I should have added that, like Sue, I know less than nothing about this type of production, but was aware that there had in fact been an Mary Alice Gregory working as a decorator at B. & S. in the 1880's - so just wished to make this a known fact rather than it appearing there had never been a Mary Gregory.
I think that this Mary had in fact been and gone long before people had started using the expression........and am sure that it's true that as a product this type of thing has been made in many places around the world - most recently perhaps in Czechoslovakia. But as a serious comment, for a change, it had occurred to me that perhaps the snow scenes that she apparently created on Gone With the Wind type lamps showing winter scenes etc., might have been the catalyst for someone at a later date to use her name for the white enamel type decoration of homely images that bear her name. Just a vague thought you understand. She died in May 1908 incidentally.