Glass Forms

 

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Spill or Spooner

 

Please email me if you want a list of particular items, such as cake stands. 

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Pattern Glass Forms

These are the most common forms found in Early American Pattern Glass. Not all patterns had every form and some had other novelty items not listed here. Often companies sold a Table Set, consisting of a butter dish, creamer, sugar, and spooner as a unit. Some forms in a pattern are rare and much sought after.

Banana Stand

Beautiful Lady, c1890

Toward the end of the 19th century, advances in transportation and refrigeration led to a rapid expansion in the kinds of foods available to Americans throughout the country. Bananas became widely available in the 1880s, inspiring manufacturers of tableware to develop dishes specifically designed for the preparation and presentation of this strange new fruit. Whereas the exotic nature of some newly introduced foods inspired manufacturers to develop expensive and elaborate utensils for serving them, bananas also found their way into a broadly middle-class market. While the specific function of this banana bowl, or banana boat, reflects Victorian decorum and a desire to create well-ordered homes in which everything had its proper place (or, in this case, its proper dish), clearly this item was not destined for the home of a wealthy person. Made of inexpensive pressed glass to imitate the more expensive cut glass, such a bowl would have been well within the reach of the average consumer. The end of the 19th century also marked a rapid rise in the quantity of pressed glass available to American consumers as advances in factory production made pressed glass easier and cheaper to produce. (Strong Museum)

Bowl (flat & footed, various sizes)

Panama, 9", 1904, U.S. Glass

Butter Dish (with lid)

Barberry, McKee (and others) 1870

Butter Pat

New York Honeycomb, various manufacturers, c1860

Among the smallest pieces of EAPG, measures about 2.25" across. For serving individual portion of butter.

"Buttermilk Goblet"

Open Rose, unknown, c1880

A term used by collectors, but having no relationship to the actual use of the item identified as a "Buttermilk Goblet". These short stemmed. large bowl items are actually sugar bases, missing their original lid. Lids were of course a casualty early on , but the bases were still used and are more plentiful than the complete covered ones. This isn't to say that the bases might not have been used as drinking vessels, but this was not the manufactures intent. None of the existing manufacturers catalogs show such an item as a buttermilk goblet which looks like the sugar bases. However, if one wants to assemble a collection of these sugar bases and call them "buttermilk goblets", they are still beautiful!

Cake Plate

Flat plate with only a table ring on base, larger than a dinner plate. Sometimes called a "Torte Plate"

Cake Stand

Hand Stem cake stand, milk glass, Atterbury, c1880

Footed, high standard, flat top, usually having a rim or gallery to prevent frosting or glaze from running onto a table surface.

Celery Vase

Huber variation, various companies, 1850-1870

Rare and very expensive in 19th-century America, celery was considered a luxury food - something to be enjoyed only by the wealthy or those who aspired to high society. Like other luxury foods of the time, celery was presented at the dinner table in the finest silver or cut glass. At the height of celery's prominence in the late 19th century, hosts proudly displayed the noble vegetable in vases. This celery vase from around 1870 carried the look of expensive cut glass but was far less expensive, having been made of pressed glass before it was cut and engraved. As celery's cultural cachet declined, however, so did its relative prominence at the table. The tall-standing celery vases popular in the 1880s gave way to low celery dishes by 1890, when technological advances began to produce a new, easy-to-grow variety of celery. As celery plummeted from the heights of rarity and luxury, its stature literally fell. Virtually no celery vases remained by the turn of the 20th century. (Strong Museum)

Champagne

Larger than the 4" wine, a champagne is usually about 5" tall. 

Argus, c1860

 

 

Compote

open, high standard: Bellflower, flint, c1860, various companies

covered, low standard: Minerva, Sandwich, c1870

Both Open and Covered, having a stem or standard of varied heights, either low or high.

 

Cordial

A very small wine glass, about 3" tall.

 

 

Austrian, c1898

Cracker Jar

 

Broken Column, missing lid,

 

Creamer

Cut Log creamer, OMN "Ethol", Bryce Higbee, 1885.

 

Cruet

Georgia or Peacock Eye cruet, c1890.

 

 

 

 

Cup

Scroll with Star Cup & Saucer 1890, Challinor, Taylor

Usually meant to be part of a cup & saucer set, or a part of a punch set.

 

Decanter or Bottle

Honeycomb, bar lip, flint, various, c1850-1860

 

 

 

 

Egg Cup

Birch Leaf, flint milk glass, manufacturer unknown, c1870

approximately 3.5" tall

 

Goblet

Dakota, AKA "Baby Thumbprint" various, c1890

Tableware, measures approximately 6" high on stem.

 

 

 

Jam or Pickle Jar

Cylindrical base with overlapping lid. Sometimes found with metal frame

 

Cupid & Venus,c1880

 

Mug

 

Ribbed Ellipse, omn "Admiral", Bryce Higbee, 1905

Often feature patterns to appeal to children, but also used as shaving mugs, or drinking vessels

Pitcher (water & milk)

Dahlia water pitcher, Canton, 1885

Water pitcher holds approximately 1/2 gallon of liquid and the milk pitchers hold approximately 1 quart.

Cottage milk pitcher, amber, AKA "Dinner Bell", Adams, c1880

Plate (various sizes)

8", Good Luck, Adams, 1880

 

 

Platter (Bread Plate)

Constitution Hall,  1876.

Usually oval in shape, about 12" long.

 

Relish Dish (Pickle Dish)

Leaf & Dart, 7" oval, 1875 Richards & Hartley

 

Salt & Pepper Shaker

Kentucky, clear salt shaker, U.S. Glass 1890

 

 

 

Salt (Open or Master)

Tulip & Sawtooth, 1870, various.

 

 

Sauce (flat & footed)

Inverted Fern flat sauce dish, approximately 4" diameter, New England, c1860.

Sauce dishes vary in diameter from 3.5 to 5". They were used to serve desserts. Often sold with a matching large bowl.

Spillholder

Snowflake, opalescent flint, New England, c1840-50.

Sometimes sold with matching lamp, held wooden sticks or twisted paper for lighting lamps. Sometime recycled by owners into spoonholders when self-striking matches became common. Usually flint glass, short stem, heavy.

Spooner (Spoon Holder)

6.5" tall Blockade, Challinor, c1885

Part of the 4 piece table set for holding spoons at the table. Most patterns did not have as tall a stem, if any, as Blockade.

 

 

 

Sugar Bowl (Open or Covered)

Belmont, Belmont Glass, 1890

 

 

Sugar Shaker

Syrup

 

 

Holly, Sandwich, c1870

 

Toothpick Holder

Pinwheel, c1900

Late addition to EAPG, most are about 2-3" high.   Sometimes the toy tumblers are mistaken for toothpicks, or salt shakers have been ground down and renamed "toothpicks".

Tumbler (flat & footed)

flat Lens and Star aka Star and Oval, U.S. Glass, c1891

 

footed Leaf and Dart, Richards & Hartley, c1885

Vase

Waste Bowl

Part of a pitcher set. See "Water Tray"

Two Panel, 1880, Richards & Hartley

 

Water Tray

Large, flat tray with rim for use with a pitcher, goblets or tumblers, and perhaps a waste bowl. Finecut & Panel , Bryce, c1880, blue water set, tray, pitcher, 2 goblets, waste bowl

Wine

Small, about 4" tall, for sweet wines or cordials.

Rose Sprig, Campbell, 1886

 

 

Phyllis Petcoff

This page last modified on 07/17/2008