Enriching the Human Spirit Through Pottery

 

QUESTION: A few years ago, I found several Pewabic ceramic tiles while browsing a local thrift shop. I’m not sure how old they are, but I suspect they’re newer ones, purchased as souvenirs of a visit to the Pewabic Pottery in Detroit. Since the tiles were very attractive, I bought them. However, I don’t know anything about Pewabic tiles. Recently, a friend told me they were by Pewabic. Can you please tell me more about the company? I’d like to buy more of these tiles and possibly start a collection.

ANSWER: Pewabic ceramic tiles have been a popular collectible for many years and are relatively easy to find. The pottery is still producing them, including special ceramic Christmas tree ornaments. 

In 1903, Mary Chase Perry Stratton, an artist and educator, and Horace J. Caulkins, a dental supplier and kiln manufacturer founded Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, Michigan, the same year that Henry Ford established his motor company in the city. Caulkins was considered a high-heat and kiln specialist, and developed the "Revelation kiln". Mary Chase Stratton was "the artistic and marketing force." The collaboration of the two and their blend of art and technology gave the pottery its distinctive qualities as Detroit's contribution to the International Arts and Crafts movement and exemplified the American  Craftsman Style. The pottery became a leader in the Arts & Crafts Movement for its handcrafted pottery and ceramic tiles.

The word Pewabic is derived from the Ojibwa (or Chippewa) word "wabic", which means metal, or "bewabic", which means iron or steel, and specifically referring to the "Pewabic" Upper Peninsula copper mine where Stratton walked with her father. Her workshop was an integral part of America’s Arts and Crafts movement, a backlash against mechanization that began in the late 19th century. In it she fashioned handmade, delicate wares, and was much like Henry Ford’s factory with its assembly-line production. 

Challenged by a friend to replicate a piece of shimmering Babylonian earthenware, Stratton decided to fire her pieces three times, adding a spray of kerosene for the final blast. The oil burst into flames, combusting with the metal oxides in the glaze to create a swirl of metallic colors. By 1909 she had perfected the iridescent glaze and the process of “fuming” that became the studio’s trademark.

The pottery started out in a carriage house in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood (pictured). Quickly outgrowing this “Stable Studio,” renowned architect William Buck Stratton was hired to design the pottery studio on Detroit's East Side, which is still in use today. Production moved into this building in 1907.

Demand for Pewabic grew thanks to our stunning iridescent glazes and inspiring architectural tile installations throughout southeast Michigan and across the country. Generations have been enriched by the Pewabic art and tile adorning homes, schools, churches, and public institutions, cementing Pewabic into the rich cultural fabric of Detroit.

Under Mary Stratton's artistic leadership, Pewabic Pottery employees created lamps, vessels, and architectural tiles. Architectural pieces have been a staple in Pewabic's history. They were known for their iridescent (like an oil slick with an incredible translucent quality and a phantasmagoric depth of color) glazes. Architectural tiles were used in churches, concert halls, fountains, libraries, museums, schools and public buildings. The studio's work graces numerous edifices throughout Michigan and the rest of the United States. Noteworthy examples include Herzstein Hall at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Illinois. 

Stratton  oversaw operation of the pottery until her death at the age of 94. She gifted the pottery to Michigan State University in 1965 which used it for its ceramics education program. 

Pewabic tiles have long been in great demand in Detroit and southeastern Michigan for  use in buildings, and they can be found in many of the area's finest structures. 

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The Unlucky Pottery

 

QUESTION: While out antiquing recently, I came across a beautiful hand-painted porcelain water pitcher decorated with bright red cherries at the back of a shelf. The price was $25, so I figured for that I could afford to buy it. It stands about 11 inches tall and has “BBC/CHINA” stamped on the bottom in black. I’ve never saw a mark like this before and the pitcher like a copy of more expensive Haviland china.

ANSWER: It seems that you’ve stumbled upon a rare piece of china made by the Bell Pottery Company of Findlay, Ohio. Due to a string of unlucky occurrences, the company  only produced fine china rivaling French Haviland and Limoges porcelain for five years, from 1901 to 1906, making pieces scarce. 

Located in northwestern Ohio, Findlay was better known for its glass. But at the end of the 19th century, the city basked in the glow of a natural gas boom. City fathers used the seemingly endless supply of natural gas to entice factory owners to build there. In 1888, they advertised for a high quality pottery factory to locate there. They offered free land, free natural gas and a$10,000 bonus as incentives.

Although he had no experience making pottery, William Bell, a glass jobber from  East Liverpool, Ohio, accepted the offer. He teamed up with his brother, Edwin Bell, and  Henry Flentke to build a pottery factory which they called Bell Brothers and Company Pottery. They had high hopes for their business, but problems plagued them from the beginning.

Even before they built their factory, the Bells had trouble convincing reluctant railroad officials to build a side track to the new facility. Once the track was approved, workers faced the difficult task of clearing land for the factory and constructing its four brick  buildings and six kilns. Finally, in August of 1889, all was ready and production began with 150 employees, including hand-decorators.

Bell Pottery fired its first wares in July 1889, and by the following month 150 workers kept the dinnerware, toilet ware and hotel china rolling out. By March 1890, the pottery was running night and day and unable to keep up with orders. The partners added three new kilns to increase production.

The first problem occurred in January, 1891, when all the employees went on strike when the owners tried to reduce wages. The city's rapid industrial growth had created a shortage of adult workers. In desperation, the pottery company's owners turned to orphanages, hiring girls as young as 14. By July, the Bells and Flentke settled the labor dispute and most of the old hands went back to work. 

By the following years, troubles of a different sort had begun to brew when the city's gas supply dwindled, forcing the Bells to pay $100 a month for gas. They also sued the city's gas trustees for not paying the promised $10,000 bonus. Because of the unreliable supply of gas, the company had to convert to coal in 1893 to keep the factory operating. Unfortunately, just when things seemed to be looking up, a severe storm ripped the roof off the decorating room and damaged six kilns, causing over $8,000 damage. In August 1893, the plant announced a partial shutdown due to a lack of orders.

In April 1894, the partners began to disagree and with the dissolution of the partnership, the court ordered the property to be sold. Flentke, then living in Evansville, Indiana, stopped the sale of the pottery. He resolved the differences between himself and the Bell brothers before the sale date, enabling the pottery to resume operations in August 1894, after a year of standing idle. But the peace lasted only two years, and in January of 1896, the court once again ordered the property sold for no less than $30,000. The  Bell brothers purchased the pottery for 36,450 and paid Flentke $7,295 for his share. 

In 1898, the Bell brothers incorporated the firm as the Bell Pottery Company.

In August 1899, Bell Pottery announced that it would begin producing hand-decorated white china, employing about 25 decorators. Common decorative motifs included currants, roses, blackberries, chestnuts and hops. Decorators painted portraits of people and still life pictures of flowers and fruit on pottery vases, tankards and other pieces. 

By December, they had spent $40,000 on repairs to three kilns and improvements including the installation of an oval dish jigger to enable the production of footed dishes for use as nut bowls or candy dishes. They also installed electricity for the first time. But the good times didn't last long. In April of 1900, fire destroyed the factory's south wing including the packing room, decorating room and offices. Two months later, lightning struck the factory, toppling both smokestacks for the decorating kilns.

Although insurance only partially covered their loss, the Bell brothers didn't give up. The following year, the Bells issued additional stock, intending double the pottery’s capacity, employing 400. Their intention was to produce fine china that rivaled Haviland.

They rebuilt the factory and revived their business again. In addition to their regular pottery products, they diversified into the manufacture of tubes used to run electrical wiring through brick walls. Things were going so well, they built another factory in Columbus. Tragically, about the same time the new plant opened in 1902, William Bell died unexpectedly following surgery. Edwin continued to run both factories.

Edward had grand plans for the Columbus operation. He planned on 17 buildings with 12 kilns, to be doubled as the need arose. Lack of equipment caused more delays. By November 1904, he announced that he would move the Findlay operation to Columbus. The new pottery produced wares for about a year but by September of 1906, it was in the hands of a receiver and closed for good.

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Affordable Italian Majolica

 

QUESTION: Recently, I’ve fallen in love with Italian majolica pottery. While some consider it garish, I find the colorful motifs uplifting. The prices I’ve seen for it online seem to be all over the place. But there are some lovely pieces available for around $50. Is this a good item to collect? The styles also seem quite varied. Can you tell me more about its history and about some of the styles?

ANSWER: Compared to English majolica, the Italian versions, for the most part, are still relatively low in price, so therefore, affordable. And as with any other antique or collectible, you should collect what you like, regardless of what other people think. Italian majolica of one sort or another is still being produced from Tuscany in the north to Sicily in the south. 

Even though the English Victorians displayed the bright colors and fanciful shapes of majolica pottery to give the appearance of wealth, no one made majolica like the Italians.  

So what exactly is majolica ware? Majolica is a soft and porous earthenware with molded designs that artists hand decorate in brilliant colors. It has a thick coat of clear metallic glaze made up of metallic oxides added to clear lead sulfates which produces its vivid colors.

This type of pottery originated over 2,000 years ago in North Africa, where potters introduced the technique of adding an opaque tin glaze to baked clay. During the 8th century, when the Moors joined together to conquer Spain, they brought the secrets of majolica with them.

During the Renaissance, Spaniards exported their version of tin-glazed pottery to Italy from Majorca, an island shipping port in the Mediterranean. The Italians called the colorful pottery “majolica,” as this was how they spelled the Spanish island's name.

From the late 13th century, potters in central Italy, especially in and around Florence, refined production of tin-glazed earthenware. But it wasn’t until the 15th-century that potters began to appreciate the full artistic potential of majolica. Famous 15th-century sculptor Luca della Robbia wanted to add color to his creations, and the new material was perfect. He and his family became renowned for creating large wreaths of naturalistic majolica fruit. The success of their wares encouraged the production of majolica in both Arezzo and Siena.

But by the second half of the 15th century, Florence had lost its pre-eminence as a center of majolica production, and its manufacture scattered out among small communes..

Potters from Montelupo set up the potteries at Cafaggiolo. In 1490, twenty-three master potters of Montelupo agreed to sell the year's production to Francesco Antinori of Florence. Montelupo provided the experienced potters who the Medici family set up in 1495 at the Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo.

In the 16th century, potters began to produce majolica at Castel Durante, Urbino, Gubbio, and Pesaro. The early 16th century witnessed the development of istoriato wares on which artists painted historical and mythical scenes in great detail. And by the end of the 16th century, potters in Venice, Padua, and Turin and as far south as  Palermo and Caltagirone in Sicily began producing majolica.

The variety of majolica styles that arose in the 16th century defies classification. Dozens of styles emerged with even more sub-groups, each with its own shapes and decorative motifs. Italian city states encouraged the pottery industry by offering tax relief, citizenship, monopoly rights, and protection from outside imports.

Cipriano Piccolpasso compiled an important mid-16th century document that discussed  the techniques of majolica painting. He noted the work of individual 16th-century masters like Nicola da Urbino, Francesco Xanto Avelli, Guido Durantino and Orazio Fontana of Urbino, Mastro Giorgio of Gubbio and Maestro Domenigo of Venice.

During the 18th century, majolica wares came under increasing competition from porcelain manufacturers. To  face this competition, majolica potters introduced the process of third firing, called  piccolo fuoco in the mid-18th century. After the traditional two firings at 1750°F, potters painted the vitrified glaze with colors that would have degraded at such high temperatures, then fired the pieces a third time at a lower temperature, about 1100 to 1200°F. Potters introduced new vibrant colors, particularly red and various shades of pink obtained from gold chloride. 

Historians believe that one of the first to introduce this technique in Italy was Ferretti in Lodi, in northern Italy. Lodi majolica had already reached high quality in the second quarter of the 18th century. With the introduction of the third firing technique and increasing interest in botany and scientific observation, potters developed a refined production of majolica decorated with naturalistic flowers.

The Ginori family founded a factory to produce majolica in Milan in 1735. The company's head chemist, Giusto Giusti, began experimenting with traditional majolica techniques in the 1840s, and the company began producing outstanding examples of Victorian majolica in the 1850s.

Ginori made monumental display vases and wall plaques to decorate the halls and stairwells of middle class Victorian homes. The company's 's specialty was its “grotesque” decoration. Taken from ancient Roman art, the bizarre creatures were a combination of animal, human and plant forms. Ginori was a very successful majolica producer and enjoyed royal patronage. Most majolica items made by the firm are marked with a crown above the word "GINORI. ".

Ulisse Cantagalli of Florence was another large producer of 19th-century Italian majolica. From the 1870s until 1901, Cantagalli produced a tremendous amount of majolica to be sold at moderate prices. A company catalog dated 1895 lists almost 1,100 majolica pieces. Catagalli's early wares were replicas of the reliefs by della Robbia. His luster glazes showed a strong Spanish-Moorish influence. The company’s pieces bear the mark "CANTAGAL FIRENCE" and an encircled rooster seal.

Production of Italian majolica wares continues today, mainly in reproductions of the historical style. Contemporary majolica looks different from old majolica because its glaze is usually made more opaque with cheaper zircon rather than tin. However, some potteries specialize in making authentic looking Renaissance-style pieces with genuine tin glaze.

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The Delight of Bristol Blue

 

QUESTION: I recently purchased a piece of what was described as “Bristol Blue” glass through an online antiques auction. I collect antique glass but this vase struck me as something unique. Although it looked like Victorian enameled glass, it resembled porcelain and the description said it was made in England in the late 18th century. I would really like to know more about this piece. I didn’t think glassmakers produced enameled glass that early Was it produced in Bristol, England, and thus the name, and who made it? And just how far back does Bristol Blue glass go?

ANSWER: Those are all very good questions. Let’s begin with the name. Even though this type of glass has Bristol in its name, glassmakers throughout most of England produced it. The blue in the name refers to the coloring used in the glass.

In the first half of the 18th century, near Redcliffel Backs, Temple Meads, Bedminster and other suburbs of Bristol, England, the squat chimneys of glasshouses and potteries silhouetted the landscape like giant beehives. But it was the age of porcelain, and anyone who could afford to buy it did so. Porcelain factories enjoyed the protection of kings, and European elite emptied their purses for priceless porcelain treasures. The arrival of an affordable substitute in decorated rnilch glass from Germany delighted Bristol glassmakers. For the first time, they had a perfect porcelain substitute  within their reach. 

The Venetians first made glass as an imitation of porcelain prior to 1500. Experts believe they used tin oxide as the agent to produce the white opacity in their glass. Eighteenth-century English white glass, called enamel glass in advertisements of the 1760s, was an intensely white, brittle material, generally a potash-lead mix, rendered opaque by the addition of lead arsenate. The porcelain-like, opaque glass  produced by the glassmakers of Bristol, was soft and smooth to the touch yet retained the fine heaviness of English crystal. It was an instant success, forcing the Bristol glassmen to borrow decorators from neigh-boring potteries to keep up with the public's demand.

England's glass excise tax of 1746 raised the duty on clear glass but didn’t tax opaque and colored glass because there was so little of it being made. This offered an excellent economic incentive for its increased production.

Chemists long knew that a powdered coloring could be premixed and supplied to glassmakers for addition to clear glass of their own making. But it was 18th-century German chemists from Saxony, who refined impure oxide of cobalt to produce a blue powder of unparalleled purity and uniform consistency. They exported their product, called “smalt,” to England, where a British merchant distributed it under the name "Bristol Blue."

The Bristol glassmakers quickly added the new deep-blue color to their already successful line of opaque white glass. Vigor & Stevens, of Thomas Street and Lazarus Jacobs, and later his son Isaac, of Temple Street, produced pieces primarily in deep Bristol Blue.

By the end of the 18th century the manufacture of blue glass became fairly common throughout England and continued to be marketed under the name of Bristol Blue. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to identify glass made in Bristol from a piece manufactured elsewhere. The original term “Bristol Blue" referred simply to the coloring agent sold to glassmakers rather than to their finished products.

The early shapes, manufactured around 1770, emulated Chinese and English porcelain—pear-shaped covered vases, trumpet-mouthed beakers, and cruets—all   produced in sets. Glassmakers also produced scent or smelling bottles and snuff boxes, often facet-cut, with enameling and gilding, in both white and blue glass.

Early Chinese porcelain painters greatly influenced the 18th-century Bristol designs. The Chinese artists working at the Imperial Porcelain Factory excelled in delicate miniature enameled decoration on their opaque white glass. They often employed motifs of figures, birds, and European flowers much admired by the Emperor Chi’en Lung, who ruled from 1736 to 1795. Since most English glasshouses made their opaque white glass in competition with porcelain, most used the same styles and even the same artists to decorate both.

Glass decorator Michael Edkins linked the white and blue glass under the mutual name of "Bristol." At first, he apprenticed to an enameling firm in Birmingham, England, but at the age of 20, he took up residence in Bristol and settled down to decorate pottery dishes and tiles. At that time, artists painted the pieces with pencils made of bristles from the noses and eyelids of oxen. Graduating to glass, Edkins began decorating "enamel and blue glassware." He worked both independently and for Isaac Jacobs, Little & Longman, and Williams, Dunbar & Company from 1782 onwards. Instead of using enamel paints that needed to be fired, Edkins used standard oil colors, or plain gold gilt motifs, applied with unfired varnish, which he called "cold" decoration. 

Generally, artists decorated Bristol Blue ware with unfired or lightly fired gold varnish. Cruets and decanters often sported the name of their contents as well as intricate garlands and wreaths of plain gold. 

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The Origin of American Studio Pottery

 

QUESTION: I’ve always loved handmade pottery. And looking back over history, it seems to have existed since ancient times. Recently, a friend told me that Charles Binns was the father of American studio pottery. Exactly what does that mean? Isn’t all handmade pottery made in a studio?

ANSWER: While pottery, itself, has existed for eons, what’s referred to as “studio pottery” is a relatively recent phenomenon, dating to the very late 19th century and early 20th. 

Although now nearly forgotten, Charles Fergus Binns, a studio potter and instructor, enjoyed a national reputation during the early years of the 20th century for his classic stoneware pots. Binns' made many of his legendary stoneware vases, bottles, bowls and jars during the height of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the U.S.

Born in England in 1857, Binns left school at age 14 to become an apprentice at the Royal Worcester Porcelain Works, where his father was a co-managing director. Eventually, he occupied an administrative position at the Royal Worcester factory and  became a recognized scholar and lecturer concerning world ceramics. In Paris, in 1878, he exhibited his early experiments with clay bodies and glazes. Binns accompanied the Royal Worcester exhibit of 1,400 pieces to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and made the United States his home in 1897. 

Binns's ceramic technique focused on his pots as utilitarian objects. His work included vases, urns, and bowls. He threw each piece in three forms on a wheel, turning them on a lathe and piecing them together afterwards. One of the concepts Binns taught was “dead ground,” in which the parts of making pottery that couldn’t be precisely controlled, such as firing temperature or glaze calculations, were mitigated by control over glaze placement.

In 1899, Binns helped found the American Ceramics Society. His role in this organization led to the directorship of the newly formed ceramics department of Alfred University, the first United States college to combine programs in ceramic art and science. In the years that followed, Binns shared once-secret clay recipes and glaze formulas with his students, including Arthur Eugene Baggs, William Victor Bragdon, R. Guy Cowan, Maija Grotell and Elizabeth Overbeck, who were largely responsible for fostering the idea of the artist-potter in America.  

Binns is commonly referred to as the "father of American studio ceramics." This title reflects not only his creation of unique stoneware pots in the Arts & Crafts style, but additionally acknowledges his accomplishment of bringing vital information about ceramic clay bodies and glaze recipes to ordinary people, thus laying the foundation of the flourishing studio ceramics movement in the United States that began in the early 1900's.

In 1900, New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the New York State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics—now the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Appointed as the founding director at that time, Binns held the position for over 30 years until his retirement in 1931, during which time he became known for his classic pots with rich monochrome glazes.

Before Binns' arrival at Alfred University, it was customary for one

person to throw art pottery on the wheel and another person to glaze or decorate surfaces mar reflected his respect for the natural materials he used. He admired Oriental forms and glazes. and sometimes signed his pieces by putting his initials, “CFB" inside a circle closely resembling Chinese marks. His signed pieces ;following Asian tradition, Include his initials along with the year in which he made them.

Binns' work was widely exhibited during his lifetime, including his earliest documented stoneware vase, signed and dated 1905, and his final creation, a fragile bisque vase that he

signed and dated 1934, which he left unglazed and unfired at the time of his death. A memorial exhibition Of Binns’ works drew admiring crowds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1935.

American studio ceramics really began with Charles Fergus Binns, who introduced the principles of chemistry and materials science into the ceramic arts. 

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Fall is Cranberry Season

QUESTION: Every year at Thanksgiving, I bring out a set of eight sparkling pink glasses that used to be belong to my great-grandmother. They seem so festive and add a holiday note to our dining table. Can you tell me anything about these glasses?

ANSWER: Your glasses are made of cranberry glass, a very special type of glass favored by Victorian hostesses, especially around the holidays. Not only is this glass appropriate for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but it’s also a popular collectible. In fact, some pieces are worth too much to be used for fear of breakage.

Although glassblowers had been making colored glass since ancient Egypt, it was Johann Kunckel, a 17th-century German chemist from Potsdam, who came up with the red color by adding gold chloride to the clear crystal. During the 19th century, English and American glassblowers experimented with adding less gold choride, resulting in a pink glass which the Americans called “cranberry.”

And thanks to the virtuosity of these glassblowers there seems to be an endless variety of shapes and patterns of this glass on the market. In addition to tumblers and water pitchers, there are salt cellars, sugar shakers, cruets, jars, jugs, decanters, celery vases and finger bowls. Among the widely used patterns are "Swirl," "Coin Dot," and "Daisy & Fern." Some of the most rare and expensive items found from this time period are beautiful lamps and other lighting fixtures.
         
As with any collectible, cranberry glass can also be an investment. Pieces that sold for less than ten dollars a generation ago are now worth hundreds of dollars. Because of the natural fragility of glass, antique cranberry glass has become relatively scarce, though it does turn up in thrift and antique shops,  flea markets, and auctions.         

Although cranberry glass had peaked in popularity by the end of the 19th century, manufacturers produced it in quantity through the 1930s. The last two companies to make this unique glass—The Pilgrim Glass Corporation and Fenton Art Glass —went out of business early this century. Pilgrim Glass Company produced beautiful blown cranberry glass ranging from various vases and baskets to candle holders and sold them in department stores and gift shops around the country until 2001. At the time if the company's closing, cranberry was its most popular type of glass. Fenton Art Glass marketed new cranberry glass, featuring opalescent decoration with coin dots, daisy patterns and numerous other styles, through retailers around the country until it closed in 2011.

Cranberry glass has always been made in craft production rather than in large quantities, due to the high cost of the gold and the delicate mixing process required. Glassmakers dissolve the gold chloride in a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, known as “aqua regia.” Gold in the batch reacts with intense heat to create the beautiful cranberry color. A glassworker called a “caser” attaches a “bud” of this glass mixture to a blowpipe. Then the glassblower stands on a platform with the mold below his feet and blows the molten glass into the mold to create the desired shape. Afterwards, another glassworker places the piece in a “lehr” or annealing oven where it slowly cools to room temperature. Most cranberry pieces are hand blown or molded and often contain small bubbles and striations.

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Mother Nature’s Gift to Glass

QUESTION: My mother loved decorative glassware. She died recently and left me her collection. While some pieces are older, most date from the 1950s and 1960s. I particularly like several vases that look like flowers. Do you know what they are called and tell me a little about their history?

ANSWER: Back in the 1950s and 1960s, many women collected decorative glassware. Most of the pieces came from Fenton Glassware, but several other manufacturers also made a wide assortment of vases, candy and butter dishes, ashtrays, and the like. Many of these feature hobnail decoration. The vases you’re asking about are known as Jack-in-the-Pulpit vases.

To glass lovers the name "Jack-in-the-Pulpit" has become synonymous with glass vases styled to imitate a wild flower. This flower is native to some parts of the United States, but this style of glassware originated in England, where no jack-in-the-pulpit flowers don’t grow. Most likely, this design came from the adaptation of a similar wildflower found in England known as Lords and Ladies.

Like the flower, a glass Jack-in-the-Pulpit vase consists of three parts, a base, a stem and the trumpet. The trumpet is the large flared top which gives the piece its style, much like the trumpet forms the flower on the plant. The stem connects that trumpet to the base, much like the stem connects the flower to its root. Trumpets vary in style, from flared, rounded trumpets, to those with pinched and twisted points in the front and the back. Some trumpets, particularly those by Fenton, have a raised back and dip downward in the front.

Some collectors believe Louis C. Tiffany created the first Jack-in-the-Pulpit vase around 1900. But that isn’t the case. The first known Jack-in-the-Pulpit vase appeared in 1854, a good 40 years before Tiffany’s vases. The style of the early English Jack-in-the-Pulpit vase even more closely resembles the flower. However, English glassmakers at the turn of the century didn’t name their pieces, unlike their American counterparts. Instead, they just gave them a pattern number.

English Jack-in-the-Pulpit vases came from a number of makers, including Thomas Webb & Sons, Richardson's, Webb-Corbett and Stuart, plus many small companies. Some smaller firms subcontracted work out to finishers, so it's possible that one firm decorated the blanks of another. British glassmakers did, however, blow most of their Jack-in-the-Pulpits.

Prices for British Jack-in the-Pulpit vases range from $75 for a piece which can’t be attributed to any particular manufacturer to several thousand dollars for a rare Webb or Stevens & Williams piece. Rare pieces can command $2,000 to $3,000. On average, British pieces go for about $175.

While decoration doesn't seem to have a effect on the price of unattributed British pieces, it does effect the prices of the higher-end ones. Size and the decorations, such as applied glass chainwork, vary. Companies produced vases in opalescent patterns such as spiral optic and   cranberry, and some come in the various colors like Beaded Melon.

Fenton’s Burmese vases are particularly popular with collectors. The company also made decorated Jack-in-the-Pulpits in other types of glass. Fenton decorated white and off-white, called cameo satin, blanks with scenes sell for around $75.

Other noteworthy American producers include Northwood/Dugan, Imperial, Westmoreland, Mount Washington and L.G. Wright. Northwood made jacks in various colors in Carnival glass, a short marigold version being the most common. But Northwood and Dugan also made them in opalescent glass. These generally sell for under $100 apiece.