Manhattan pattern

EAPG historian Paul Kirk identified this flip with its bull's-eye design as being the Manhattan pattern, made by United States Glass Company. He said, "Most sources date it to 1902 because [of] the number US Glass gave it (15078) but the trade journal China, Glass & Lamps mentions a 'highly ornate' Manhattan pattern by the United States Glass Company (but does not show or describe it) in 1898."

Either way, this beautiful piece of extremely heavy glass is more than a century old. It measures 4 1/4" wide by 4" high. Its lid was made by William A. Rogers.

As described by U.S. Glass, located in Pittsburgh, from its 1909 catalog, "A shapely pattern with ident figured circles, picket flutes and plain bands, together making a very pretty and brilliant effect. Handsomely made, lightly fire polished, best quality pot crystal glass."

The scan from a 1913 Albert Pick & Co. catalog, above, calls this bowl a "powdered chocolate or sugar bowl."

Niagara pattern

EAPG historian Paul Kirk, on behalf of the Early American Pattern Glass Society, has identified the pattern on the two bowls below as U.S. Glass Company's No. 15162 Niagara pattern. "It is nearly identical to an earlier line called Columbia by the factory," Kirk said, "but the moulds appear to have been retooled a bit. The bases on Columbia are scalloped, while on Niagara they are flat. "

The one directly below is 8 1/2" wide by 4 1/2" high, and the one below that is 4 5/8" wide by 4 1/4" high.

Scalloped Six Point pattern

Glass expert Jim Schmidt has been kind enough to offer more information about this popular pattern, also listed on this site under the George Duncan's Sons & Company page. Schmidt is one of us who still fondly remembers "after bar hopping circa 1960, hitting the local diner & getting a half a dozen coffees to go, and I distinctly remember the waitress scooping the sugar out of one of the flip top sugar bowls into the cups as they were all lined up in a row."

To what has already been said about Scalloped Six Point, Schmidt notes that following this pattern's history can be confusing, given that "George Duncan & Sons ceased to exist after July 1, 1891, becoming Factory D of the U.S. Glass conglomerate.

"George Duncan's Sons & Company of Washington, Penn., introduced their #30 pattern and now reverently called Scalloped Six Point in 1897 for the annual Pittsburge Glass Show, and also produced a jobbers catalog strictly dedicated to this pattern and widely distributed for that show.

"Sometime after 1901, the firm became Duncan Miller and they issued a 16-page revised #30 jobbers catalog that seems focused on better selling items and apparently deleting the slower selling items previously included.

"Typically an EAPG pattern would run about five years. However, with the reissue of the revised #30 jobbers catalog in the fourth year of the pattern's initial production, that easily added another five years into the pattern's life.

"However, that was hardly the end of pattern #30, aka Scalloped Six Point, ... as they lived in inventory right into the early 1950s. However, I fully suspect the glass manufacturing aspect probably ended due to the outbreak of World War II as most manufacturers switched over to military production items and fabricated sugar bowls as needed from old inventory.

"Metal fabricators for the wholesale restaurant trades were the primary distributors of the hinged, covered diner sugar bowls."

Schmidt also shared a page (below) from Roserita Ziegler's illustrated article about the George Duncan story and the Scalloped Six Point story that indicates that glass production of Scalloped Six Point "went well into the 1920s on the items illustrated."

And this is a photo (below) provided by Schmidt that shows the difference in Scalloped Six Point lids over the years. The center flip has a pewter-like finish; the one on the right is probably aluminum with a brass nob; and the one on the left is stainless steel and probably dates to the 1950s. (Similar disparities also are seen with the bowls' lids shown at the top of this entry.)

See also the Scalloped Six Point pattern under George Duncan's Sons & Company.