Carnival Glass Star of David Patterns

by Curculiosglass

Imperial's Star of David and Northwood's Star of David & Bows
 (above photos courtesy of 5hills and curculiosglass)

          An E-Bay seller (with good intentions, I'm sure)  recently described a 1910 carnival glass bowl sporting Northwood's "Star of David & Bows" pattern as "A Beautiful Tribute to the Jewish Religion."  I found myself thinking,  No way!  From Wheeling, West Virginia in 1910?  My next thought was, "You mean I could catch up on some of those Hanukah presents I owe my Jewish relatives, while I'm watching carnival glass go by on E-Bay?"  No such luck.  Research points to the inevitable conclusion that carnival glass and Judaism are about as far apart as Betty Crocker and Maimonides.

          Two carnival glass patterns prominently display the six-pointed star known as the Star of David:  (1) Star of David & Bows, first issued by the Northwood Glass Company of Wheeling, West Virginia  in 1910 on bowls and nut bowls;  and (2) Star of David Medallian, also known simply as "Star of David,"  issued on bowls made by the Imperial Glass Company of Bellaire, Ohio in the same year.
        
          "Star of David & Bows" is an odd name that conjures up images of Moses wandering in the desert with ribbons in his hair.  According to Carl O. Burns in Northwood Carnival Glass 1908-1925, Northwood rushed this pattern into iridescent carnival glass production in  1910-1911, by re-tooling old metal molds from Northwood's earlier 1906 Verre D'Or line -- a line of non-iridescent pressed glass with fired-on gold decorations.  If, with anachronistic gestures of religious tolerance in mind, you look at old Verre D'Or stars-and-bows pieces, one thing will jump out at you -- the original pattern  featured 8-pointed stars, not Stars of David.  (The old pattern is shown below, left, beside the carnival glass pattern.)  Apparently Northwood simplified the geometry to fit the Verre D'Or pattern to later carnival bowls, which makes the company's use of the six-pointed star look a little incidental:

Carl O. Burns in Northwood Carnival Glass, 1908-1925, notes that the older pattern "has a central design of two overlapping squares but it was otherwise virtually identical.  It was a simple job to re-tool the center portion into the Star of David, and a new pattern was born."  William Heacock, the author of Harry Northwood:  The Wheeling Years 1901-1925 (p. 38), wrote that the Verre D'Or star pattern originally appeared in  Northwood's 1906 catalog identified only by number.  Heacock's preferred name for the pattern was "Ribbons and Overlapping Squares".

          This makes the religious tribute look a little dubious:  like turning an X on its side, calling it a cross, and proclaiming it "a tribute to the Christian religion".  The name "Star of David and Bows" seems even more incidental if you consider the fact that in 1906, Northwood also produced a second Verre D'Or pattern bearing a 6-pointed star and bows:  This pattern too was identified only by number in old catalogs:

William Heacock called the pattern Ribbon Star and Bows.  According to Heacock, the name "Star of David and Bows" was invented not by Northwood; instead, the name was adopted later by two early chroniclers of carnival glass patterns:  Marion Hartung in her 1960-1973 Carnival Glass Series, and Rose Preznick in her 1964 publication Carnival and Iridescent Glass.  Thus, it's probably safe to say that Northwood never meant the pattern to be a tribute to any religion -- it was just a pretty design. 

          What about Imperial Glass, then, over there in Bellaire, Ohio?  What about those beautiful amethyst bowls with the giant Stars of David practically popping out of their centers?  When Imperial saw Northwood's Star of David pattern, Imperial rushed to imitate it (thus carrying on a long tradition of glassmakers copying one another's ideas as unabashedly as Time and Newsweek).  Is it possible that some slight tip of the hat to Judaism was involved?  According to British carnival glass authority, Raymond Notley, in his 1983 publication Carnival Glass, the answer is no.  Although the Star of David's association with Judaism was well established by the turn of the century, in the popular imagination of early 1900's Middle America, the symbol may have been more readily connected with freemasonry.  Notley reminds the reader of the many masonic items found in various patterns of carnival glass.  (Northwood's Knights Templar Mug is a well known example.)  He then explains that Imperial's Star of David bowl was "a masonic ladies' night gift and is not connected with Judaism."  Alas.

       Thanks to E-Bayer 5hills for the extraordinary photograph of the superb Imperial Star of David bowl, shown at the top of the page; and to E-Bayer daisychase (Karen M.)  for generously contributing her picture of the beautiful Imperial bowl above.  We're indebted to Isabel Flood for her black & white of an old Verre D'Or Stars and Bows pattern.  Please note: rights to these photos belong to the photographers, and  should not be used without the photographers' permission.  Text is  (c) 2007 Curculio's Glass, all rights reserved.  Additional examples of Northwood and Imperial Star of David bowls can be found at David Doty's website, at ddoty.com/stardavid.html  (Imperial's Star of David) and ddoty.com/stardavidbows.html  (Northwood's Star of David & Bows).   

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