Maker Unknown Winged Scroll Blue Powder or Trinket Jar

This tiny blue powder or trinket jar came with the name Winged Scroll. It was purchased for me at a Seeck auction held on November 15, 2014 in Mason City, Iowa. This sale featured the late Cliff & late JoAnn Ball Collection from Missouri. Although there were many lovely items there, I thought this tiny covered jar was special. I had no idea who made it but I thought I would research it later if I succeeded in the bidding.

It was described in the auction catalog as #161 Miniature Winged Scroll powder jar-blue-cute. Picture #11 is the auction catalog photo, courtesy Seeck Auctions.

Seeck Auctions also shows another one having been sold on June 14, 2014, just four months prior to this one selling. It was described as "European Pin Box w/lid-blue" which was assigned the lot number 209, catalog photo shown, also courtesy Seeck Auctions.

When mine came in the mail, I was surprised to see it was so much smaller than I had imagined. As you can see, in picture 2, it fits perfectly on half a bill. I thought my little Butterfly & Berry whimsey spittoon was tiny but this little jar is dwarfted by comparison, as shown in picture 3. It fills the palm of my hand like a little tangerine, measuring only 2.75" wide, 1.5" tall and 2" across the base.

The iridescence is delightful! It gleams in shades of magenta, turquoise, yellow, green and gold. The inside is not iridized. Instead it shows the base color, which is a beautiful, lustrous, blue, strongly resembling Renninger Blue.

There is a flower of 24 petals in a circle centered on the cover as well as on the base. Surrounding the flower on the lid are eight panels of nine mitered rays alternating in direction from east to west, giving the effect of four sets of wings. I don't know where the word "Scroll" entered the equation but there are none.

Both the jar and lid are octagon in shape. The cover fits on a certain way because every other corner on the jar and lid have a curved in shape and the other four corners are pointed. Also, there's an inner lip on the jar that holds the cover from sliding off.

Well, it was definitely European glass so I emailed Ellen Richardson, our in-house European glass expert, to see if she had ever seen anything like this. I told her I compared the size of this little gem to her little Frieja Pin Dish, here on Showcase. She said she remembers having seen it quite some time ago when she was making inquiries about her Frieja Pin Dish. At first she couldn't remember where but soon recalled having come across it on the Jerry Curtis Carnival Glass Miniatures website on FLICKR. It belonged to a C&J Ball and was posted there on Octorber of 2007. She asked if I had heard of them. I told her that C&J Ball were the owners of the one I had just purchased at auction, from Cliff Ball, so it was one in the same. This also means we were back to square one with no information of its origin.

Then, as I was perusing one of the many catalogues Bob Smith sent me, I came out of my seat when I saw an item in the Rindskopf catalog that looked almost identical to the pattern of this little jar. It is shown the last photo for you to see. It did show the body of the sun with rays coming from it. In comparison, there were noticeable differences. One is that the rays of the sun were all radiating to the right, towards the East, on each panel on the catalog page and did not alternate east to west. Also, this bowl was hexagonal and was made in two sizes (roughly 5+" & 7+" wide).

I showed this to Ellen and she said, "On Rindskopf glass the pattern is cut into the surface and is usually quite sharply defined. On the piece you have bought, it appears to be raised slightly. Also Rindskopf is not known to have made items in blue. A couple of items were reported way back but none have ever been confirmed. The base is usually ground as it is with nearly all European Glass." 

Well, that is not what I wanted to hear but she was right. The catalogue drawing appears of have a pattern that was cut into the glass. I was so close! As a matter of fact, it was quite thrilling to be that close. I'm enclosing the catalogue page to show you why I got so excited but let me stress again, so as not to mislead you, this is not the catalog picture for Winged Scroll.

I have to agree with Ellen that trinket bowls, dishes, lidded pieces, etc. have to be some of the prettiest pieces made, especially if they have great iridescence. The added beauty is that they don't take up much space.

So you see, the mystery remains and I have told you a lot about something I know nothing of. I wish I knew where Cliff Ball acquired it originally.

I would really appreciate knowing if there are more Winged Scroll items out there that you may have seen or own. If anyone knows how the pattern got its name and who named it, please, I'd love to hear from you.

The Christina Katsikas Collection