Dugan Maple Leaf Table Set —-Blue by Dave Noyes
For quite some time, I have wanted a Dugan Maple Leaf table set in blue, a quite scarce set in a very scarce color. Why? Growing up in Vermont, Maple Leaf has significant meaning to me because it reminds me of my childhood days growing up around my grandparent’s farm. The ritual every Spring was to tap the Maple trees, gather the sap and boil it down to make “Vermont Gold”, the famous Vermont Maple Syrup. To this day, I will not eat pancakes or French toast without “the real stuff” from Vermont!! Very good on vanilla ice cream as well!!!
Dugan made a limited amount of blue base glass in any pattern, especially table sets. They made table sets in Circle Scroll, Dahlia, Maple Leaf, Stork & Rushes and Wreathed Cherry, but none had any blue pieces other than Maple Leaf to my knowledge. In the Maple Leaf pattern, fewer than 15 sales are recorded in HOC or Doty’s websites for either complete table sets or individual table set pieces in blue dating back to 2001.
In 2017 while at the infamous Lloyd Ward auction a blue butter dish base came up for auction and I said there’s a place to start, but will I ever find a matching lid?? After almost 4 years of searching, I had come up empty!!
Come March of 2021, a blue complete butter dish appeared in a Sheffield auction, I had to have it, and yes, I came away with it without having to break the bank. Another one would show up in August 2021 at a Burns auction, but I already had mine.
Fast forward to November 2021 and another Sheffield auction and a blue creamer appeared!!! Yes, I had to have it, and yes, I came away with it. After 4 plus years, I was halfway there, having a complete butter dish and a creamer. Will I ever find the covered sugar bowl?? There are no recorded sales of just covered sugar bowls in blue in either Doty’s or HOC, and only 4 sales for full table sets that included the scarce covered sugar bowl and one sale for a table set with a sugar bowl without a lid!!!!!!!!!
Fast forward to December 2021, somewhere around the 15th, as I scanned eBay one morning, to my complete surprise there is a new 7-day listing for the covered sugar bowl, the spooner and the creamer all in one auction from a seller in California!!!!!!!!!!! Holy crap, I have found the holy grail of blue Maple Leaf!! I have to have these items. I anxiously wrote to the seller asking if he would convert the listing to a “Buy it Now” auction for his opening bid price. No dice on that one, he wanted the auction to play out!! Over the next few days, the “watchers” mounted on the listing, but no bids. The day before the auction was to end, I decided to open the bidding. Over the next 24 hours or so, a couple more watchers, but no other bidders. The auction would be ending at 9:01 PM on 12/23. As the evening wore on, no other bidders, but plenty of watchers!!! Will I win? Will I be beat out by a last-minute bidder?? I better protect myself from that, so I submitted another “max” bid amount hoping a “sniper” would not top it. To my complete surprise, the auction ended, I was the only bidder and won the 3 items for the opening bid amount, a modest one given the scarcity of the items, especially the sugar bowl. The items arrived 6 days later, are gorgeous and I now have my long-awaited complete table set in blue!!!!!!!!!! Do I use the creamer to hold maple syrup the next time I have French toast?? I think NOT!!!
