Enameled Chrysanthemum
By Lee Markley
This decoration appears on two styles of pitchers. One is the cannonball type, and the other is the Zig Zag blank with the raised band. The section on enameled water pitchers in the HOACGA Pattern Notebook shows three cannonball pitchers and tumblers with variations of the enameling and lists them with an unknown maker.
The pitcher in the photograph has two mold lines and is similar to Cherry Blossoms made by Fenton. The bulbous Fenton decorated pitchers tend to have just the two mold lines while the Northwood ones are likely to have four. Along with the similar decorations on the Zig Zag pitcher, it would tend to support a Fenton attribution. A detailed article by the Thistlewoods in The Carnival Pump, June 1993, entitled “Life’s a Bowl of Cherries,” provides information on how to tell the difference between the Northwood and Fenton Enameled Cherry patterns that can be extrapolated to the other cannonball decorated sets by either Northwood or Fenton.
The pitcher above is the cannonball pitcher that features the Chrysanthemum enameled pattern.
The cannonball pitcher has a top diameter of five inches and a clear applied handle. The base is four inches. At the shoulder, the pitcher stands nine and a half inches tall. The enameling appears only on one side. Above the neck ring is a chrysanthemum bud which has a leaf cluster above it and a smaller one at the bottom, just above the ring. On the body of the pitcher is a single open chrysanthemum flower. It has a leaf stem on each side of the top. At the bottom are two buds and leaves which extend in opposite directions. The buds and flowers are pinkish red. The leaves are dark and light green shaded with pinkish white.
The tumbler that goes with the bulbous pitcher tapers from top to bottom and has a smooth interior. The top diameter is three inches and the bottom two. The ground base is plain. There are no visible mold lines. The decoration appears only on one side. It consists of a bud placed on a horizontal stem with leaves on either end. The bud is pink and white. The leaves are green shaded with light green and pink.
The pitcher above features the Enameled Chrysanthemum pattern on the Zig Zag blank. As you see, the tumblers match the pitcher because they feature the band pattern near the top.
The photo on the left shows the tumbler that matches the bulbous pitcher, and the tumbler on the right is the Zig Zag Enameled Chrysanthemum match.
The cannonball set is listed only in marigold. The Zig Zag banded set also comes in blue. A blue seven-piece Zig Zag set brought $300 at a 2001 auction. No complete cannonball sets are listed. The marigold tumblers run about $30. For a size description see the article on Zig Zag pitchers that appears in an earlier pitcher article in The Carnival Pump.
Sources: Carwile, Mike. Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass. 12th Ed; Doty, Dave. A Field Guide to Carnival Glass; Heacock, William. Fenton Glass: The First Twenty-‐Five Years; Harry Northwood: The Wheeling Years, 1901–1923; Mordini, Tom and Sharon. Auction Price Reports, 1986–2011; Thistlewood, Stephen and Glen. Life’s a Bowl of Cherries, The Carnival Pump, June 1993 Carnival Glass: The Magic and the Mystery; Whitley, Cecil. The World of Enameled Carnival Glass Tumblers.
Photos courtesy of Seeck Auctions
This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the March 2015 issue and is reprinted with permission.