Item: Water/Lemonade Pitcher
Make: Unknown, Likely Bohemia/Central Europe
Age: 1879-1939
Construction: Blown Glass
Dimensions: 9 3/4" Tall x 6" Diameter x 7 3/4" Wide (Spout to Handle)
Condition: Excellent pre-owned antique condition. No chips or cracks. Please see photos.
Details: Deep turquoise, baluster shaped art glass pitcher with full ruffled lip and wide optic ribbing in body. Applied glass handle. Body of pitcher is hand painted with white enamel depicting a young girl, facing left, reaching her hand toward small birds or butterflies. She stands on shaded ground, surrounded by ferns and fern-like trees. Rough pontil mark on bottom of pitcher.
For many years it was believed that Mary Gregory glass was painted by Mary Gregory, an artist known for her decoration of glass pieces at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company on Cape Cod, Mass. from 1880-1884. While there was an artist of that name there at the time, it has been discovered that "Mary Gregory" glass was never made at that factory. What are now known as Mary Gregory designs originated in Europe, probably Bohemia sometime before 1880, based on the Painted Cameo style. It is distinguished by a stylized depiction of a child in an outdoor setting with such things as fishing rods, butterfly nets, etc.. Trees and foliage are feathered, and the enamel is fired into the glass. While "Mary Gregory" glass is produced today in a number of countries, old Mary Gregory glass is nearly always blown, and usually in colors of cranberry, bottle green, turquoise blue and clear.
