Mrs. Peignoir's Dainty Relics: A Gorgeous Blue Bowl with Grapes and Leaves

Hello and welcome! Here is a stunning large iridescent blue oval bowl made from pressed glass. I do have a story about it but first let me describe it to you. It is old, circa 1940 or so, and American made. It was made by Indiana Glass Co. and is in the pattern known as Harvest Grape. This time period is known as the Depression era, and glassware made during these years is generally known as Depression Glass. This was glass made by pouring molten glass into 2 or 3 part molds with designs. The resulting pieces had patterns, therefore this glass is also known as Pattern Glass. This particular piece is known as Carnival Glass, which is clear glass painted on the surface in a number of different colors.

Imagine your grandparents or great grandparents, as I do, emerging from the Roaring 20's, looking for a good time, and all of a sudden the stock market crash of '29 happens, plunging all the young into a world of despair and want. Your young great grandparents may have just been starting out in life when their world changed forever. As they raised their families and established their homesteads, they could only afford the most inexpensive decorative items for their homes. Voila! Molded American glass emerges...it was given away at supermarkets and gas stations as incentives for purchases, given away at county fairs and carnivals, included in boxes of soap.

Now we are their grandchildren and great grandchildren...we think nothing of buying any kind of decorative glass brand new at retail because we do not know what it is like to go to bed hungry...yet here is this bowl, sitting on a shelf at an antiques shop, and I saw many people pass it without a look...only to pick up a mass produced piece of cheap glass to use at home. And this bowl said so much to me...here is what it said:

A young girl goes to her great grandmother's home after the funeral to clean out the home before putting the house on the market. She is in a hurry, she has a date tonight, and she resents having to do this cleaning...but her mother is making her. She throws handfuls of great grandma's belongings into plastic bags, ready to take to the Goodwill. Her hand rests on an enormous iridescent blue bowl, and she stops for a moment, remembering...when she was very very little, perhaps one or two, she remembers this beautiful blue bowl, great grandma always had fruit in it and she would always give her a grape or take an orange and cut it into slices on a plate...and the girl would eat the fruit, mesmerized by the intricate design and intense blue and lavender colors of the bowl...Now, emerging from her memory, the young girl shakes it off, saying to herself :"This bowl is huge! Nobody wants it. I'll get rid of it." She stuffs it ito the bag of aprons, napkins, carefully folded and ironed tablecloths and off it goes into anonymity. Along with its memories.

There! I hope you have enjoyed my story of where this bowl might have come and how it got to me. Suffice to say I enjoy and treasure it.