WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Sandwich Glass: A Technical Book for Collectors cover

Sandwich Glass: A Technical Book for Collectors

Chapter 24: THE DOLPHIN GROUP
By Lenore Wheeler Williams
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

ArtHistory - Modern (1750+)How To ...

About This Book

A practical handbook for collectors that surveys the development, production, and varieties of early American pressed flint glass made in New England factories. It combines a history of local glassmakers and works with technical explanations of materials, molds, pressing methods, and the distinctions between early hand-blown and later pressed commercial wares. The author catalogs representative forms such as cup plates, salts, candlesticks, lamps, and flatware, describes colors, molds, and identifying marks, and cautions against later mass-produced imitations. Numbered illustrations and a collector’s data section support identification and recordkeeping for the serious student of early American glass.

THE DOLPHIN GROUP

The Dolphin Candlesticks are found in seven distinct types. The single base usually has two scars near the hollow base of the Dolphin showing the earliest form of ejection from the mold, a kind of modified pontil. The single base Dolphins while not as delicate in modelling and design are decidedly earlier and much rarer than the double base. The head of the Dolphin is hollow for a greater distance than in the double base sticks showing that these earlier forms were blown into the molds before the stamp machine was in common use. There is also a sunken bobash of glass not found in the double base types.

Type 6 and 7 is mentioned by the author with reluctance as it is of Victorian origin. The little pentagonal base stick type 5 is dainty and well molded but the bell shaped Dolphin is ornate and of less value to collectors. The dishes on Dolphin standards with opalescent edges are of this period also and mentioned only to make this work complete.

Type 1. single base 1840

  • a. Clear white.
  • b. Vaselene yellow slightly cloudy—rare.
  • c. Opalescent.

Type 2. single base embossed 1845

  • a. Clear white ornamented with small Dolphins and shells in relief.

Type 3. double base 1850

  • a. Clear White.
  • b. Opalescent white.
  • c. Opalescent blue top opalescent white Dolphin base.
  • d. Clear blue.
  • e. Clear green very rare.
  • f. Clear purple very rare.
  • g. Vaselene yellow.
  • h. Opaque blue.

Type 4. round base 1859

  • a. Clear white.
  • b. Clear white with heart in tail of Dolphin.

Type 5. Pentagon base small stick.

  • a. White.
  • b. Yellow.
  • c. Blue.

Type 6. Bell shaped base small Dolphin ornamented with shells. 1860

  • a. Clear white with opalescent top.
  • b. Blue green with opalescent top.
  • c. Vaselene yellow with opalescent top.

Type 7. Milk white opaque glass measurement eight inch small Dolphin on round base with 16 scallops. 1875

Illustration 8 page 68 is a very remarkable clear white Dolphin dish on standard. It measures 9 by 10½ inches. There is a full size Dolphin, early type, with hollow head supporting a balanced shell. The piece is unique.

Illustration No. 9 page 70 is so far as the author knows, the only lamp which has been found with a single Dolphin base. It is of clear white glass and is a beautiful piece.

A—Lamp supported by three Dolphins—late.

Illustration 10 page 68 is one of the later Dolphin dishes referred to at the head of this group.

Plate XIX