38).  Although some sources attribute the pattern to Dugan, we show the pattern here, because it is often confused with Northwood's Leaf Chalice, and because Cleopatra's Fan was so obviously influenced by Northwood's Leaf Chalice and Maple Leaf Chalice.  Cleopatra's Fan vases rest on three leaf legs that connect to the vase bowl and descend to touch the surface under the vase, supporting it without a base.  The leaf-legs are elliptical in shape.  The bowl is imprinted with three large scallop-shaped leaves.  The vase rim is pulled up into points, one or more of which may be twisted slightly to form a loop of glass. 

Cleopatra's Fan often appears confusingly in early glass references under the name "Leaf Chalice":  Joann Elmore, the editor of Heacock's posthumously published revised edition of Opalescent Glass from A to Z, notes the following:  "James Measell in Dugan / Diamond, The Story of Indiana, Pennsylvania Glass,  showed a picture of [a Cleopatra's fan vase] but called it Leaf Challis (sic). ... These are not the same patterns.  Leaf Challis has four feet on a base; Cleopatra's fan has only three and no base.  In view of this I feel, as Heacock also felt, that these are most definitely two different patterns and should carry two different names" (Heacock 3, p. 38).  This is not strictly accurate:  Leaf Chalice novelties have two legs, not four.  The two legs rest on a base made of four joined leaves.  Nevertheless, it is correct that the two patterns are distinct and that Cleopatra's Fan can be distinguished by its absence of a base and its three legs.  Cleopara's Fan vases usually range from 6 3/4" to 7" in height and are thus somewhat taller than Leaf Chalice novelties.

According to the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, Cleopatra's Fan is "quite scarce and collectible" (6th ed., p. 33).  The SEOG attributes the pattern to Dugan -- however, we have found no primary resource that validates this attribution.  Elmore notes in Opalescent Glass from A to Z that the vase was issued by Dugan but that it was first produced "possibly originally by Northwood" (rev. ed., pp. 38, 205 & fig. 1291). 

Heacock himself first attributed the vase to Northwood, but later stated that he believed Dugan had issued the pattern (p. 38). The SEOG notes that the loop effect on the pulled points of Cleopatra's fan novelties is found on one other early opalescent novelty pattern known as Winter Lily, made by Dugan in 1908 (6th ed., p. 163).

Final Note:  Northwood issued an additional pattern that featured a vase resting on three leaf-like legs:  Daisy & Drape.  This pattern is best-known in carnival glass, but a handful of rare examples have appeared in opalescent glass.  Daisy & Drape vases can be viewed in our guide titled Northwood's Daisy & Drape and U.S. Glass's Vermont Vases.

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Related Opalescent Vase ID Guides
Northwood and Dugan Twigs vases
Northwood Novelties with Twig Feet: Part I
Northwood Novelties with Twig Feet - Part II
Northwood Daisy & Drape and U.S. Glass Vermont Vases
Northwood's Carnival & Opalescent Vase Twins
Northwood's Opalescent Jewels & Drapery Vases
Northwood's Opalescent Celery Vases
Model Flint Glass Company Novelty Vases
Jefferson Glass Company Novelty Vases

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References

Hartung, Marion, Opalescent Pattern Glass.  Des Moines:  Wallace-Homestad (1971).

[Heacock 1] Heacock, William, Harry Northwood:  The Early years, 1881-1900.
        Marietta:  Antique Publications (1990).

[Heacock 2 ] Heacock, William, Harry Northwood:  The Wheeling Years, 1901-1925.
         Marietta:  Antique Publications (1991).

[Heacock 3] Heacock, William, Opalescent Glass from A-Z, rev. ed.  Marietta:
          The Glass Press (2000). 

[Heacock 4] Heacock, William, James Measell and Berry Wiggins, Dugan /Diamond:
           The Story of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Glass, Marietta: Antique Publications (1993).

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Many thanks to E-bayers  jellybean1121, oxbeetle  and unclechamps,  for generously contributing photographs 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 the seller's name into the Feedback Forum's search blank.