Featured Cut Glass Pictures Lotus and Berkshire from 1899 Montgomery Wards Catalog

A scan I made from an original pamphlet style mailer, a Christmas ad from Montgomery Ward. Junk mail from 1899! It was among things in an old trunk that belonged to my great-grandparents.

I'm posting this for no particular reason, just because it's Christmas.

 

Ah but who made it and what is the pattern??

 

I thought Lotus and Berkshire were the pattern names or makers.
Don't worry, some one will know all and blurt it out!

 

Interesting pages! (I looked at all of them in the Gallery. The prices are real eye-openers of how much things have changed!)

Do I recall correctly that Lotus was a cutting and decorating company?

 

I'm glad you mentioned the Gallery. I almost never look there. Very nice!

Lauragarnet, what does the cover of the pamphlet look like? (Or maybe that question belongs in the Photographs and Ephemera forum.)

 

Lotus Glass Company Advertisements
The Lotus Cut Glass Company was founded in Barnesville, Ohio in 1912. Initially, the company was strictly a cutting operation but as business grew, it expanded into other forms of decorating. The name was changed to Lotus Glass Company sometime in the middle 1920s. Lotus never manufactured any glass !! They were located very close to many of the better glass manufacturers, and found it cheaper to buy glass from one or more suppliers and simply add their own decorations to form the finished product, which was then sold under the Lotus name. Some of the companies they bought glass from were: Cambridge, Duncan and Miller, Fostoria, Bryce Brothers, Paden City and Heisey. In 1960, Lotus purchased the Glastonbury Company and the name was changed to Glastonbury/Lotus.

 

Thanks, Janette! So if Lotus didn't start until 1912, it can't be the same company that MW used in 1899, right?

 

Enjoyed reading about the pieces/prices. Could you let me know what "the Gallery" is. Googling it was overwhelming.

 

Upper left side of the main site page, to the right of Forums. Click on the word Gallery.

 

Very NEAT pic of the AD!!!!!!

 

The cover is very plain. No illustrations. Just blah...

 

Montgomery Ward must have been using Lotus as the pattern name, since the cutting company didn't exist yet.

 

It was not unusual for retailers or wholeslaers of that period to give a pattern their own name. Often the factory only used a number.The glass may have been made by one company and cut by a different company.