Northwood Peacocks on the Fence Powder Blue Slag "Sorbini" Bowl

Tom Burns was living in Daytona Beach, Florida in the early 1980's. One day he got a call from his friend Randy Delong from Columbia, South Carolina who offered to sell him a peculiar blue Northwood Peacocks on the Fence bowl. Now, this bowl was different than any other bowl Randy had ever seen in this pattern. It was so different that his explanation of what it looked like over the phone didn't sound like he was making any sense to Tom. Tom told him  he'd just have to see it so Randy invited him to come up for a visit and he would take him to his bank where he kept this bowl in a safety deposit box.

When Tom arrived it was late in the day and they had just missed closing time at the bank by 4 minutes. Randy apologized and told Tom he wanted $1100 plus $50 to ship it and promised he would like it. He'd send it to him the next day. Tom, not wanting to spend the night, paid him and went back to Daytona and waited for it to come in the mail. When it came, Tom opened the package and said the bowl literally "blew his mind". He said he could not conceive the possibility that something like this could exist in Carnival Glass.

During the couple of years he owned it, Tom included it in at least two different publications that he contributed to as a young but exceptionally knowledgeable Carnival glass connoisseur. Pretty fancy of me to say but he was like the child prodigy of Carnival glass and he didn't limit himself to just Carnival either. His knowledge of other types of glass only enhanced his understanding and broadened his reputation concerning all things glass. I have included a photo of each of the two books featuring his bowl. One is called "Harry Northwood The Wheeling years 1901-1925" by  William Heacock, James Measell & Berry Wiggins and a host of contributors. The other was a quarterly publication called "The Glass Collector"  Issue Number Six Spring-Summer 1983 written by William Heacock and again, many research associates were acknowledged, including Tom Burns.

In September of 1983, Tom decided to sell it privately to Paul & Dee Bekemeir at the Tampa Bay Convention. They kept this bowl for thirty years until they sold it at auction, along with many other pieces of their collection, at the 2013 Heart of America Carnival Glass Association Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The second row of photos are from the Seeck Auctions catalog. That's the bowl, shown front and back, on the top right on the cover page of the catalog and the description Jim Seeck gave it. It was purchased by Gary Heavin of Missouri who eventually would come to sell it to me a year later. But until that day came, Dee and I wrote each other and I told her how fascinated I was by this bowl and how I would love to buy it some day from Gary. In our conversations, Dee recalled the memories where she and Paul first saw it at Tampa Bay. Here is what she had to say...

"Hello Christina,
When Paul saw it, he simply said 'I want that blue slag bowl'...He could not think of anything else but that bowl at Tampa, so we came home with it. It resided in our collection for 30 years. Paul was still hesitant to sell it last April at HOACGA. Gary Heavin had been asking us about selling it for two or three years. He saw it in a HOACGA rarity display and he said that was all he could see and wanted it...just like Paul. You kind of know when you simply have a desire for a piece. I just know Paul will be so happy to see it in your Carnival Glass Showcase, as he was certainly proud to own that bowl for so many years. Tom will be glad to tell the background information. Thanks for your interest as it is a special piece. I do hope you own it someday, as it would be a real honor for the bowl to be in such a magnificent collection. Carnival glass is so fortunate to have you and your interest in it. We have been so proud to be a part of the Carnival Glass family for so many years and owned some fabulous pieces in the past 35 years. Now, it is time for some younger people to carry on, as you are. The fact that you have the genuine interest in so great. Christina, Carnival glass needs more people like you.
- Dee & Paul"

She is a sweetheart, isn't she? Now I can believe how hesitant her husband was to let this piece go. It was inserted as #15A in the auction catalog so we know he gave it up at the last moment, just before the catalog went to press. It was numbered so it would be sold just before #16, which was the Powder Blue Opal Peacocks bowl. I did manage to at least obtain #16 from Gary Lickver post-auction at the NECGA convention as my consolation prize....but I was still haunted by #15A though. What was it about that bowl that had me under that spell?

I was told that once I laid eyes on this bowl, there was nothing else like it that could take its place. Nothing. I wanted it now, just like Paul and Gary did, and I hadn't even seen it in person yet. It seemed so far from my reach at the time. Who could give it up?

I heard several people call it by another name, "Sorbini", which originated in England, over a century ago, used to describe blue slag glass. This is the same type of glass Akro Agate used to make marbles later in the United States starting in 1911 in Akron, Ohio. It is also a name Don Moore coined for this bowl's description, as explained in the Northwood Wheeling Years book.

This name appealed to me so much that I fondly started referring to this bowl as "Miss Sorbini" when we spoke of her. After talking to Gary H. every chance I could, he knew I really wanted Miss Sorbini badly. He conceded, he relented, he caved in at my whims and excitement and he reluctantly promised to deliver her to me at the next HOACGA convention in April of 2014. He did and I did and here we are today. I have to thank Gary for parting with Miss Sorbini after owning her for only a brief year. I'm sure he did so, with many regrets, but he is a good friend and knows this vision of beauty will get all the attention she deserves and be shared with many.

Now about Miss Sorbini's measurements. It's 8.75" at her widest, 2.5" tall and has a base diameter of 3.5". The back is ribbed on this version. It's iridized on both sides but not on its base, known as the marie, and is marked on the bottom with the N-in-a-Circle Northwood trademark.

As Mr. Heacock explained in The Glass Collector, and I quote, "The term "slag" refers to a type of opaque glass which combines two or more colors variegating or swirling within a single piece."  He goes on to say, "Possibly the most overwhelming piece of signed Northwood is the "blue slag" Northwood Peacocks bowl on the cover. If the color alone is not enough to thrill you, then the Carnival iridescent finish should. This bowl is priceless, the only one like it known and I am terribly grateful to the Contributor Tom Burns for trusting me with it long enough for the cover shot to be taken."

Mr. Heacock was right about its beauty. Miss Sorbini is the most photogenic piece of Carnival Glass I have ever had the pleasure of shooting. I could keep going and going and never take a bad shot. The colors are pure fantasy. Come peer inside and you'll see it's where Cinderella meets her Prince in an Arctic blue marbleized world of their own. It has all the wonders of looking into a snow globe... to dream a little dream. Glints of electric Magenta highlights flash and dance, capturing every curve of every ruffle along the rim. The two birds and the fence are adorned with colors of magenta, yellow, blue, green and purple iridescence. The back is the brightest butterscotch gold I've ever seen.

Don Hamlet's mid-size Northwood Tree Trunk vase and Miss Sorbini are the first two known examples of this marbleized blue glass with iridescence. There has been mention of a second Peacocks damaged bowl to exist. My friend, Val Brooks from Wisconsin, remembers selling a Northwood Good Luck blue slag bowl to Casey Rich just before he passed away. Were these blue slag items purely experimental? Who knows. In a way, I wish they made more to spread the joy of owning one. I am very happy to share mine here with you today.  Please enjoy the pictures and be sure to enlarge each one by clicking on them again, especially of the close-up of the Peacocks. You can see Miss Sorbini listed here, courtesy Jim Seeck Auctions, in the 2013 HOACGA catalog page featuring the Bekemeir Collection.

I would like to thank auctioneer Tom Burns for helping me write this article. He told me and about a dozen other people the story of this bowl at the 2014 New England Carnival Glass convention in his room at around midnight. It was cozy and informal and he answered everyone's questions. We laughed a lot too. He sure does tell a great story. Thank you Tom.

~~~I am adding this last paragraph long after I wrote the above story. Just when I think I've covered this bowl from every angle, I discovered a monumental secret this bowl has been keeping for over 100 years. Quite by accident, while inspecting  all my glass with a black light, I discovered this bowl glows under a black-light. I was in awe when I saw the the birds glow of green and magenta. The last photos four photos show it. Who would think to use a black-light on it? Never in a million years would I guess it would fluoresce like this. I never heard anyone mention anything about it so I know I came across a wonderful revelation.

My first impulse was to ask Don Hamlet if his midsizeTree Trunk vase (see pictures) did the same thing. I sent him an email with pictures of my bowl and he responded, shocked and amazed, that his vase did the same thing. He said it glowed a greenish-yellow color and was particularly outstanding on the flames around the rim. I am so happy for him. He, too, had never thought to use a black-light  on this vase in all the years he's owned it. I was so excited for both of us I could burst!

I have a theory that his vase, my bowl, and the blue slag Good Luck bowl that belonged to Casey Rich all were made with the same batch of glass on the same day. I think Northwood experimented with different moulds to see how this agate type glass would look in different patterns iridized.

In speaking to my friend Tom Monoski, he explained, in his most humble opinion, what actually fluoresces in this glass is the white slag swirling through the blue glass which was made with Uranium. There were a couple of types of white slag glass used by Northwood, especially in their stretch glass production. These were refered to as Northwood Special White or Ivory Custard. Both glow with a green cast. It's the Uranium that makes it glow. There was a greater concentration of glass, doped with Uranium, in the bottom of the bowl which is why the bodies of the peacocks have the outstanding green glow. Thank you Tom.

The Christina Katsikas Collection