Opalescent Vase - Model Flint Vase - Corolla Vase - Diamond Stem Vase
Calyx Vase -  Lorna Vase - Opalescent Novelty Vase - Albany Glass

Opalescent Novelty Vases  of the
Model Flint Glass Works (1899-1902)

by curculiosglass

        
 
Model Flint's Diamond Stem novelty vase, circa 1902,
in canary opalescent glass, with enamel decoration

photo by curculiosglass

INTRODUCTION

        
            This guide is part of an ongoing series on early American opalescent vases (1880-1912).  The guide focuses on footed novelty vases made by the Model Flint Works of National Glass.  The vase patterns featured here are Diamond Stem, Calyx, Corolla and Lorna.

           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 all of our other guides, click here:  GUIDE INDEX.
   

         
History of  the Model Flint Glass Co.

        Our guide on Model Flint Celery Vases contains a fairly lengthy history of the company.  For readers' convenience, however, we'll summarize that history in this guide as well.   Model Flint opened in 1888 in Findlay, Ohio, and in 1893, the company relocated to Albany, Indiana -- accordingly, Model Flint Glass is often referred to as "Albany Glass".  In October, 1899, Model Flint was purchased by the National Glass Company, a glass consortium formed in part to counter competition from the new 17-factory glass consortium known as U. S. Glass.  Thereafter, Model Flint was known as the Model Flint Works of the National Glass Company (Teal, p. 16). 

          At least 19 glass companies were consolidated to form National Glass, among them the Indiana, Pennsylvania glass works of the Northwood company, which became part of National in November, 1899.  During their years under National, the Model Flint and Northwood glass works shared several molds, among the novelty vase known as Lorna, shown below.  In 1902, National Glass began experiencing financial problems and abandoned the Model Flint Works, and in 1903 National closed.  Model Flint's glass factory never reopened (Teal, p. 17).

          Before National's takeover, from 1888 to 1899, Model Flint issued a wide variety of pressed crystal and colored transparent glass  (Teal, p. 23).  All of Model Flint's opalescent tableware and vases, however, date from 1899-1902, the company's brief period of operation following its purchase by National.  Model Flint's opalescent vase production was limited -- in all, the company produced seven original vase patterns and shared three others with Northwood.

          Model Flint's original opalescent patterns include the standard-vase patterns Many Ribs and Ribbed Spiral  (featured in our other guides (see Ribbed Vases and Ripple vases);  and four celery vases shapes shown in our guide on Model Flint celery vases and marketed under the names Manila, Fern, Opal Stripe and Coraline.   

         Model Flint  produced only three opalescent footed novelty vases of its own design, known as Calyx, Corolla and Diamond Stem.  Because these patterns had short productions runs, all are scarce now.  The company also issued a fourth footed opalescent vase in the well-known pattern Lorna, produced originally by Northwood.   All four of these are featured in this guide.

Photographic Gallery
of Novelty Vases
          

         
 
Canary opalescent Diamond Stem novelty vase, circa 1902,
with enamel decoration; and detail photo of stem base

photos by curculiosglass

         Diamond Stem.  According to the Standard Encylopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., Model Flint's Diamond Stem vases are "very scarce" to "rare" (pp. 50, 204).  Ron Teal writes in Albany Glass, "I have seen the price of these vases triple ..., sought after by Albany collectors, opalescent collectors, vaseline collectors and art glass collectors."  Model Flint issued diamond stem vases in 1900-1902 (Teal, p. 29).  The pattern was first identified as Model Flint product by Ruth Herrick in her 1959 Greentown Glass (pp. 37, fig. 319).  Marion Hartung later named the vase in her 1971 book titled Opalescent Pattern Glass, in which she noted that "Diamond Stem" derived from "the heavy diamond ring around the lower end of the piece" (p. 31). 

         The Diamond Stem pattern consists of a cone-shaped vase body, impressed with a swirled-line pattern that rises to a rim with 6 large jagged teeth.  The cone extends downward to the ring of diamonds described by Hartung.  Under the ring is a round foot impressed with a pattern of curved lines that radiate outward, forming a petal-like effect.  

          Diamond Stem vases appear in three sizes:  6 1/2", 8 1/2" and 10 1/2".  Ron Teal shows these vases in his book with a variety of treatments (Teal, p. 137, fig. 828-844).  The tooth-like edges of the vase mouths may be folded slightly inward, as shown above, point straight up, or be bent slightly outward.  Vases with widely splayed mouths are seldom seen.  The two shown below are from the extensive opalescent vase collection of E-bayer unclechamps, which in early 2009 numbered more than 600 vases:

Diamond Stem vases with splayed mouths,
in green and canary-opalescent glass
photos courtesy of unclechamps

Diamond Stem vases appeared in Model Flint opalescent vase assortments advertised in 1902 "Missionary editions" of Butler Brothers's wholesale catalog (Teal 30).  (The early ads offer the vases for 80 cents per dozen.)  The ad listed Diamond Stem vases in white, blue, canary opalescent glass.  Green Diamond Stem vases, such as the one shown above left, are very uncommon.  As shown in the photos directly below and  at the top of this guide section, Model Flint's opalescent Diamond Stem vases also are found with enamel decoration:

 

Close-up of enamel decoration
on a canary-opalescent Diamond Stem vase
photo courtesy of curculiosglass

          Enamel decoration is make by grinding glass powders (usually metallic oxides with frit), mixing them with oil and applying them like paint to the surface of glassware.  Firing burns the oil away and melts the powders, fusing them with the glassware.  Albany employed its own decorating departments:  a November 2, 1901 China, Glass & Lamps noted that Model Flint increased its decorating facilities that year, adding "a new decorating room and kiln" (Teal, p. 22).  Teal documents enamel decorations on Model Flint's striped salt shakers and pitchers; on tableware issued in the company's Manila pattern; a Calyx vase; and on one Diamond Stem vase (Teal, pp. 96-99, 135, 137, 140-141).  Diamond Stem pieces with enamel decorations, such as that shown here are a rare find.

A white opalescent Calyx vase
photo by unclechamps

Calyx.  Like Model flint's other opalescent novelty vases, this vase is is hard to find and is characterized by the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed. as "scarce" (p. 30).  The pattern is simple and elegant:  it resembles a stylized lily.  Two Symmetrical leaves grow upwards from the base about three-fifths up the vase body, giving the vase an Art Nouveau look. The vase body is cone-shaped, narrowing at the bottom to a round footed base, and widening at the mouth, with one flute rising to a high point.  Calyx vases we have seen are 7 1/4" tall.

This pattern was first identified and correctly ascribed to Model Flint by Ruth Herrick in the May, 1953, Antiques Journal.  Herrick named the pattern Expanded Stem and included a photograph of a white example in her 1958 Greentown Glass (p. 37  fig. 320).  The name "Calyx" was assigned later by Marion Hartung, in her 1969 Northwood Pattern Glass in Color.  William Heacock adopted this name when he provided the first photograph in color of the vase pattern (in blue), in Opalescent Glass from A to Z , rev. ed. (p. 35). 

Model Flint issued Calyx vases in white, blue and canary opalescent glass (Teal, p. 27, figs. 826, 832).  The vases are also found in transparent glass, and in opaque green, yellow, blue and white glass (Heacock, p. 35, Teal, p. 27, figs. 18, 826, 832).  An opaque blue vase appears in Teal's Albany Glass with the leaves on the vase body painted green (p. 82, fig. 18).

     

Blue and white opalescent Corolla vases
photos by unclechamps

Corolla.  This pattern is the rarest of the four vases shown in this guide and seldom appears on E-Bay.  The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., notes that Model Flint's production of this vase was limited (p. 44).  This pattern is the only one of the four vases shown here that never appeared in Heacock's Opalescent Glass from A to Z.  Teal, who named the pattern, notes that very few pieces of Corolla vases were found amid the many glass shards found at the abandoned site of Model Flint, and he thus concludes that the Corolla vases' production "probably occurred over a very short time" (p. 28).

The Corolla pattern is unique and whimsical:  the vase has a top-heavy appearance, narrowing near the bottom and joining to a foot with an unusual blossom design comprised of unevenly-sized petal shapes.  the vase's rim is toothed, and opalescence is heaviest at the mouth.  The vases shown here are 7 1/2" tall. 

The SEOG, 6th ed., shows a picture of a Corolla vase in blue (p. 44), and Ron Teal's Albany Glass includes photographs of the vases in blue and white (pp. 137, 141 figs. 831, 905).  Teal writes that the vases were made in white, canary and blue opalescent glass, as well as opaque blue, green, white and yellow glass -- presumably Teal's color list is based on shards found at the Model Flint glass works site. 

Teal notes, "I would expect to find Corolla vases in different colors with hand-painted designs" (p. 28).  A hand-painted Model flint vase with enamel decoration is shown further up in this guide on a Diamond Stem vase from the same period -- to date, however, we have seen no Corolla vases with enamel decorations.  Nor have we seen an undamaged Corolla vase in vaseline opalescent. David A. Peterson notes the existence of such vases in his Vaseline Glass:  Canary to Contemporary (p. 11), but the book, despite its encyclopedic documentation of early canary opalescent pressed glass, contains no photograph of a canary opalescent Corolla vase.  We welcome additional photographs of Corolla vases from E-bayers.

Blue Opalescent Lorna vase,
photo courtesy of curculiosglass

Lorna.  This is a very simple vase shape, consisting of a conical body  that narrows toward a pedestal base and widens toward the rim.  The interior of the vase is impressed with vertical panels extending most of the way up the vase body.  The vases are found with a variety of mouth treatments -- splayed and ruffled, widely splayed with a Jack-in-the-Pulpit treatment, pinched and ruffled (See Teal, p. 137, figs. 822-839).  They appear in white, blue and canary opalescent glass.  The vases range from 6 1/2" to 7" tall, with some variation depending on the mouth treatment.

Lorna vases are fairly common for early opalescent vases.  Ron Teal confirms that Lorna vases were made by Model Flint, and William Heacock noted in Opalescent Glass from A-Z  that shards of Lorna vases were discovered at the site of the Model Flint glass works (p. 77).  The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., declares the vases were first made by the Model Flint Company in 1900 (p. 94).  This assertion, however, is erroneous.  There is substantial evidence that Lorna vases were issued as early as 1889 by the Indiana, Pennsylvania, glass works of the Northwood Glass Company, shortly before that company joined National Glass.  The vases appeared in an opalescent vase assortment advertised by Northwood in an 1889 Butler Brothers catalog: 

An 1889 Butler Brothers catalog ad showing a Lorna vase,
(far left), as part of an opalescent vase assortment issued by
the Northwood Co.'s Indiana plant before its purchase by National.

Lorna vases also appeared in a 1900 Pitkin & Brooks wholesale catalog showing an opalescent Northwood assortment (See Heacock, p. 53); this ad was issued after Northwood joined National.  Ron Teal notes that Lorna vases were issued by the Dugan Glass Company as well, and they may have been produced, in addition, by the West Virginia Glass Company (Teal 43).

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Related Curculiosglass Opalescent Vase ID Guides
Opalescent Celery Vases of the Model Flint Glass Works
Model Flint's Ribbed Spiral Vases

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Recommended Resources:

Bond, Marcelle, The Beauty of Albany Glass.  Berne:  Publishers printing House (1972). 

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

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).

Teal, Ron, Albany Glass:  Model Flint Glass Company of Albany, Indiana.
        Marietta:  The Glass Press (1997).  

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Many thanks to E-bayer unclechamps  for generously contributing 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-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.