Topic: Milk Glass Mustard Dog/Wolf?

[Ohio]

This is proving difficult to attribute as not found in any U.S. MG references so perhaps European. Not certain if its a dog or wolf's head, 4" height  2 1/2" diameter. Any help most appreciated. Ken

[Frank]

Can you add pics of underside and interiors please.

[Ohio]

Photos attached. According to the opinions of three MG reference autors who have seen it, its 90% probability U.S. although no one has ever seen it before & it appears in no catalog nor known references. So far ditto European postings. Explainations are consistantly along the same lines, its exists but was never released to the market probably due to (1) something happened very early to the mold (damage) & (2) it was produced but high losses of product from difficulity in removal from mold, everything scrapped. Leading possibilities? Atterbury as a companion for Bull Mustard or Challinor Taylor (depth for missing glass eyes cited) as an answer to Atterbury's Bull. Possibly made its way home with a worker. Either way its generated quite a bit of interest in the MG community.

[Frank]

Very nice. I would be wary of undocumented explanations as to why it is rare... usually someone guessing and once published such guesses become folklore. It is certainly a fascinating piece and US origin seems a strong possibility other than for the lack of it being documented. While US figural glass IS well documented there must still be omissions. I think Co-Operative Flint are under documented and they made a lot of figural covered dishes, I do not know if they made MG as my US animal books are still in storage.

European options would be Germany. France and Bohemia of course.

[Ohio]

Thanks Frank. Yes everyone knows possibilities offered are pure speculation as to the why? no one had ever seen it before & it is a bit unusual for something like this to appear after decades (who knows how many) & the untold thousands of collectors who have/had never seen it before, but its treated as you never really know when something like this pops up every now & then.

The mold speculation is a bit like the Heisey flat horsehead bookends I wrote about in a Heisey newsletter more than 20 years ago. There are one pair & only one pair of authentic Heisey flat horsehead bookends & they are in the HCA museum. They were from a numbered Heisey mold purchased by HCA from Imperial that corresponded with the Heisey mold inventory number for a horse bookend & had been owned by a Heisey uncle. When examined the mold was found to have a design whereby product would be almost impossible to remove without breakage so the mold was simply placed back in inventory in the 40s.

Two other almost identical horsehead flat bookends existed for years & turned up every now & them, one crystal with lines molded in facial head features & the other smooth like the Heisey but always in a strange green color. Nobody had been able to find where these originated & of course were touted as being Heisey although virtually everyone knew they were not.   

In the late 80s I was at an outdoor show & saw 50+ pairs of the green ones on a large table with an elderly gentleman setting up. Long story short he was a gold mine of information (Martin was his name) & he was a retiree of the Ball Canning Co. in Muncie. Indiana & the plant was being reconfigured for a Continental Can operation so the mold was sold as scrap & the remaining bookends he was selling off. Ball had been making these for over 40 years for non-profit kids organizations (boy & girl scouts) in Muncie & were sold as fundraisers only with a minimum order of 50 pairs. These were made during the 3rd shift to fill orders & the green color was because it was the same green as Ball Canning jars.

Martin then proceeed to tell me that the crystal ones were made by the Corning Glass plant in Pittsburgh, PA. & the glass gather used was the same as in their automobile headlights they produced. They also made them solely for non-profit kids fundraising functions. I was able to verify everything Martin told me because I worked with the wife of a high ranking  American Flint Glass Workers Union official & he checked into everything I asked for. Neither operation ever had any idea when these molds came from & neither had any problems with the molds as long as they were used.

[Frank]

Must be lots of oddities made in a similar way! But container works rarely get as much interest taken of them unfortunately.

[kimo]

In my personal opinion I think it is a Scottie dog, or at least a similar breed of terrier.  My thinking is it has the big eyebrows, the mustache, the upright ears, and similar features.  Also, people tend to think of dogs as more friendly than wolves so having a dog design might get more customers to buy it for their dining table than a wolf.

[Ohio]

Yeah as somebody said the color is certainly right for a Westie.