|
Adams & Company, A Closer Look,
by Jane Shadel Spillman, From: The Glass Club
Bulletin 1990/91
---------------------------------------------------------------
| had seen a footed salver
with hollow stem and silver plated bail handle at an antique shop in
this pattern. Not many pieces in this pattern have been published,
so it is difficult to make any sort of assessment of the
attribution. However, any pattern which incorporates hollow
stem salvers and compotes "suitable for interior
ornamentation" might be tentatively identified as Adams or
Ripley, since both companies had patents on this process. The
salver shown in Fig. 12 has "an oval and circular rim
ingeniously combined" and a stem with an enclosed flower and
seems to me to be a possibility for the "No. 120" pattern,
although I haven't seen other pieces of this pattern
illustrated. I have also seen a compote in the "Lacy
Valance", "Center Medallion" or "Persian
Shawl" pattern with an enclosed flower in the stem and think
that might possibly be an Adams pattern. (Note
added by Becky Lyle, Feb. 4, 2001: The "Center Medallion"
pattern is now known to be the "Jersey Lily Ware" pattern
by Riverside Glass Works, circa 1883. An original 1883 factory
catalog for Riverside surfaced in July 2000. Riverside's
"Jersey Lily Ware" was named after the
internationally famous Scottish/English actress "Lillie
Langtry". For more information on this pattern go to this
web site: CLICK
HERE) |
Eason Eige has already attributed the "Minerva" pattern
(Fig. 13) to Adams on the basis of a "Minerva" patterned
lamp base found with a font used with "Thousand-Eye"
lamps.12 A confirmation of
this may be found in the 7" plate with a portrait of John Adams
(Fig. 14), which has the rim found on the "Minerva-Mars"
pieces. The gentleman on the plate has previously been
identified as Jefferson Davis and as Gen. Bates, but a comparison with
the portrait of Adams shown in Lee's Victorian Glass, Pl. 99,
show a marked resemblance. Adams died in the fall of 1886, and
the company probably distributed the plates as memorials. As
in the "Opera" patter, the pickle dishes in the
"Minerva-Mars" are inscribed "Love's Request is
Pickles", a sentiment not found on other patterns. |
|
