I’d like to add my two pence worth to this delightful conundrum. Oh heck, it’s worth more than that – I’ll get stuck in and add six penn’orth!
I’ll begin with my conclusion, so that you don’t have to wade through all my jibber-jabber about glassmakers, colours, authors, wibbly-wobbly punch bowls, spilled drinks, drunken conversations, mis-attributions and fantasies. My conclusion is that Dugan-Diamond made both the Stork and Rushes punch bowl and the stand / base (aka Summer Days vase). In my opinion, Davidson was not involved in any way whatsoever.
SNJ, you asked if anyone had the Hallam book. My hand is up! Yes, me, I’ve got it. The text for the “Summer Days” vase begins thus: “This is one of the most attractive of English vases”. Hallam goes on to describe the vase, its size, pattern, known colours of amethyst and marigold, and then closes with this: “A retired Davidson glassmaker can recall turning them out”.
Note there is nothing in Hallam’s text about the retired glassmaker “vividly” recalling working with the vase. In Hallam’s original text the glassworker’s recollections were clearly not quite so colourful.
My belief is that Davidson did not make Carnival Glass. There is no archive evidence whatsoever to make such a claim, as far as I am aware.
So let’s look at Dugan-Diamond, and the context in which they would have been producing the Stork & Rushes punch bowl. At that time, punch sets in the USA comprised a bowl, a stand, cups and hooks. To eliminate a base (which lifts the bowl off the table) would have been illogical, in my opinion. It’s not what the customer would have expected, and it makes no practical sense as the cups would have scraped the table surface. Of course, Dugan-Diamond made a stand! And why not make one that would serve a dual purpose as a vase? That makes serious commercial sense. When you don’t need to impress the neighbours with punch, you can whip out the base and stick your carnations in it.
Dugan had previous form in this respect too. Their Many Fruits punch set has a base that doubles up as a comport and has cherries on it. The comport can be used by itself and it’s often not realised that it is also the punch base for Many Fruits. The pattern is different on the base and the punch bowl (sounds familiar?)
Further evidence has to be the many, many Stork and Rushes punch sets in both marigold and amethyst that are found paired up this way. How else could that have happened? In my opinion, it’s a nonsensical scenario to imagine that the base and bowl are from different makers on the other side of the Atlantic.
Finally, if you want a bit more evidence, take a peek at some other Dugan-Diamond patterns, such as their Dogwood Sprays. The flowers are a dead ringer for those on the Summer Days vase.
(Oh yes, my credentials for the lengthy blurb? Thirty years plus studying, researching and writing about Carnival Glass).
Glen