Dear Helaine and Joe: I am sending pictures of a pitcher that was given to me by a neighbor in 1950. She was 78 and said she got it from her mother. There are no markings and I would like to know the monetary value. — A.W.D., Lake Angelus, Mich.
Dear A.W.D.: It is possible to imagine that this pitcher is very old — especially when you start adding up ages and subtracting them from dates. Unfortunately, this seldom works with any accuracy.
When this particular pitcher came into the possession of A.W.D., it was less than 30 years old, which means that it is not even Victorian. To be sure, it is a style of pitcher that is very similar to some made in the late 19th century, but the shape and the blue handle on this piece strongly suggest that it is a product of the famous Fenton Art Glass Company of Williamstown, W.V.
Fenton went into business in Martins Ferry, Ohio, in 1905. But in January 1907, a new facility was opened down and across the Ohio River in Williamstown, where the company remains to this day. It is famous for the vast array of Carnival glass it has made over the years, but it made a very wide variety of other glass as well.
Among its products was opalescent glass, which was made by adding bone ash to a glass batch to create milky-white areas that were usually used as decorations or highlights on clear or colored transparent glass. Sometimes this opalescence was used to accent rims and raised designs, but other times it was used to create a design such as swirls, snowflakes, diamond-shaped latticework and round "thumbprints" that are generally called "coin dots" or "coin spots."
Opalescent glass originated in England in the 1870s (one source says the 1880s, but the discrepancy is not worth worrying about), and was commonly made in this country well into the middle years of the 20th century. A rather large number of companies made opalescent glass, and Fenton made it rather early in its history.
Sources seem to indicate that opalescent edging was used at Fenton as early as 1908, and by 1910 it was making water sets (e.g., pitchers and glasses) in patterns called "Buttons and Braids." As best we can determine from the photographs, the distinctive blue handle, the shape of the ice lip and the way the bottom is made all mark this pitcher as being a Fenton opalescent product from the late 1920s or even 1930s.
This pitcher was intended to be used as an iced-tea pitcher, and originally was part of a set that included glasses. The pattern is usually called "Late Coinspot," and this pitcher is a very attractive piece of glass that is very collectible today.
On the current market, the insurance replacement value on this Fenton opalescent coinspot pitcher is between $300 and $375.
Helaine Fendelman is feature editor at Country Living magazine and Joe Rosson writes about antiques at The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee. Questions can by mailed to them at P.O. Box 12208, Knoxville, TN 37912-0208.