Ruby Stain Newsletter

Volume 3, Issue 1

RIBBED DROPLET BAND
MFR: George Duncan & Sons and ? U.S. Glass
YOP: 12/1886. Discontinued by 1890.
NAME: Bill Heacock
OMN: Pattern No. 89
OTHER: Yellow Vintage, Frosted [Millard; Goblets II; Plate 57]; Droplet Band [Metz; Book One]
REF: Bredehoft, N. et al.: Early Duncan Glassware; 1987; p. 93. Heacock, W.: "Glass Mystery"; Glass Review; Vol. 9, No. 1; January 1979; p. 15.]

Heacock's 1979 book on U.S. Glass shows a catalog cut [apparently c. 1890, reprinted by G. Fogg, 1984, p.7] from George Duncan & Sons which includes the #89 tumbler but he apparently missed the connection. Sometime prior to 1981 he saw a circa 1887 Duncan catalog. His article in Old Pattern Glass According to Heacock at pp. 127 ff contains a number of page cuts from this catalog. None of the above references show the mug.

The mug is found in Mordock's book, Pattern Glass Mugs, at page 110. [The Glass Press, Inc.; 1995] It is named Zipper Band. There is no reference. So how does a pattern "discontinued" before the 1892 fire reappear in 1897?

We know from Fogg's catalog that the tumbler was still in production just prior to the fire. It is known that the 1892 molds were saved and moved to the adjacent Doyle factory. [Heacock, Book 7 at p. 12.] While not dispositive, additional evidence for the hypotheses that U.S. Glass revived the pattern as a mug by applying a stuck handle to the tumbler is supplied in the picture of the Ribbed Droplet Band and the Dakota mugs with identical white enamel decor.

We know from Fogg's catalog that the tumbler was still in production just prior to the fire. It is known that the 1892 molds were saved and moved to the adjacent Doyle factory. [Heacock, Book 7 at p. 12.] While not dispositive, additional evidence for the hypotheses that U.S. Glass revived the pattern as a mug by applying a stuck handle to the tumbler is supplied in the picture of the Ribbed Droplet Band and the Dakota mugs with identical white enamel decor.

DUNCAN's No. 2001
MFR: George Duncan's Sons & Co.
YOP: 1893 to
NAME: By mfg.
LOOK A LIKE: Lace Band, Imperial #4
REF: Kamm Book 7, p. 21, Plates 19 & 20

There is some inconsistency in the standard pressed glass reference books about where, when and by whom this pattern was made. The problems arise because Kamm dates Geo. Duncan's Sons & Co. catalog pages illustrating "No. 2001 WARE" as "dated 1891 or very soon thereafter." This impossibility is uncritically picked up by McCain, Revi, and Peterson who all refer to 1891 and Kamm. Gail Krause who certainly knew her Duncan states that "#2001 (Pittsburgh)" was "made by George Duncan & Sons about 1891..." [The Years of Duncan; Self published; 1980; pp. 79-80.] Krause uses the same pattern pieces shown in the Kamm catalog page cuts but has cut each form from the catalog page and rearranged the images around her text.

The first pattern made in Washington, Pennsylvania in February 1893 was #2000 or Flower Scroll. It is reasonable to conclude that the second pattern at Washington was #2001.

Some of the unique amber stained decoration on #2001, as well as Ribbed Droplet Band, Zipper Slash, Duncan #88 and Finecut and Six Panel will be discussed in a future issue of the newsletter.

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