Plain Panel vase - Plain Panels vase - Ray Vase - Opalescent Vase - Dugan Vase

 

 

ID GUIDE, Part 4:

MISCELLANEOUS  OPALESCENT  VASES (1898-1912):

Vases with Panels

 

Introduction

        This is Part 4 of a seven-part reference guide to American pressed-glass opalescent vases manufactured at end of the Victorian Era, around the turn of the century (1898-1912).  Part 1 and Part 2 showed vases with drapery and honeycomb patterns, and Part 3 featured ribbed vases.  This section, Part 4, features vases with panels:  Dugan's Plain Panel; a similar vase known as Plain Panels, which we believe also was issued by Dugan; and Cooperative Flint's Ray Vase.  To access other sections of this guide, click on the links in the Table of Contents at the bottom of the 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.

 

Photographic Gallery of Opalescent Vases

  

A 13' blue opalescent Dugan Plain Panel vase, circa 1912
with a 7" white opalescent Plain Panels vase, circa 1906
photos by curculiosglass

Plain Panel (Dugan).   Shown directly above and below, Plain Panel vases have 6 ribbed panels separated by 6 plain panels and flared mouths with 12 points.  The vases are often fairly tall -- the blue vase shown above is 13" in height.  It has a base measuring 3 3/4" in diameter, which is impressed with a 36-point star.  Dugan's Plain Panel vases are referenced on p. 59 of the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., which notes that the vases were issued, in order of highest-to-lowest value, in blue, green and white.  

According to William Heacock in Opalescent Glass from A to Z, p. 90, this vase pattern was first produced by the Dugan Glass Company circa 1912.  Heacock attributed the pattern to Dugan based on his observation that the vases were made from the same mold shape as Dugan's Pulled Loop Vases.  The Dugan Glass Company of Indiana, Pennsylvania was founded in 1904 and issued an assortment of opalescent vases during the first decade of its operation (see our guide on Dugan vases.)  Most of Dugan's opalescent vase patterns were later used in carnival glass, but not this pattern -- Dugan's Plain Panel vases appeared in opalescent glass only. 

The vase patterns Plain Panel and the very similar Plain Panels are shown side-by-side at the top of this section; the two patterns are often confused because both have 6 panels and 6 ribs.  However, as is shown clearly in the photographs directly below, on the Plain Panel vase, both the ribs and panels are pulled upward at the vase's rim, so that the vase mouth has 12 flared points:

   

Detail of mouth of a Dugan Plain Panel Vase
showing twelve pulled points

photos by castleliz

By contrast, on the Plain Panels vase, shown below, only the ribs are pulled upward, so that the vase has 6 points.  (Notably, William Heacock, in his landmark Opalescent Glass from A-Z, p. 199, fig. 1233, chose to call the 12-pointed Plain Panel vase by the name "Plain Panels" -- adding a little more confusion to the mix.  More recent publications such as the SEOG, however, have assigned the name "Plain Panel" to this vase.) 

Both Plain Panel and Plain Panels vases are also occasionally misidentified as Dugan's Ten-Thirteen vases, which have 6 ribs, panels and points.  Dugan's #1013 vases may be distinguished by their jagged tips; photographs of #1013 vases for comparison can be found in our 3-part guide on Dugan's #1013 and #1013-R vases. 

 

Plain Panels (Northwood or Dugan).  Shown directly above, at page top, and beside the Plain Panel vase in the preceding section, Plain Panels vases feature 6 wide ribs with plain panels in between them.  The vase ribs extend at the slightly flared mouth into 6 rounded points.  The bases of the vases shown here are 2 5/8" in diameter and bear impressed 42-point stars.  The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., p. 112, records that Plain Panels vases range from 9" to 14" tall; the vases shown here, however, are considerably shorter, measuring 6' to 7" tall, and vases as short as 5 3/4" have appeared on E-Bay.  We have seen such vases in white only.  The SEOG, however,  reports that Plain Panels vases have been found in white, blue and green and notes that canary opalescent vases may have been issued as well.

According to sixth edition of the Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, p. 112, Plain Panels vases were issued by Northwood in 1908.  We question this attribution, however -- the vases have a Dugan look to them.  In addition, a vase identical to the Plain Panels vases featured here appeared amid an assortment of Dugan's opalescent vases in the 1906 Butler Brothers wholesale catalog advertisement shown below:

     

  1906 Butler Brothers catalog advertisement, with a detail from the ad.
The ad features an assortment of Dugan's opalescent ware in blue, green and "flint"(white).
The tall vase shown third from left resembles a Plain Panels vase.

 Oddly enough, the SEOG records that Dugan/Diamond later made Plain Panels vases in carnival glass -- and yet no vase pattern by that name is listed in any authoritative source on carnival glass, including the Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass and David Doty's website.  Nevertheless, vases in the Plain Panels pattern do occasionally crop up on E-Bay in carnival glass, as well as in clear crystal and colored transparent glass; examples of these are shown in Part  II of our guide on Dugan's #1013 vases.

 

                 

Green and blue Ray vases
made by Co-operative Flint Co., circa 1904-1920's
photos by n_it_to_win_it (left) and curculiosglass

Ray (Co-operative Flint).  This slender, elegant vase features 12 narrow panels terminating in 12 rounded ends.  The vases widen at the mouth, and the top rims often appear edged with clear glass, as if cased.  Vase rims may be level, or may be raised on one side as on the vases shown above.  The bottom of a Ray vase flares slightly, protruding in a short skirt above the marie base.  The underside of the skirt is decorated with molded, closely spaced stripes or "rays"; 1/4 inch below the skirt is a base that features an impressed 24-point star inside a smooth circular ring:

  

Impressed base and rayed skirt of a Ray vase
photo by curculiosglass

The Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass, 6th ed., p. 120, attributes Ray vases to the Co-operative Flint Glass Company of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, located forty miles from Pittsburgh.  The manufacture date of the vases is uncertain:  they were advertised in crystal in 1904, but Co-operative Flint is not known to have made opalescent glass until the 1930's.

Co-operative Flint had a colorful history.  According to David A. Peterson in Vaseline Glass: Canary to Contemporary, in 1879 striking workers at Pittsburgh's McKee Glass factory banded together, purchased a glass works called the Beaver Falls Glass Co. and founded the first cooperative glass factory in the United States, which they named Co-operative Flint Glass.  The company resisted being swallowed by larger firms such as U.S. Glass and National Glass, and became such a successful glass works that the 1904 issue of Glass and Pottery World described Co-operative Flint's glass products as appearing "in such infinite variety as to astonish one not familiar with the vast quantities of such goods produced".  The company continued in operation until 1937.  Peterson notes that the company issued no catalogs, and that thus a complete accounting of all Co-operative Flint glass pieces "might never occur" (p. 141). 

Ray vases initially appeared under the name "Plain and Simple" in William Heacock's Opalescent Glass from A to Z (rev. ed. 2000), at p. 199. (fig. 1234).  The vases have been found in three opalescent colors:  white, blue and green.  Blue is the most valuable, followed by green and then white.  Ray vases have appeared on E-Bay in sizes ranging from 12" to 15 1/2".  The green vase shown above is 14" tall and the blue is 14 1/2": both have a 3 1/4" base.  Ray vases are easily confused with later-made  Fostoria Heirloom  vases.  To compare photographs of these vases, see our guide on Easily Confused Thin Vases with Panels.

Click here to continue on to Part 5, or click on one of the links below.

_____________________  o _____________________

          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 

          ________ o ________

Many thanks to E-bayers  castleliz,  n_it_to_win_it  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.   To access our other guides, just click here:  GUIDE INDEX.