Stippled Flower Lettered and Decorated Batavia Fair Souvenir Bowl

By Dr. Larry Keig

Stippled Flower is anything but an illustrious Dugan pattern. However, when floral decoration and souvenir lettering have been added, these bowls become historically significant and more desirable.

Neither Dugan nor Diamond produced carnival with molded lettering other than Brooklyn Bridge bowls. But both firms added floral or other decoration and/or hand-written inscriptions to a good many patterns and shapes post-production. The addition of scripting and floral adornment may have made possible a sale to a merchant, purchasing agent, or vendor who might not otherwise have placed an order, and decoration usually enhanced the appearance of Plain Jane patterns not possible in other ways.

Souvenirs were made with the names of small towns and villages, many of which are no longer on the map or sparsely inhabited, and for more heavily populated and prosperous communities in the U.S. and Canada. How these were marketed and to whom is, for the most part, unknown. Some were likely wholesaled to “live and dimes” and then sold to locals and visitors. Others may have been distributed as premiums or giveaways.

A precious few souvenirs were commissioned by business and industry and for special events. These include a smalltown commercial enterprise, a regional metal casting manufacturer, organizers or vendors of an annual event in the little town where the glass was produced, and promoters of another similar yearly event likely some distance from the glass factory.

Non-Lettered Stippled Flower Bowls

The focal point of the interior of Stippled Flower bowls is the stylized “flower,” in reality more ornamental than botanical, placed dead center in the area above the platform base. Thirty-two concave Smooth Rays, the other pattern element, radiate outward and cover most of the remaining surface except for the plain outermost half-inch. The exterior is patternless and uniridized.

These bowls measure around seven and one-half inches in diameter. Most are six- or eight-ruffled but some are tri-corner. They are available in peach opal and amethyst/ purple. The peach opal are plentiful, the amethyst rare. There are probably hundreds of peach opal for every amethyst. Iridescent quality is highly variable on both colors. Some are bright and colorful, others dull and lackluster. Prices vary accordingly.

Many of the peach opal are hand-decorated with flowers and leaves. The most common flowers seen are violets and lily-of-the-valley. The decoration is placed mostly around the outer edge.

Dugan’s trade name for peach opal with decoration was “Parisian Art.” The treatment was introduced in glass industry catalogs around 1910. The floral and leaf enameling was applied by factory craftspeople using either their lingers or brushes. Thus, each piece is unique, however slightly.

The Decorated and Lettered “Batavia Fair 1911” Stippled Flower Souvenir Bowl

The lettered Stippled Flower bowl is the second decorated Batavia Fair carnival item to have surfaced recently. It sold at a Burns auction in August 2022. It was made by Dugan, dated 1911. The other was produced by Diamond for the 1921 fair. Both also include the first names of their original owners.

The Stippled Flower souvenir is a peach opal bowl with white lettering which reads “Batavia Fair 1911.” Also scripted in white is the name “Alida,” presumably the name of the woman or girl who took it home the day she attended the event.

The painted flowers appear to be snap- dragons. They are definitely not lily-of- the-valley or violets, the flowers usually found on Dugan’s enameled pieces. The snaps are mostly white but also include some pastel tinting. At this writing, this particular floral treatment appears to be unique in the decorated carnival marketed by Dugan and Diamond.

The occasion for which the bowl was made was most likely the Genesee County fair in Batavia, a community in upstate New York not far from Buffalo and Rochester. However, this is not a firmly established fact. It is also possible that it may have instead been produced for a yet-to-be-identified “Batavia Fair” somewhere else.

The two glass companies must have had a long permanent or on-and-off relationship with the Batavia Fair board or a vendor there. The Stippled Flower bowl, dated midway through the Dugan years, is the earlier of the two. The other, a lettered and decorated Optic vase, is an early 1920s piece. One has to wonder, and suspect, other Batavia Fair iridized items were produced and sold or given away between the dates currently known or later in the Diamond years. It’s possible Dugan or Diamond also produced non-iridized glass souvenirs. Readers who know of any are asked to report them.

Previously Described Dugan and Diamond/or Decorated and Lettered Souvenirs

The most historically notable of the souvenirs are those for a main street shopkeeper in a college town in picturesque northeast Iowa, for a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, metal casting firm, for the Indiana, Pennsylvania, county fair, and the aforementioned Batavia Fair. Those listed below are representative but probably not inclusive.

Batavia Fair Vase. The first reported Batavia Fair item was a Diamond Glass Company product on which decoration and souvenir lettering are painted on a marigold Optic vase. The decoration is a beautifully enameled pink long stem rose covering most of the front side. The historically significant inscription, centered bloom right, reads “Batavia Fair 1921.” Its lettering is positioned vertically from bottom to top. The identities of the giver (“Mother”) and recipient (“Hazel”) have also been painted on, above and to the right of the open flower. An article on this vase appeared in the December 2021 issue (pp.16-18) of The Carnival Pump. The first reported, it was listed and sold on eBay in summer 2021.

Ben Bear. The retailer was Ben Bear, owner-operator of a clothing store in Decorah, Iowa, which bore his name. The souvenir is a marigold JIP hat shaped from a Floral and Grape tumbler. It was made by Dugan, circa 1910-1912. Its story is chronicled in an article on Floral and Grape in the September 2018 issue (pp. 10-15) of The Carnival Pump.*

Indiana Foundry Co. The amethyst Lattice and Points vases with Daisy interior and “Compliments Indiana Foundry Co.” inscription were also made by Dugan. With artfully applied lettering that runs from bottom to top, they were, until recently, the only known carnival souvenir on which the scripting was placed in this manner. A detailed account of the Foundry vases was reported in the September 2021 issue (pp. 6-8) of The Carnival Pump.**

Indiana Fair. The Indiana Fair souvenirs were made to commemorate the county fair in Indiana, Pennsylvania. They were produced by Diamond in several carnival and stretch patterns, shapes, and colors. The earliest known of these were made for the 1921 event, the last apparently for the 1927 expo. Reports on several of these were presented in the September 2019 issue (pp.14-17) of The Carnival Pump.*** The story of another, the Lakecefa vase, was told in the June 2022 issue (pp. 8-9) of The Carnival Pump****.

Notes

*,**,***,****These articles are available for free at the International Carnival Glass website. When there, click on “Articles” and scroll down to those written by the author.

Photos courtesy HOC and the editor.

This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the March 2023 issue and is reprinted with permission.