Tales from the Mad Hatter Part V Grape Arbor

By Kate Levelle

Welcome once again to our seemingly never-ending tea party, where we shall continue with our visits on hat vases. We’re taking a brief detour from the Fenton hat vases to honor one of Northwood’s most popular examples, the wonderful Grape Arbor ruffled hat or tumbler whimsey. This has always been one of my very favorite hat vase varieties.

These, like many hat vases, originated from the tumbler mold. It’s likely they were actually a line item, maybe not a whimsey in the true sense of the word. Regardless, they’re quite coveted by hat vase connoisseurs, fairly available and definitely desirable in all of the four acknowledged colors. This is one of Northwood’s best-done designs, featuring grapes and their accompanying foliage growing upon a lattice structure, a sister pattern you might say to the beautiful Wisteria tumbler by Northwood. Grapes were a very frequent subject in this period’s glassware, featured on patterns from all of the major manufacturers in many ways from powder jars to chop plates.

Collecting the four known colors of Grape Arbor tumbler whimseys can take patience as none of them are dead common to come upon. The marigold and cobalt blue examples are perhaps the easiest to obtain. The white, when found, is usually delightful, featuring a fine multicolored stretch pastel iridescent effect. The ice green is assuredly going to take some more time to find, they’re definitely scarce. It took me a few years and a lot of patience to finally add a nice one to my collection. It was well worth waiting for. These are found in similar quality to the white, again usually with a fine pastel iridescence.

The more common colors found in Grape Arbor are blue, left, and marigold, right. But just look at the richness of color.

Keep in mind that Northwood made the standard Grape Arbor tumbler in other colors than the four afore-­‐ mentioned shades. They were made in amethyst, ice blue, celeste blue, sapphire blue, smoke, lavender, aqua, and pearlized custard. There are nutmeg stained custard glass hat vases, however these are not iridized. Before someone says, “Off with her head!” I would not be too surprised to find that a whimsey or two may be out there in some of these additional colors. I’ve learned to never say never in carnival glass.

Grape Arbor hat vases represented above include the white and coveted ice green.

The Mad Hatter’s tales will continue in our next issue as we feature more of those wonderful candy, treat, and tidbit holders, the handsome, yet humble, hat vase. In closing, we hope that Lewis Carroll fans were able to watch the 1933 cinema classic, Alice in Wonderland on January 7th when it was on Turner Classic Movies. Where else can you see W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty? The cast is pure old Hollywood, Gary Cooper as the White Knight, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle and dear old Edward Everett Horton plays the Mad Hatter. His version is scads different from Johnny Depp’s 2010 take on this character! To see the trailer from this fantastic 1933 film click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOsHs4UY_MQ Remember folks, it’s always teatime in Wonderland, and we’re all hoping to see you here again soon!

Photos courtesy of Kate Lavelle.

 This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the March 2016 issue and is reprinted with permission.