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Four Flowers Variant
By Glen and Steve
Thistlewood
With thanks to all the wwwcga members who helped
"Variety’s the
very spice of life
That gives it all its flavour"
William Cowper (1731-1800) British poet
The FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT is a mystery. Who on earth
made it and when? The manufacture of Dugan/Diamond’s
FOUR FLOWERS pattern is documented, as is the manufacture
of the Scandinavian versions of the FOUR FLOWERS (also
known as OHLSON) by Eda in Sweden and Riihimaki in
Finland. But the VARIANT remains shrouded in mist so let’s
take a look at the facts.
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Here's an unusual color for the FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT - a true amber. The item shown is the regular sized, ruffled bowl and this example has a plain exterior. |
Dugan/Diamond’s FOUR FLOWERS (also known as PODS
AND POSIES) was introduced around 1911 and is
known in both large and small, plates and bowls. The most
often seen colors are purple, peach opal and marigold.
The Scandinavian versions of the pattern are virtually
identical to the Dugan ones; they are known in the large,
ruffled bowl shape only and are found in blue, marigold
and pale lavender.
The FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT however, is a different
"kettle of fish" altogether!
The VARIANT can be easily differentiated from the
regular version of the FOUR FLOWERS by the fact that
lying between the tusk-shaped, stippled pods is a
stylized flower bud. So on the regular versions of FOUR
FLOWERS there are four flowers and four sets of pods
– on the VARIANT there are four flowers, four sets
of pods and four flower buds.
FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT is known in both ruffled and ice
cream shaped bowls as well as plates, in two sizes. The
exterior usually has a THUMBPRINT pattern, though it can
also be found with a plain exterior. Always present,
however, is the characteristic ground base, which may
exhibit small chips. These tiny chips are a feature of
the method of manufacture, for these items were "stuck-up"
not "snapped-up" – (see wwwcga Educational
articles for an explanation of the process).
In November 1999 a survey was taken via the internet.
Members of wwwcga were asked to send the details of their
FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT items to us. As usual, there was a
great response and we were able to form quite a clear
picture of availability and (of especial interest) the
location of the examples. 43 FFVs were reported on; the
following is a summary of what the results showed.
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A regular sized plate in a delicious shade of turquoise/teal. The exterior is plain. |
SHAPE
Is it a bowl or is it a plate? Well, the responses
indicated that there was an almost equal split between
the two – half were bowls and half were plates. That’s
pretty unusual if you stop and think about it. There aren’t
too many other Carnival patterns that are available as
easily in the plate shape as in the bowl shape. Of the
bowls, almost all of them were ruffled with just a
handful (less than 10%) being the ice cream shaped
version.
SIZE
The regular sized items (approx.9 inch bowls and
plates) overwhelmingly dominated with three each of the
large chop plates and bowls (approx. 11 inches) being
recorded. One smaller bowl was also recorded, but as this
is very special, we’ll leave it till the end
of the article.
COLOR
The responses covered the entire range of known colors
for this pattern: shades of purple, shades of green,
amber and even yellow were all noted. It’s important
to mention the astonishing range of variations in the
purples and greens. From delicate lavender tones right up
to dense, deep purple, fiery amethyst and black amethyst,
in fact the whole range of purple/amethyst shades. Green
also varied quite astonishingly. There was a kind of ice
green with a frosty look as well as olive green, teal,
emerald and even a dark, olive green slag! Then there was
yellow and amber, plus one described as yellow-amber.
Fascinating. It was also interesting to note that the
range of colors was only found in the regular sized bowls
and plates: all the large chop plates and bowls were
purple.
The color that was found most often was green (in its
many shades) followed closely by purple (again in its
many shades). Within the greens, a mid-shade is most
common: "hard-to-find" green shades are frosty
pastel green, emerald green, olive slag and teal/turquoise.
Within the purples, again a mid-shade is most common:
"hard-to-find" shades are the extremes - dense
black amethyst and delicate lavender. Amber and yellow
were not easily found at all.
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A knock-out iridescence on this green plate! |
EXTERIOR PATTERN
The THUMBRINT exterior was found on three quarters of
the examples, the remainder had the plain, smooth
exterior. All the large chop plates and bowls had the
THUMBPRINT exterior. The base on all was ground and
almost all examples had some chipping due to grinding (count
yourself lucky if you have one without the usual grinding
chips!) There is a star in the center of the ground base.
LOCATION
Now it gets really interesting (and we have to confess,
this was one of the reasons why we wanted to do the
survey on an international basis). Just over half of all
the examples were found in the United Kingdom. That is
even more interesting when you realise that the whole of
wwwcga was asked to respond, so it actually looks like
this – about 4% of the members (those based in the
UK) have found over half of the FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT
pieces.
THE FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT HYBRID
This is the special one we left till last. Maureen
Davies wrote in from Wales to tell us of a fascinating
hybrid example that she has. Here are the details.
This is a 7 ½ inch ruffled bowl in a dark teal green,
the finish and iridescence are good in parts, not so good
in others, in fact it almost has a frosty or cloudy look.
The pattern goes almost up to the very edge of the bowl.
The pods on the pattern have no stippling at all,
similarly the flower heads (which are stippled on the
regular FFV) are not stippled. Further, just to
complete the puzzle, there are no buds between the
pods! Of course, the ‘buds twixt the pods’
are the feature that makes the FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT
…well, the VARIANT! Without the buds, it’s
simply the FOUR FLOWERS. Or is it? Well, no it’s not,
because Maureen’s bowl has the typical ground base
and center star of the FFV.
So, was this a prototype? A fore-runner, maybe –
or simply a hybrid variation?
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An unusual shade that is hard to capture with a digital camera - this is the yellow FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT ruffled bowl. |
CONCLUSIONS
Many contributors noted the odd quality of the glass – full of tiny
bubbles and frequently containing "dirty" streaks. There was poor
quality control in this factory, that’s for sure. Other contributors
remarked on the quality of the iridescence which can vary from the very
best, "knock your socks off" incredible, electric iridescence that takes
your breath away …… to a rather ho-hum, "take it or leave it" finish.
Consistency was not a characteristic of the manufacturer of this
pattern! Some examples of the FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT can simply leave you
gasping with their astonishingly beautiful, vibrant color and stunning
lustre while others are not nearly so good. One thing is for sure – the
FOUR FLOWERS VARIANT is never boring.
So, who made it?
You tell me.
Acknowledgements:
Sincere thanks to all who helped in this survey:
Maureen Davies, Joan and Warren Place, Jeri Sue, John
Nielsen, Dick in WA, Gloria & Douglass, Premo, Martin
& Jan Hamilton, Tom Little, Dick & Sherry, Dave
& Amy Ayers, Fiona Melville, Ian & Barbara
Williams, Connie O’Connor, Marv Loughmiller, Jim
Nicholls, Rita Glennon, Carl & Eunice Booker, John
Hodgson & Frances Duthie, Sue & Ray McLaren, Dave
Cotton, Chuck Kremer and Ann & Dave Brown. Thank you
all for your great contributions – we couldn’t
have written this without you.
Copyright www.cga, inc. All Rights
Reserved. |
