Fenton Open Edge Basket Part VII Tales from the Mad Hatter
By Kate Lavelle
Greetings hat fanciers and welcome to yet another installment of the Mad Hatter series. I recently had the great pleasure of attending the 2016 ICGA convention in the delightful Amish town of Shipshewana, Indiana. It was very nice to meet several new attendees there at Lane Booker’s daily tea parties in the hospitality room. I was delighted to be told how much they have been enjoying this series. I also received a lot of positive feedback from old friends. I thank you all very much for your kind comments and hope that you continue to enjoy the rest of the series. So, sit ye down on this soft, comfy chair, let the Hatter pour your fine self a cuppa Barry’s Irish tea and then we’ll commence with the storytelling. One lump or two?
I must admit that I have had several requests from collectors for Fenton’s Open Edge Baskets, also known as Open Edge Basketweave, to be included in this series. I’ve been a long time fan of the pattern myself; it was one of the three initial patterns that Bill gave me that Christmas all those years ago. But, in my dazed and confused mind, I didn’t really consider them to be actual hat vases. The pattern title states “basket,” it’s got a pseudo-woven, basketweave exterior, therefore they must be baskets. If it looks like a duck, etc. However, too many folks that I respect disagreed with that ideology, therefore the Mad Hatter was wrong; in error, mistaken, and my apology is offered here. They’re definitely hats, deserve inclusion here, and so on with the show.
Fenton produced Open Edge Baskets for a long range of time. Advertisements for them as “nut bowls” and “basket bonbons” have been found as early as 1911. It is important to acknowledge that this pattern has also been found in plate form. This article covers the small two row pieces; three row and Blackberry Open Edge varieties will be covered separately.
From top right clockwise: sapphire, ice green, blue, lime green, and lavender.
These captivating little gems are so diverse in color and form that they make excellent treasures for collectors to hunt down. Be forewarned, although they may appear innocent, you’ll likely discover that they’re quite like potato chips, you can’t have just one. This is one of those excellent Fenton patterns that could easily cause a collection of them to become quite enormous. Star Trek fans may recall a 1967 episode called “The Trouble with Tribbles.” The Tribbles, although very cute and beloved by earthlings, multiplied like rabbits. Open Edge Baskets can be very similar. They’re cute; they’re small and cause collectors to desire to acquire several pieces. It remains unknown to this day if Klingons find Open Edge Baskets as annoying as they do Tribbles.
When it comes to Open Edge Baskets, collectors will discover a veritable rainbow of colors available to them. There may very well be additional rare colors, but a fairly comprehensive list of the colors reported would include amber, amberina, amethyst, aqua, black amethyst, celeste blue, cobalt blue, emerald green, green, horehound, ice blue, ice green, lavender, lime green, marigold, olive green, pink, powder blue, purple, red, red slag, Renninger blue, reverse amberina, reverse amberina opal, sapphire blue, smoke, teal blue, vaseline (both yellow or green tinged), violet slag, and white.
Imagine the fun of collecting one of each color and in each of the forms! With approximately thirty colors and five forms available a complete collection could amount to over one hundred fifty pieces! What a thought, “Hey Bill, where’s the checkbook?”! Say, what a great future ICGA display room pattern this could be, especially if you added the three row, Blackberry Open Edge and the rare plates and vases. Think of the visual that would make!
Ice green and vaseline examples will glow green under UV light, and as you can see, amberina glows as well. Featured here is an example of an amberina JIP with light showing through it so that you can see the yellow base and the same piece under UV light. Cadmium sulphide and selenium cause the pinkish orange glow. This piece is kind of fun as the red did strike a tiny bit in the middle of the base, but not very much!
Notice this amberina basket on the left and the same basket, right, under black light, that glows on the base.
These delightful pieces come in several interesting forms. Keep in mind that the base size on all of these small ones is one and seven‐eighths inches. The most commonly found shape would be the classic six ruffles, which can be deep with sides as high as two and seven-eighths inches or even more or low and shallow with a height of only two and three‐eighths inches or less. Diameters can be as small as five inches or as large as five and three‐fourths inches or more. This variation within a form can be seen in the side and bird’s eye view photos of the sapphire and pink ruffled versions. The sapphire is deep at five inches in diameter and two and seven‐eighths inches in height, whereas the pink is wider and shallower at five and three-fourths inches in diameter and two and three-eighths inches in height.
Above are the pink and sapphire blue ruffled hats shown from the side and looking down into the interior. Note that the pink piece is wider and the sapphire hat is taller. This shows that the finisher cannot make any quite identical.
Another coveted and popular shape is the JIP or jack-in-the-pulpit. These can be found with a low, somewhat curved downwards interior and a high, pulled up posterior which is often pulled slightly forward in the center. There’s a great deal of variety in this shape as well. These, like all the Open Edge Baskets, were formed by hand; therefore, no two are shaped exactly alike. The JIP can be found to be as tall as three inches in height at the back or as low as two and one-half inches or slightly less. The front area near the surface can be as high as one inch or almost touching at a low one‐fourths inches. With variations like this, widths can vary from a narrow five and three‐fourths inches to six and one-fourth inches or more. Several of these variations can be seen in the photo of the sapphire and marigold JIPs. The sapphire is a very low one-fourth inch in front, is curled under there and has a fairly straight up posterior without a central pinch causing it to stand two and seven‐eighths inches in height. The marigold is one inch from the surface in front and stands only two and three-fourths inches in height with a deeply pinched center.
These jack‐in-the-pulpit shaped hats are marigold and sapphire.
The two sides up or banana dish is seen less often. These pieces vary in height at the pulled up sides, from two and one‐half inches to over three inches. The low sides vary from close to an inch to two inches. Lengths are near six inches; widths can vary a great deal too with the pinched center edges usually three to four inches apart. There are exceptions that are spread wider.
This powder blue example features the two sides up shape.
The square or four sides up examples are less commonly found. In general, these can measure about three inches in height and six inches or more in width. ICS bowls are most unusual with diameters of five to six inches and heights less than two inches. The rarest form of all seems to be those with flared sides.
An example of the square shaped Open Edge basket hat is shown in red.
Fenton made Open Edge hats as advertising souvenirs for three separate furniture companies. As far as I know, all of these are in marigold in the two sides up form with the company name on the interior bottom. More easily found are the John H. Brand Co. Furniture Wilmington, DEL and the Miller’s Furniture, 7 N. Market, Harrisburg, PA examples. The rarest to find is the Feldman Brothers Furniture, Salisbury, MD. None of these should break the bank as prices are all well under $100. For that matter, most Open Edge Baskets can be found for that price, with the exception of the rarer colors and shapes where prices can and do skyrocket.
An example of the Open Edge basket hat being used for advertising is shown above advertising Miller’s Furniture.
There are a few rarities within the pattern worth mentioning that are featured on David Doty’s Carnival Glass website; pictures of all of these can be seen at http://www.ddoty.com/openedge.html . A ruffled ice blue example with gold trim sold in 1994 for $500, a red rose bowl sold in 2014 for $400 and flared‐sided marigold pieces have sold in 2006 for $100 and in 2011 for $360.
There are a few manufacturing flaws that collectors should be aware of in this pattern, one of which is incomplete openings in the lace‐like edge as pictured here. Other faults or flaws are interior cracks or heat checks within the webbing surrounding the openings. Like many things in life, it’s sad, but it happens.
There are some manufacturing flaws, like on this piece above, that really add to the charm of Open Edge pieces. The glass was probably still molten when this piece was removed from the mold, and the glass flowed into the holes. These would be considered seconds in the world of manufacturing today.
I have to give a special Mad Hatter “hats off” to a fellow hat vase collector! Although there are certainly several folks with massive collections of these little gems, this article would not be complete without acknowledging a truly dedicated Open Edge Basket collector. In the December 2012 issue of the ICGA Carnival Pump there was an article written by a lady named Nancy Gilliland. She told us the story of how her fascination with hat vases and Open Edge Baskets began and where it has taken her. At the time of her article, she had 124 Open Edge Baskets. I can’t help but wonder how many she has now. Who says they’re not addictive? Way to go Nancy
Although not a hat, this ice cream shape bowl was made from the same mold as the hats.
As with most hat vases, Open Edge Baskets love to be filled with your favorite goodies during tea parties. I don’t know how many of you good folks saw the recent Tim Burton movie Alice Through the Looking Glass. I will say this; it sure doesn’t follow the book. As expected, Johnny Depp’s role was vastly expanded and changed from Lewis Carroll’s original story. But, just for grins, I thought I’d feature a link to a short interview with Mr. Depp about the Mad Hatter that includes some interesting factoids about the character. Some may already know this, but just in case you have ever wondered what caused the Hatter to be considered mad, the answer lies within. Was he angry, simply goofy or what? Enjoy it at www.youtube.com/watch? v=48CzYuYZO5Y . Remember it’s always teatime in Wonderland, so keep those teacups and hat vases filled with tantalizing delights!
Photos courtesy of Kate Lavelle.
This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the September 2016 issue and is reprinted with permission.