S-Repeat
By Dr. Larry Keig
Exquisitely designed, S-Repeat is a heavily embossed, strikingly bold Dugan pattern. Its principal elements are elaborately flourished, scrunched together S’s and stippled filler figures which resemble triangles and crescents. In carnival, it is seen on the exterior not only of shapes that bear the S-Repeat designation but also on Constellation compotes where it is commonly called Seafoam.
S-Repeat was introduced well before the carnival era, when the Indiana, Pennsylvania, plant was owned by the National Glass Company (1900–1903). At the time, the pattern was so closely linked to the firm’s identity that the design itself came to be known as National.
National was manufactured in many shapes, including five sets – berry, punch, table, water, and wine – and plenty of others. It was produced in non-‐iridescent lavender, ice green, and crystal and perhaps in other colors, most somehow decorated.
S-Repeat – Plain
Few of the early shapes are available in iridescent glass. The only full set to be carried over into carnival is the punch set, and it is this that garners the lion’s share of attention.
Punch Set
A complete S-Repeat punch set – bowl, base, and multiple cups – in purple is a celebrated top-of-the-line item. The hulking bowl and base are impressive in both size and pattern definition.
The stunning S-Repeat punch set featured in the above photo is from Jackie Poucher’s collection. Photo courtesy of Jackie Poucher.
The sensational set featured here is Jackie Poucher’s. It had been Steve Davis’s for a long time before he sold it some years back to Randy and Jackie Poucher. (Its route to Steve’s collection, and then Jackie’s, is a fascinating story but too complicated for me to chronicle here.) The bowl, with spectacular electric iridescence, has a top diameter of slightly over 13 inches and a base diameter of four inches, and it stands about seven inches tall. Sixteen S’s, artfully aligned with the scallops above them, revolve around the expanse. Impressed into the base of the bowl is an ornamental many-rayed star.
The hefty four-inch tall base, also with 16 S’s encircling its mass, has a top diameter of five inches, a fit diameter of four and three-eighth inches, and a base diameter of nearly eight inches. Just above the scalloped base are 40 pronounced beads. Connecting the pattern-defining elements and the beading is a protruding support beam.
Punch cups have 12 S’s extending around the exterior, and they have a multi-rayed star pressed into the underside. The top diameter is two and seven-eighth inches; the base diameter, one and seven-eighth inches.
According to Carl O. Burns (Dugan & Diamond Carnival Glass, p. 131), a punch bowl is known in iridized crystal. No matching base or cups have been reported.
Fruit Bowl
Well, maybe. Punch bases show up much, much more often than punch bowls. The generally accepted explanation for the disparity in availability is that the vessel has been more susceptible to breakage than the standard. Yes, to a point, that is no doubt the case. But somehow that explanation seems to me too facile to account for the discrepancy. Thus, I wonder if the base, turned upside down with its scallops upright, may have been made and marketed as fruit bowl as well as punch base. Or perhaps there were problems producing the bowls, and the orphaned bases were offered to wholesalers at a discount.
Creamer
The amethyst creamer is a whimsied punch cup, but it is not a whimsey. Instead, it is a line-item derivative. Line-item derivatives, produced in numbers too large to qualify as whimseys but too small to be thought of as full-fledged line items, are entities that were configured from conventional shapes into something out of the ordinary. In this instance, punch cups have been transformed into oddly shaped creamers with spout crudely pulled from the area opposite the handle. For whatever reason, it is difficult to find these with anything but average iridescence, just as it is punch cups. Not surprisingly, this creamer is neither part of a breakfast set nor of a table set, as there are no known sugar bowls, spoon holders, or butter dishes of comparable dimensions. An ice green creamer, with flashed iridescence and gold decoration, is also known.
Tumbler
S-Repeat tumblers are among Dugan’s most collectible. Reported only in marigold with satin finish, they are somewhat smaller than the typical tumbler: three and seven-eighth inches tall, three and one-eighth inches across the top, and two and three-eighth inches in base diameter. Eight S’s cover about four-fifths of the exterior, and a 24-point star is embedded into the undersurface. A few of these are monogramed, presumably with the initials of the original buyer or giftee.
While there is no longer much doubt that S-Repeat tumblers were made in classic carnival, they have also been reproduced. Some of the reproductions are signed-in-script “Terry Crider” on the bottom. The surface of the Crider tumblers is shiny, differentiating it from that of the old. Other repros, according to John Britt (HOACGA Bulletin, May 1987), are pontil-marked but maker-unmarked Hansen.
Table Set Sugar and Spooner
In 1999 Carl Burns reported (Dugan & Diamond Carnival Glass, p. 131) the existence of an amethyst S-Repeat carnival covered sugar bowl. This year an iridized amethyst (or lavender) spoon holder, with electric blue S’s and gold trim elsewhere, surfaced on eBay. It elicited little attention for it was listed as and looked like a toothpick holder. It sold to the only bidder at the modest opening price. Because both the sugar and the spooner were likely produced from National molds, it is possible the creamer and covered butter are also out there somewhere.*
Toothpick Holder
There are those who insist that classic toothpick holders were made in amethyst. This may be true. But it is also a fact that St. Clair and Summit produced contemporary versions. So let would-be buyers beware the “old.” (A Summit toothpick holder is illustrated in the Thistlewoods’ Century of Carnival Glass, p. 230.)
Constellation-Seafoam
The six-ruffled Constellation compote, with S-Repeat (or Seafoam) on its underbelly, was made from National’s National jelly compote mold. The Constellation interior came about by way of a new plunger.
Constellation is a star-and-beads pattern to which stippling was added ostensibly to pick up iridescence. The design occupies the innermost surface. Twelve compacted S’s, tops grossly disfigured due to the ruffling, make up the underside.
Constellation compotes range from four and three-fourth to five inches tall and from five to five and three-fourth inches in top diameter, variability dependent on degree of flare. Compotes with the narrower flare show up more regularly than the broader. The foot is two and three-fourth inches in diameter.
This amethyst Constellation compote shows off the interior pattern to its best advantage. Photo courtesy of Remmen Auctions.
They are known in at least five colors: marigold, amethyst, lavender, white, and white with marigold stem. The white surface quite often. The marigold rank next on the availability scale. Then come the amethyst and the lavender, the former found more frequently than the latter.
The white with marigold stem, a curiosity because nobody has been able to explain just how this odd color combination came into being, may be a one- of‐a-kind. Interestingly, this anomaly is sometimes referred to as a “color whimsey.” While there are claims Constellation compotes come in peach opal, I have yet to confirm them.
Desirability
The punch bowl is by far the most desirable S-Repeat. The tumbler is also popular. But other pieces, not so much. Some Constellation compotes are more favored than others. Why are some shapes and colors more eagerly sought than others?
Desirability is a complex phenomenon. It includes rarity, but that is only one relevant factor. It also includes elegance, ingeniousness or uniqueness of design, quality of color (base or surface, iridescence, and, where applicable, opalescence), range of colors available (sometimes the greater the range, the more desirable the shape), and size and shape (the very large and very small or the unusual often more commended than the conventional). The “common wisdom” of a collector oligarchy – the “snob factor,” a murky and dubitable criterion – often enters in as well.
S-Repeat punch sets are in great demand because the pattern, set in extraordinarily high relief on bowls and bases, is so intrinsically appealing and because they are hard to come by. Even when the iridescence is underwhelming, they bring high prices at nationally advertised auctions. In color, they range from the resplendence of Jackie Poucher’s to a dull brownish gold.
Illustrated widely in books and online, the only one that rivals Jackie’s is pictured in the earlier of two HOACGA Carnival Glass Patterns notebook segments on punch sets.**
As previously noted, it is nearly impossible to find punch cups and their derivative creamers with vibrant color. There must not have been much attention paid in the good old days to producing cups and creamers with blazing iridescence.
Consequently, these hardly ever change hands with great fanfare.
While the surface color of marigold tumblers is usually light, the iridescence is sometimes good enough to compensate for the otherwise vapid appearance. These tumblers are tough to track down so, regardless of color quality, they generally bring strong prices at major public and online auctions.
Constellation compotes vary tremendously in quality of base or surface color and iridescence. Frosty white with shimmering pastels are available, but most are essentially lusterless. The marigold are difficult to find with anything but washed‐out surface color and lackluster iridescence. As a result, neither the white nor the marigold brings much money. The best bet for brilliance is the amethyst, where the radiant and the prosaic bookend all sorts in between.
S-Repeat is an elegant pattern. But its name isn’t. I wish it had instead been called Serpentine, a title more befitting a Dugan jewel.
I could not have written this article without Jackie Poucher’s and Steve Davis’s help. Their enthusiasm sustained my interest as I worked on the piece. I thank them.
Notes
*The spooner is four and one-fourth inches tall. Both top and base are three and one-fourth inches in diameter and scalloped. The top edge is serrated. A National advertisement with three of the table set pieces is illustrated in Heacock, Measell, and Wiggins, p. 41.
**It is illuminating to compare the color of the different S-Repeat punch sets illustrated in books and on websites. For readers who are into that sort of thing, I recommend checking out the following.
- Carl O. Burns. Dugan & Diamond Carnival Glass, p.131.
- Carnival Glass 101 website. Access Punch Sets – Part 5 or S-Repeat via the alphabetical listing. (This looks like a catalog print that has been color enhanced.)
- David Doty’s Carnival Glass Website. Access S-Repeat.
- Bill Edwards. Northwood: King of Carnival Glass, p.117.
- Bill Edwards and Mike Carwile. Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 7th ed.,p.326. (See also other editions.)
- Sherman Hand. Collector’s Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, p. 13.
- William Heacock, James Measell, and Barry Wiggins. Dugan/Diamond, p. 100, No. 490.
- Heart of America Carnival Glass Association. HOACGA Carnival Glass Patterns notebook. (HOACGA published earlier and later segments on punch sets. The S-Repeat sets in the two are different.)
- Don Moore. “A Salute to Dugan-Diamond.” Carnival Pump, December 1989. Accessible online at the ICGA website, under Educational Articles.
- Thistlewoods’ Century of Carnival Glass, p. 230.
This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the December 2013 issue and is reprinted with permission.