Beads & Bark Vase - Cyclone Vase - Ocean Shell Novelty Vase
Northwood Vase - Ocean Shell - Opalescent Vase

 

Northwood Opalescent
Novelty Vases and Novelties
with Twig Feet (1899-1908):

Part II

by curculiosglass  

          This 3-part guide guide is about opalescent novelties made by the Northwood Glass Company between 1898 and 1908.  The first two parts of the guide feature novelties with twig legs.  Part I of this guide shows the patterns Twigs, Grapevine Cluster, Hilltop Vines and Leaf & Beads.  This section, Part II, features the patterns Beads & Bark,  Ocean Shell, and Cyclone.   Part III shows Northwood opalescent novelties with leaf-like legs.

A 1903 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog ad,
showing a Northwood opalescent assortment
that includes Ocean Shell (middle left, middle row)
and Beads & Bark (second from left, bottom row)

          This guide is part of an ongoing series of guides on early American opalescent vases (1880-1912).   The guides' purpose is to help E-bayers identify old glad; to document rare, unusul and notable glass that appears on E-Bay each year; and to provide more detailed information on specific pieces than may be provided in widely available literature.  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.

 

 

A green opalescent Beads & Bark novelty vase, circa 1903
photo courtesy of unclechamps

Beads & Bark.  This 1903 Northwood pattern consists of a goblet-shaped vase bowl impressed with rows of inverted-u shapes outlined with tiny beads.  A tornado-like funnel swirls downward from the vase body, and three twig-like legs rise from a triangular base and attach to the bottom of the bowl.  The entire piece is 6" tall.  The triangular base and three legs of Beads & Bark vases echo the design of a similar-sized opalescent novelty vase known as Aurora Borealis, which was issued by Jefferson Glass of Steubenville, Ohio in the same year.

Beads & Bark vases first appeared in a Northwood opalescent glass assortment placed in the May, 1903 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog, which advertised them in "blue, canary and flint opalescent" (Heacock 2, pp. 21-22).  Three years later, the vases appeared in a 1906 Butler Brothers ad that offered them in in "blue, green and flint," and in 1906 Lyon Brothers wholesale catalogs that advertised them in "various tints" (Heacock 2, p. 32-33).  Green vases are now the hardest to find. 

Northwood also issued this pattern in 1903 in purple slag glass, marketed as "Mosaic" glass (Heacock 2, pp. 22-23, 83, figs. 45a-45e).

Ocean Shell.   Marion Hartung wrote of this pattern:  "Things aquatic must have held a certain appeal for the housewife of the early 1900's, for this is not the only shell-shaped glass piece offered by any means".  Other ocean-themed opalescent novelties of the era include the Jefferson Glass Company's Aurora Borealis novelty vase; Dugan's Beaded Shell; and Argonaut Shell, a product of Northwood and Dugan Glass.

This pattern, however, achieves a somewhat surreal effect, combining ocean themes with twig legs:  three twig legs attach at the bottom to a base impressed with a scallop shell's ruffles and edges.  At the top, the legs support a a bowl impressed with descending concentric circles reminiscent of the surface of a clam shell: 

On Ocean Shell novelties, the twig legs appear in three variations, as long legs that attach to the bowl; as long legs that stop just short of the the bowl; and with short legs that are  unattached to the bowl.  

Marion Hartung noted in Opalescent Pattern Glass that "The height and shaping of this vase do not vary from one glass to another.  The edge is invariably shaped as shown here, and is gently scalloped."  Ocean Shell vases are pieces are 5 1/4" to 5 1/2" tall (on the highest side) with a 3" base.  The above-shown piece measures 6" across.

 

    

A rare canary opalescent Ocean Shell novelty
photo courtesy of neomant

The 1903 Butler Brothers advertisement offered the vases in "blue, canary and flint opalescent," but the vases are found in green opalescent glass as well (Heacock 3, p. 83).  Canary opalescent examples are hard to find.  One is featured in David A. Peterson's Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary (p. 66, fig. 522).  The canary opalescent vase shown above appeared on E-Bay in  November, 2008 and was found by E-bayer neomant.

Northwood also issued its Ocean Shell pattern in 1903 in purple slag glass, marketed as "Mosaic" glass (Heacock 2, pp. 22-23, 83, fig. 43):

 

1903 Northwood Ocean Shell vase,
in purple slag or "Mosaic" glass

photo by curculiosglass

The Ocean Shell pattern first appeared in a Northwood opalescent glass assortment advertisement placed in the May, 1903 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog -- the ad is shown higher up on this page (Heacock 2, pp. 21-22).  Ocean Shell novelties appear on E-Bay and in printed references described variously as vases, compotes, bowls and footed dishes.  The pattern originally was described in the 1903 ad as a "high footed receptacle or jelly dish".  
 

 

Cyclone.  Cyclone vases are quite rare.  According to the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., there are only seven reported vases in this pattern:   two in canary opalescent, three in blue opalescent, and one in white opalescent.  The SEOG's sixth edition shows a white opalescent Cyclone vase; a blue opalescent Cyclone vase appears in the the SEOG's fourth edition.  The white opalescent vase shown above surfaced on E-bay in April, 2008 and was discovered by E-bayer harttreasures.

As the name suggests, the body of this 7 1/2" novelty vase is tornado-shaped.  The vase spirals downward into a narrow point that rests on a triangular base.  Three twig legs extend from the base and attach to the bottom portion of the vase body.  Author David A. Peterson writes that this rare pattern was made "by combining the twig legs of the Beads & Bark vase and the top of the Ocean Shell vase" (p. 194).  Like Northwood's Ocean Shell novelty (shown above), the body of a Cyclone vase is impressed with descending concentric circles.  The similarities between the bottom sections of Cyclone and Beads & Bark vases are evident in the photographs shown below:  both have triangular bases and twig legs, and both have vase bodies that narrow like tornado funnels toward the bottom:

 

Detail photos of the bottom sections and bases of
a white Cyclone vase and a green Beads & Bark vase
photos by harttreasures (left) and curculiosglass

The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass attributes Cyclone vases to Northwood  (6th ed., p. 39), but it is notable that Cyclone vases do not appear in any early references on opalescent glass, including the works of Marion Hartung and William Heacock.  Nor do Cyclone vases do appear illustrated in any old glass company or wholesale catalogs we have seen.  Instead, the attribution of the vases to Northwood seems to be based on the vases' marked resemblance to Northwood's Beads & Bark and Ocean Shell.

Click here to continue on to Part III.

Related Opalescent Vase ID Guides
Northwood Novelties with Twig Feet - Part I
Northwood Novelties with Leaf Legs - Part III
Model Flint Glass Company Novelty Vases
Jefferson Glass Company Novelty Vases
Northwood's Opalescent Celery Vases
Northwood's Carnival & Opalescent Vase Twins
Northwood's Opalescent Jewels & Drapery 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).

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

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Many thanks to E-bayers harttreasures,  neomant, unclechamps and zanemann,  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.