Jewels & Drapery Vase - Northwood Vase - Opalescent Vase

ID GUIDE, Part I:

MISCELLANEOUS  OPALESCENT  VASES (1898-1912):
Northwood's Jewels & Drapery

   

Green opalescent Northwood's Jewels & Drapery vase,
circa 1907, with view of vase interior

photos by d00dlesb 

          Our other guide series focus specifically on early opalescent vases issued by the Jefferson Glass Company, and on opalescent vases that later appeared in carnival glass.  Thus, this guide series features "miscellaneous" opalescent vases not covered in those guides.  (If you're having trouble identifying an early opalescent vase, and don't see it here, try our other guide series, which  can be accessed by clicking  GUIDE INDEX or the links at the bottom of this page.) These guides have been made possible by the many E-Bayers who have contributed photographs to this project.  Please leave feedback by clicking the button at the bottom of the page.

Introduction

          This is an eight-part reference guide to American pressed-glass opalescent vases manufactured at end of the Victorian Era, around the turn of the century (1898-1912).  The guide features conventionally-shaped vases (as opposed to footed, novelty and celery vases), with the intent of aiding buyers and sellers in identifying similar-looking early American opalescent vases. This guide's purpose is to document rare, unusual and notable pieces that pass through E-Bay each year.  In addition, the guide provides more detailed information on the patterns featured than may be available in widely available resources on opalescent glass.                

          During the late 1800's and early 1900's, a number of American glassworks issued opalescent pressed-glass vases.  Most of these firms were centered in Middle America, and included such companies as Albany Flint, A J. Beatty & Sons, Co-operative Flint, Chicago Flint, Dugan, Fenton, Jefferson, Model Flint, Northwood and U.S. Glass.  Opalescent pressed glass was made by adding bone ash to the glass while it was still molten, and by fusing and repeatedly firing layers of transparent and translucent glass until the edges took on a milky translucence.  Such glass typically shows a fiery reddish opalescence when held up to a light.  (Excellent photographs of an opalescent pressed-glass vase held against sunlight can be viewed in our glass glossary under opalescent glass.) 

          Opalescent vases of this period appear most often in white, green, blue, and aqua (a light blue-green).  Less commonly, such vases are found in the pinkish-red shade referred to as "cranberry opalescent" or in a purple shade sometimes called "amethyst opalescent".  A variety of glassworks also issued opalescent vases in a bright yellow called "canary".  Due to its uranium content, canary-opalescent glass fluoresces yellow-green under a black light.  "Canary glass" is the early term for "vaseline glass".    

          Part I of this guide begins with Northwood's Jewels & Drapery vases.  The seven parts that follow are divided by vase type:  Part 2 features vases with honeycomb patterns; Part 3, ribbed vases; Part 4, vases with panels; Part 5, vases with ring and spiral patterns; Part 6, Basketweave and Little Nell vases; Part 7, vases with maze patterns; and Part 8, canary-opalescent vases of unknown origin that have appeared on E-Bay since 2006.

Photographic Gallery of Opalescent Vases

Northwood Jewels & Drapery vase, circa 1907
in green opalescent glass, squatty-size

photo by d00dlesb

Jewels & Drapery (Northwood).  This is a very old and classic opalescent vase pattern made by H. Northwood & Co., a glass works founded in 1902 in Wheeling, West Virginia by Harry Northwood, the son of a famous British glass-maker.  According to Carl O. Burns in Northwood Carnival Glass 1908-1925 (p. 9), from 1902 to 1908, H. Northwood & Co. produced "a dazzling variety of glass" that included a broad range of opalescent pressed-glass pieces.  Among these were a number of opalescent vase patterns later used in carnival glass, which are now well-known to carnival glass collectors -- such as Feathers, Diamond Point, Thin Rib, Four Pillars, Tree Trunk and Drapery vases (see Northwood vases).

Opalescent Jewels & Drapery vases appeared as early as 1907 in a Baltimore Bargain House catalog (see Heacock's Harry Northwood:  The Wheeling Years, 1901-1925, at p. 33).  The vases' period of issue was relatively short.  Unlike many of Northwood's other opalescent vases patterns, Jewels & Drapery vases were not widely produced during Northwood's later years of carnival glass production (1908-1925). 

The Jewels & Drapery pattern features a pattern of drapery-like folds that extend from the vase's rim to its base.  The vase rim is gently ruffled.  The vase's bottom edge is ringed with a circlet of raised dots or "jewels," surrounded by pinpoint dots, and the base's underside is smooth glass:

 

A standard-size white opalescent Jewels & Drapery vase,
with a detail of the jewel pattern seen through the base

photos by maxc501

Opalescent Jewels & Drapery vases are found in a rich, pure blue; a blue-green known as "aqua"; green; and white. Blue is the least frequently seen.  Vases appear in a standard size of 10" to 13", and in a squatty size usually ranging from 6 1/2" to 7 1/2".  The standard-size white opalescent vase shown above is 12 5/8".  The green squatty vase (shown at the top of this section and at the top of this guide page) is 7" tall.  Both standard and squatty vases have base diameters of 3 3/4".  Jewels & Drapery vases are referenced in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., at p. 86.

Transparent glass and carnival glass Jewels & Drapery vases:  Northwood issued Jewels & Drapery vases in clear and green crystal in 1906-1907.  Samples appeared on E-Bay in March, 2007 (green) and March 2008 (clear).  Only one known specimen of this pattern exists in carnival glass:  it is an emerald green vase with "a soft radium iridescence," shown on p. 149 of the Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 11th ed., p. 163. 

1906 Lyons Brother catalog illustration showing
Jewels & Drapery Variant in crystal.

Jewels & Drapery Variant.   A 1906 Lyon Brothers catalog featured the above Northwood advertisement illustration of a variant of the Jewels & Drapery pattern in crystal, under the heading "Parlor Vase Assortment".  The vase pattern shown now goes by the name "Jewels & Drapery Variant".  (This is somewhat odd, because it seems that this pattern preceded Northwood's Jewels & Drapery vases by a year and thus, arguably, Jewels & Drapery is the true "variant" on an original pattern.)  A second 1906 Lyons Brothers catalog advertisement showed a Northwood Jewels & Drapery Variant vase in opalescent glass, under the heading "Our 'Venetian' Opal Assortment"  (see Heacock, Harry Northwood: The Wheeling Years, pp. 33-34). 

As shown above and below, on the the Jewels & Drapery Variant vase, the circlet of "jewels" girds the vase partway up the vase body, instead of the appearing at the vase's foot.  The jewels are ringed by raised pinpoint dots.  Rows of pendant-like shapes hang just above the vase's bottom rim, below the circlet of jewels:

    

A blue opalescent Jewels & Drapery Variant vase, circa 1906,
with details of a white Jewels & Drapery vase
and of the blue Jewels & Drapery Variant.

photos by unclechamps (blue vase) and maxc501 (white)

Jewels & Drapery Variant vases are very hard to find now; the above example came from the extensive opalescent vase collection of unclechamps and appeared on E-Bay in January, 2009.  The vase is 11 1/2" tall.  In the same month, unclechamps listed two white Jewels & Drapery Variant vases measuring 11 1/2" and 12" in height.  All three vases have bases measuring 3 3/4".  To our knowledge, no other Jewels & Drapery Variants appeared on E-Bay in the same year.  Jewels & Drapery Variant vases are referenced in the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., at p. 86.

  

Jewels & Drapery whimsey bowl.  The piece shown above is quite unusual -- it is a bowl whimseyed from a Jewels & Drapery vase mold.  The authors of the SEOG, 6th ed., write that "needless to say, these whimsies are rather scarce"  (p. 171).  William Heacock first documented such Jewels & Drapery whimsey bowls in his 1975 edition of  Opalescent Glass A-Z (p. 67, fig); see also Opalescent Glass A-Z, rev. ed. (2000) (pp. 74, 141, fig. 444).  The bowls presumably were issued the same year as Jewels & Drapery vases, circa 1907.

The white bowl shown above is 4 1/2" high, spreads 6 3/4" at the rim and has a domed base measuring 3 3/4" in diameter.  The collar around the base features raised jewel shapes circled by raised dots. As shown above, right, the bowl's rim is elaborately crimped and divided into six large ruffles.  Such whimseyed Jewels & Drapery bowls appear in white, blue and green opalescent glass.  They surface very infrequently on E-Bay.

Similar opalescent vase patterns:  Northwood also issued a vase pattern called Drapery, which features drapery-like folds but lacks the row of beads at the bottom:  a picture of a Drapery vase can be found in our guide on Opalescent Vases with Carnival Twins.   One other early opalescent pressed-glass vase has a ring of bead-like shapes rimming the base:  the Tiny Tears vase, which is shown in Part 3 of this guide. 

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          Table of Contents - Opalescent Vases  (1898-1930)
          Part 1:  Jewels & Drapery vases
          Part 2:  Vases with honeycomb patterns
          Part 3:   Ribbed vases                                                                                          
          Part 4:   Vases with panels                                                                 
          Part 5:  Vases with ring and spiral patterns
          Part 6:   Basketweave and Little Nell vases
          Part 7:   Vases with maze patterns                                    
          Part 8:   Canary opalescent vases of unknown origin                                       
          
          Other ID Guides to Early Opalescent Vases (1898-1930)
          Jefferson Glass Co. Opalescent Vases    
          Opalescent Vases with Carnival Twins                                                                  

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Many thanks to E-bayers  d00dlesb, jgofan, maxc501  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) 2007, 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.