Dugan or Diamond Vintage Condiment Jar

By Dr. Larry Keig

While traveling in the United Kingdom in the fall of 2018, Galen and Kathi Johnson visited Pam Mills in Wales. There Pam showed them a curious marriage of a carnival glass powder jar base and metal lid she had found in Surrey, England. The fact is, she had two identical jars and lids, suggesting they were likely sold that way, not somehow cobbled together at some later date. The jar was American-made Dugan-Diamond Vintage; the lid country and manufacturer uncertain. Because the lid has a cut-out for something or other, likely a serving spoon or fork, it probably once contained a condiment or topping of some sort. Pam has suggested jelly or jam.

Besides the unusual combination of glass and metal parts, the base color of the jar is, in this pattern, previously unreported pastel blue with marigold overlay. Marigold over whatever base (colors marketed in the late Diamond years as After Glow pink and green and also in not officially marketed marigold over lavender and light blue) had short production runs. In noting the late origin of the color combination, the jars were likely exported to the British Isles in the late ‘20s or no later than 1931 when the plant closed. (Pastel blue with marigold overlay has also been reported on Diamond’s Band hats.)

It’s quite likely the lids were made in the U.K, not exported with the jar. Their undersides are marked -EPNS+. EPNS stands for electroplated nickel silver, a coating usually found on inexpensive side pieces and tableware. Because the silver coating is thin, the lid has to be lightly washed, not scrubbed so as not to scratch the surface.

It may be helpful to mention again that Vintage powder jars and condiment containers are Dugan-Diamond, not Northwood as once ascribed. The jars made at Indiana, Pennsylvania, have a row of beads encircling an area below the grapes and leaves. Northwood’s Grape powder jars have a cable encompassing an area above the plant life. Vintage jars are maker-unmarked.  Grape and Cable powder jars are usually, if not always, Northwood- marked.

An article on other shapes made in Dugan and Diamond Vintage appeared in the March 2019 issue of The Carnival Pump. My thanks to Greg Dilian who saw the condiment container at this year’s Tampa Bay convention and called my attention to it, to Galen and Kathi who soon thereafter generously directed it my way and to Pam Mills and the Johnsons for the photos.

Photos courtesy of Pam Mills and Galen and Kathi Johnson.

This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the June 2019 issue and is reprinted with permission.