Jefferson Glass Company Clear Iridized Lamp Shade

While browsing eBay a couple of weeks ago I ran across a listing for this nice shade that was being offered by King Hoppel, a well established eBay seller who goes by the user name “oregoncarnivalking”. Not having seen this item before I decided to purchase it.

 

This interesting Carnival Glass shade has pastel iridescence on crystal glass which is refered to by collectors as "clear" carnival glass. It was listed as a "Rare Jefferson Glass Co. Lamp Shade", which I hadn’t seen before in any type of glass, so being iridized, it increased my interest quite a bit.

 

It has various embossing around the base of the collar as follows;  Jefferson 2655   Jan. 16th. 1912.

 

The shade has 5 rings of multi-faceted bullet shaped jewels around the top section below the collar and 24 connected prisms below the jeweled top section. The glass is quite thick and has a bit more weight than most shades I’ve seen, weighing in at two pounds. The dimensions of the shade are as follows;  6 1/8” tall, 2” neck, 2 1/4” fitting collar and 4 3/4” wide.

 

It is noted in the patent photo shown here, from page 814 of the Patent Office, the following information;  42,099 LAMP SHADE.  Reuben Haley, Beaver, Pa., assignor to Jefferson Glass Company, Follansbee, W.V.  Filed Oct. 18th. 1911. Serial number 655,422.  Term of patent 7 years.

 

The patent was issued on Jan. 16th. 1912.

 

An interesting theory on this “clear iridescent treatment” and especially the filing date of the patent being Oct. of 1911 and the date the patent was issued as being Jan. of 1912, is that this was the same time period that Northwood began to roll out their “pastel” colors of Ice Blue, Ice Green, and White and iridescence on Clear glass is certainly a pastel color in my opinion.  So it may have been a Jefferson attempt to get in on the new pastel color while in its early stage.

 

Although Jefferson was well known for a certain amount of Pressed Glass and a good bit of Opalescent Glass, they were not well known in the Carnival Glass arena. As most will know, Northwood did acquire a few Jefferson molds. One that is easily recognized is the "Vintage" back patterned, dome footed bowl, which Northwood tried to re-tool into their well know "Basketweave" exterior pattern.  However, this didn’t work out as well as Northwood expected, since some of the "Vintage" design from the Jefferson mold could still be seen among the "Basketweave" design Northwood had tried to use to cover up the "Vintage" pattern.

 

After absorbing the entire description from the eBay sale and viewing the photos again, which included a copy of the design that was submitted to the U.S. Patent Office, I began to check into this further.  After speaking with King about this shade when it arrived to me, we both searched for additional information and he found three of these shades previously offered some time ago online from Worthpoint that had sold as a group and another single shade that had sold from the same site. No value was listed for the selling price on either of these sales. I also located one more in a "completed auction search" on eBay which was not sold. I found  it was just relisted and I purchased it to go with this one. So up to this point we have six of these shades documented but I’m sure there will be more to turn up over time.

 

I still consider it to be a rare piece and one of the very few items I’ve ever seen embossed "Jefferson" with or without any additional embossing. Actually, the only other Jefferson embossed shade I’ve seen is a frosted 4-sided shade in Clear Crystal with a Star that was wheel-cut on all 4 sides. Sadly, it wasn’t iridized.

 

I just wish I could see a set of these clear iridescent shades on a fixture hanging from the ceiling. I’ll now be on the hunt for additional shades with the Jefferson logo in this and all other types of glass.

 

I hope you will enjoy seeing this interesting piece of Carnival Glass with its documentation of embossing and especially the added patent information. All together, it makes for a real Carnival Glass history jewel.
 

Mike Carwile

Photo’s courtesy; King Hoppel