Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume III, issue number 30

This ezine is published once a week.

August 9, 2007 Volume III, Issue 30

‘EAPG – simply Early American Pattern Glass, Part Two‘

by Elaine Henderson, PatternGlass.com

We have a guest columnist this week. I am glad to welcome back Elaine Henderson of PatternGlass.com, a friend and expert who has consulted on my books. She will be sharing her expertise in Early American Pattern Glass with us again this week. It is a great article. If you missed part one, you will find it here.

-Lynn

Typical Forms of EAPG

The Basic set of EAPG dishes is the “Four Piece Table set.” Every pattern (almost) that was made in more than one form, came in a Table Set. This is a specific term that includes a covered butter dish, a covered sugar bowl, a creamer and a spooner. A what? A spooner – also called a spoon holder or even a spill. It holds spoons and sits on the table or cabinet top so if someone wants a spoon, it’s handy. They are so useful, we wonder why they are not still made.

Shown is Blue w/ gold decor table set in Seed Pod pattern.

After the Table Set, a pattern would probably include a “Celery Vase.” Actually almost every pattern line of any consequence included one of these containers – shaped like a vase and purported to be used to hold, of all things, celery!! Now it is almost for certain that Victorians ate more potatoes or tomatoes than celery, but there were not potato dishes or tomato vases. So this is a mystery the answer to which we can only conjecture.

Next in common production is probably the “Berry Set” (Victorians were big on Sets). A “Berry Set” consists of a Master Berry Bowl – usually around 7-8″ in diameter – and 4-8 smaller matching berry bowls or “sauce dishes” – usually 3 1/2″ – 5″ in diameter. Some of these were flat and some were footed e.g. on a short pedestal like what we commonly think of as sherbet dishes. Where the term got the word “berry” is interesting because berries were certainly not available in quantities large enough to fill those bowls by most Victorian age housewives who used this glass.

Then comes the “Water Set.” This can also vary, depending on the pattern and the glassmaker, from a pitcher & 2-6 tumblers; or a pitcher and 2-6 stemmed goblets; or a pitcher and tumblers or goblets and a water tray; or a pitcher, some drinking vessels, a tray and a waste bowl!

Far & away, patterned sets of dishes are the main focus of EAPG collectors but there are some exceptions to even that! Many, many patterns were made in only one form, the main category being goblets or other drinking vessels. Then there are oil lamps, novelty items and condiment containers that held syrup, salt & pepper, vinegar or mustard.

A few sets of children’s or toy dishes were made to match their kitchen-sized pattern lines. Hawaiian Lei, Two Band, Lion Head, Liberty Bell and Sawtooth come to mind.

Shown is a table set in Toy Lion pattern.

Bread plates, which were made in most patterns, but also in some stand-alone designs, are popular EAPG collectibles and they also make unusual gifts. Many of them had embossed mottos on the center or edge such as “A Good Mother Makes a Happy Home”, “It is Pleasant to Labor For Those You Love” and several Bible verses, most often, “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.”

There are also some amazingly fun glass pieces made for sundry purposes such as holding toothpicks, matches, cards, condiments and such, that don’t necessarily match a pattern but are irresistible to “old glass” folks.

As you know by now, EAPG is known by many terms, and the confusion is multiplied by the fact that almost all of the patterns are known by more than one name and some are known by as many as 7 names! This is because patterns were named by writers such as Ruth Webb Lee or Minnie Watson Kamm in the 1930s. Over the ensuing years, records and old catalogs have been discovered giving the OMN (Original Manufacturers Name) but in many instances, it was too late. Collectors had already become familiar with and attached to the names given by writers, each of who sometimes gave different names to the same pattern! And then, to make matters more confusing, the pattern variations had different names from different factories. Since the trademark was not yet discovered, if one factory had success selling a pattern, another would change a mold slightly & reissue its pattern under another name. Fortunately by now, some common names of most patterns have risen to the top and seem to be settled for most pattern glass folks.

What most resources and references about EAPG don’t tell you is that this glass was the dishes of the “everyday (Victorian era) Housewife.” Wealthy people supped from fine china & blown glass drinking vessels brought across the sea from The Continent. Before American industry introduced this inexpensively made glass commodity, folks of slim means were mostly fed from metal or wooden plates and drank from primitive cups. One reason it was so inexpensive is that it was often made without the benefit of what we now call “Quality Control.” And so, many pieces exhibit what many now erroneously call “straw marks” (for clarification on this inaccuracy, visit this page), and/or rough spots from imperfect molds, and/or the ubiquitous enclosed or even burst bubbles and/or tilty or twisty pieces which ‘set up’ askance after having been removed from the mold a little early.

A pet peeve of sellers of EAPG is the collector who insists on what they call “mint” pieces of EAPG. Certainly few are satisfied with cracks or chips or UV caused discoloration, nor should they be, but the above-mentioned irregularities are part of the character of our 100+-year-old historical glass. Coins are ‘minted’. Pressed glass is irregularly molded and the term ‘mint’ is inappropriate for it.

So we hope you will begin to love EAPG & have a little more appreciation for its historical integrity and try and imagine the life situation of the first owners of each piece as they struggled through the terrible War that divided our Country, Reconstruction as we put ourselves back together, the incredible Westward expansion causing some pieces to be carted in covered wagons, the Great Depression of the 1890s and the industrialization that emerged as we burst into the 20th century.

However you can obtain it, whether by inheritance from your great, great grandparents or by purchasing pieces that belonged to someone else’s great, great grandparents, use it, enjoy it and let it keep you in touch with your American Foremothers in days long gone by.

Much, much more can be learned about EAPG here.

Thanks, Elaine. That was a great lesson on EAPG. Elaine & Bill Henderson are the proprietors of PatternGlass.com, the only known pattern-matching service exclusively for Early American Pattern Glass (EAPG) tableware ca 1850-1910.

Happy eBaying,

Lynn

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