I've received emails from people on ebay telling me that my Dugan items are listed incorrectly.  They base this on articles that people put on ebay and published reference books.   The problem arises when the articles and books that are written have misnamed items.  The name in question, is "Jefferson Spatter".  So to help set the record straight on spatter items made by Dugan and items that were made by Jefferson, these are the following examples listed for provenance.  There is one basic difference between the two companies.  Dugan's spatter is composed of crushed Blue and White Opalescent frit which is ground glass, and sometimes they combined crushed Cranberry frit with it. They also made pieces that had stripes that were made with crushed Amber frit and some even have stars that were made with crushed Amber frit.   Items with Blue, White, and Cranberry spatter are shown in Dugan's advertisement for their "Oriental" line dated 1901 and also their "Japanese" line dated 1906.  The ad calls this type of glass "Coraline", which is not to be confused with Coraline Art Glass made by other Art Glass companies.  A good reference for the type of spatter, or frit, that was used by Dugan can be seen in the "Dugan Diamond" glass book by Heacock, Measell, and Wiggins, page 82. 

Here are some examples of Dugan Coraline with Blue, White, and Cranberry frit.  The Celery vase was blown in a "Dot Optic" mould and it is shown in the "Oriental" advertisement dated 1901.   This ad can be found in "Dugan Diamond" glass book by Heacock, Measell, and Wiggins, page 34.  The Rose Bowl is pictured on page 82 exactly this way. You can clearly see the Blue and White frit in these pictures.

Here are some Dugan Coraline items in just Blue and White frit. All of these items were blown in a "Rib Optic" mould. The vase on the left is Blue Opalescent and is the vase that has been named incorrecly as "Jefferson Spatter".  The vase on the right is Flint Opalescent.  Both of these items are shown in the same Dugan "Oriental" advertisement dated 1901. This ad can be found in the "Dugan Diamond" glass book by Heacock, Measell, and Wiggins, page 34. The ad states the assortments were made in Blue, Flint, and Yellow Opalescent.  The ad also shows the verticle ribbing.   If ebay would allow these photos to be a little larger the Blue frit could also be seen better along with the verticle ribbing.  Many of these items can be found listed at my ebay store under Dugan Art Glass.  Larger pictures can be found there as well.

Here are two examples with Blue and White frit, and crushed Amber frit to form a star design, and an example using Blue and White frit, and Amber frit as a stripe design. These items appear in ads for Dugan's Japanese assortment dated 1906. The ad can be found in "Dugan Diamond" glass by Heacock, Measell, and Wiggins, page 51.

The common denominator in all these Dugan pieces shown above, is they all were marvered in Blue and White frit covering the entire pieces.  There are no Jefferson glass advertisements showing the same shapes as shown above, or to confirm Blue and White frit was ever used to completely cover any of their items.  That's why to show any of these pieces in reference books, and call them "Jefferson Spatter" is misleading and incorrect.  The "Standard Encyclopedia of Opalescent Glass" 5th edition, page 91, and the 6th edition page 85, shows a Dugan vase in Yellow Opalescent or Vaseline in exactly the same shape as the Blue Opalescent vase I have listed above.  Again the Dugan advertisement for the "Oriental" line shown in "Dugan Diamond" glass by Heacock, Measell, and Wiggins, page 34, specifically states that the colors made were Blue, Flint, and Yellow Opalescent.  All of the shapes shown above are by Dugan, and to say that Jefferson made them or to call them "Jefferson Spatter" is incorrect. 

However, the Jefferson Glass Company did make their own version of spatter glass in shapes other than the ones shown above.  The photos below show the only two known examples made with a Pink frit marvered in clear crystal. Pay particular attention to the shapes of these Jefferson Glass items,  and the way the Pink frit is marvered on the surface of the clear crystal.  

These two vases are shown below in a Jefferson advertisement dated 1903, in the lower left and in the top right corner of the ad.  These vases were blown from moulds that had no interior ribs.  

Both of these items were found made with this Pink frit marvered in clear crystal.  No other base glass color other than clear crystal has been found for these two items shown in the Jefferson ad, and no color frit other than pink has been found on the two shapes shown in the ad.   If anyone has any Jefferson advertisements showing other shapes made with different colored frit covering the entire pieces, we'd love to see them.  A larger and better picture of this ad can be found in "Old Pattern Glass According to Heacock" by William Heacock, page 142.

The Jefferson Glass company also used Cranberry frit,  a rare Green frit, and an extremely rare Cobalt Blue frit, but this frit was only marvered on the top edges of vases,  or outer edges of bowls on many of their novelty Opalescent patterns.  This frit was never used to completely cover the items. Some of the Jefferson patterns known to have this frit on the outer edges only are, "Fancy Fantails", "Pearls and Scales", "Block", "Beaded Drapes", "Jefferson Spool", "Swag with Brackets", and "Fluted Bars and Beads"  There is also a pattern called "Convex Rib" which has been attributed by some to the Jefferson Glass Company, but there is no proof for that attribution.  I do appologise if I omitted any other patterns.  It is worth mentioning here, that the Northwood Glass Company made two well know patterns called "Blown Twist" and "Herringbone".  In particular were the Blown Twist Celery Vases, and a Herringbone ruffled Salad bowl.  Both these items have been found with Cranberry frit on the edges. 

It is possible that "Convex Rib"  could have been a Northwood pattern as well,  but to date there is no proof for this attribution.

To see pictures of the different colored frit used by Jefferson on some of their novelty patterns, go to this ebay guide:  Jefferson Glass Novelties

  I trust this has helped to clear up some issues concerning these two companies.

ainventor

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Classical Glass Store