Stretch Bath and Vanity Items-Part 2
Cal here with part 2 of the discussion of Bath and Vanity items for this week’s Stretch Tuesday. A few weeks ago I started sharing information on this category of stretch glass items. We looked at colognes and bath jars. Tonight we will look at powder puffs, bath salt jars and the trays which were made to hold all of these items. Like colognes and bath jars, powder puffs and dresser trays were produced by Fenton in Celeste Blue, Florentine Green, Grecian Gold, Persian Pearl, Tangerine, Topaz, Velva Rose and Wistaria (Fenton’s spelling). Maybe one of our readers has one of these items in another color; if so, we would certainly like to know about it. Acquiring all of the bath items in all of the colors is going to take some time and, based on what we know today, is actually not entirely possible because many of these items are not known to exist in certain colors – again, if you have something unusual in this category, please share a pic of it.
Powder jars or “puff boxes” were available in a range of sizes and shapes and colors. Again, I will rely on photos to tell the story. It is doubtful that anyone at the time would have had all of these at the same time (nor would they have had all of the colognes at once). Some powder jars obviously “go with” certain colognes while others might be thought of as “open stock” so that the purchaser could mix and match one or more powder jars with one or more pairs of colognes. Today we often find “topless” powder jars being sold as small bowls or comports. Some of them do look like small cupped bowls or comports, but they are not; they are powder jars without lids. One puff box gets special mention: the Fenton one which is a low, mold-blown item. The cover is loose-fitting (and often missing) from this item. If you see one and are wondering if the cover actually goes with it, taking a look at this photo will hopefully help.
Another puff box to be aware of is this one – this may be the only one known in stretch glass – unless, of course, one of our readers has a second one.
Bath salts jars are only known in one size and shape. They are approximately 3” wide, 4” high and have a pagoda top stopper, rather than a cover or finial stopper. I believe they also only have one style stopper, the pagoda top. Bath salts jars are not found often, so be on the lookout in case you see one in an unsuspecting location.
Dresser trays were made to go with the colognes and powder jars. Like the bottles, colognes and powder jars, the trays were not reshaped and the iridescence can be quite light and sometimes shiny. Dresser trays also exist without any iridescence, so look carefully to see if you have one with light iridescence or no iridescence at all. I only have dresser trays in Celeste Blue, Florentine Green and Velva Rose, but it would be logical for them to have been made in the other colors in which colognes were made.
Putting a complete ‘set’ of stretch glass bath and vanity items together is quite a project. I’ve only been able to do it in Celeste Blue. If you have a collection of these, please send in a photo so we can all see what you have been able to find.