Dugan God & Home Blue Water Set

Today I would like to share with you this Dugan/Diamond "God & Home" water set in blue.  My wife and I began collecting carnival glass and educating ourselves in the vast depths of the carnival glass hobby and then discovered that Dugan/Diamond had made a pitcher and six tumblers, known as a water set, which was titled "God & Home".  I had first seen the description for this set in Mike Carwile's & Bill Edwards'  "Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass" and we were drawn to the set. What piece of carnival glass would better represent our Love for God, the Lord Jesus, and our blessings than this magnificent set . We then realized how rare and hard to find this set is and thought we would be on a long journey before we would ever have our hands on one.

 

Well, as you can see, it didn't take as long as we were expecting. A few months after we began collecting carnival glass, a local auction here in Mid-Missouri had listed an estate sale and in the description was "carnival glass water pitcher and tumblers, blue".  I didn't think much of it since there appears to be a lot of blue Indiana carnival glass in the area, but we decided to go and take a look. Sure enough, it was an authentic Dugan "God & Home" water set.  It was blue and unmarked. Every piece was there and there wasn't one nick or fleabite anywhere. Not being listed as for what it was, we began to think we might be able to afford it!  Well we weren't the only ones there that knew about this set so we had to pay more than we expected and we came home with it anyways.

 

I was able to contact the family members after the sale to learn more about the history of this set.  As stated by the family, this was given to their great grandmother as a wedding gift in 1920 and was in the family until they decided to sell the estate. They lived in Alton, Illinois and then it migrated here to Washington, Missouri and now it's in our showcase and Carnival Glass Showcase as well.

 

The God & Home water set is only made in blue and unmarked. Made in 1912, it is regarded as one of the top water sets as stated in Mike Carwile's book. There are several colors in the reproduction contemporary sets.  

 

Also described on Dave Doty's website, "The tumblers are thought to have been given away as store premiums; the pitcher awarded when six tumblers had been acquired. With both pitchers and tumblers, one side is lettered with "In God We Trust," the other side "God Bless Our Home". The original set is known only in blue (with the exception of the (one) marigold tumbler) but has been reproduced in other colors."  Also noted to be a commemorative for the end of WW1 in 1918.

 

Please visit another great article written by  Dean & Diane Fry on Carnival Glass Heaven.

 

The Christopher & Laura Smith Collection