
Photos by Tom Cotter, including Cambridge glass from Millie and Roger Loucks
Last month in the Mountain States Collector I brought you some information on European glass companies that made animal figurines. This month, I’m jumping across the pond to write about U.S. manufactured figurines. In both of these articles, I’m focusing on non-human critters, mostly real, but occasionally some that are imaginary. Like a dragon or phoenix. In order to capture the attention of buyers on a smaller scale, a lot of companies made figurines, such as glass animals. I excluded pre-1900 glass from this work; there are animals from the EAPG period, but too much to address here. Companies acquired molds as failing companies closed, creating an entire new collecting opportunity.
Westmoreland early contributions were a (French) bulldog doorstop, a shorter bulldog, along with Sandwich style different dolphin pieces. Westmoreland produced a variety of novelties over the years, such as birds, turtles, a starfish, and a pig. They made covered dishes as a camel, rooster, and cigarette-bearing tumble. Tiffin Glass designed two unusual felines in the 1920s in black, white and mixed colors. They were likely more accepted in the 1970s during the MCM craze when reissued in both sizes by Fenton as Happy Cat in just a whole mess of colors, including iridized.


American Glass Company of Caney, KS, is cited as existing from 1939 and 1946, making figurines from K. R. Haley designs in a number of animals. When American Glass dissolved, Haley became the designer for his namesake K.R. Haley Glassware, offering birds, dolphins, horses, and a llama. Kemple Glass acquired a number of Haley-designed molds and produced some pieces later.
Duncan & Miller Glass offered wonderful fish, including swordfish, and several birds. Like Cambridge, Duncan & Miller was known for its swans, although in modernistic styles. With transparent and opalescent colors, swans appeared in the Pall Mall and Sylvan lines. Fostoria Glass peaked in the zoological parade from the 1930s through the 1950s with several bookend sets, along with wonderful statuettes, some offered in several colors. Smaller beasties included birds and other creatures.


New Martinsville Glass cat and Volstead pup decanters similar to Cambridge’s. There is an elephant incense burner. The 1940s brought an array of crystal and occasionally colored creatures as statuettes and bookends. And swans that were similar to Duncan and Miller swans, with subtle differences and combining with the popular Janice line. The New Martinsville factory was purchased by one of its stockholders and renamed Viking Glass, then Dalzell-Viking Glass, which took over the factory in 1988. As Viking, a number of earlier molds appeared in popular 1960s colors. Epic Line roosters, egrets, ducks, rabbits and geese, a floppy-eared dog, and birds with long pointy tails appeared in an array of MCM colors and are much in demand. These long-tailed birds are very similar to a Pairpoint 1930s controlled bubble piece. Whales, crystal and amber flat bookends/paperweights also can be found.
As with several companies, were a creative time for Paden City. Birds, including a dragon swan, horses, joined bookends in several shapes. Crystal and shades of blue were primary colors for their zoo. The exception was the “cottontail” bunny that sold as a cotton ball dispenser in crystal, light blue, or pink satin.
L.E. Smith Glass made swan dishes in a variety of pastel colors for many years. A flock of crystal and colored covered turkeys are often seen. Smith produced Martha Stewart’s Jadeite and milk glass covered turkeys in the late 1990s. Other interesting beasts appeared from L.E. Smith.
Fenton ventured into the animal realm with an open-backed Jumbo elephant flower bowl and later an elephant whiskey bottle the neck as the trunk. Dogs, birds, and butterflies accompanied a small sunfish newly identical to the 1913 Lalique fish sculpture. From the 1960s on, Fenton made a variety of smaller animals in a plethora of colors including a whale, and, of course, a unicorn. Again, apparently borrowing from a Lalique design, was a Fenton leaping fish paperweight.
Jeanette Glass made bird and butterfly footed bowls and an elephant powder dish. Hocking Glass gave us pachyderm covered bath salts dishes in the 1920, and a round fish jam jar in the 1950s. Houze Glass was a specialty glass company and provided animal ink blotters during the fountain pen era. Blenko Glass fish vases represented Modernism, standing on their front fins and tail, and are often copied. Bookends from Blenko include birds and elephants. Several sea creatures are available. Kanawha Glass made a number of glass animals, as did Pilgrim Glass. Some of those animals are obviously molded, while others appear more free-formed. Pilgrim and Rainbow Glass created MCM items in Huntington including whales and other, as well as a “Lucerne” fish vase similar to the Blenko vision, but different.
If you desire glass animals that are absolutely the highest quality, Steuben Glass Works might be your choice. A particularly interesting group is Lloyd Atkins designed pressed hand coolers, palm size, with several beasts including a dragon. These compact curiosities can be found for reasonable prices. Stueben’s larger beasts include birds from ducks to a phoenix to swans, marine life such as alligators through a sea serpent and a walrus, a couple of invertebrates like a snail and a caterpillar, and terrestrials, from koalas to a dragon and a dinosaur. These are usually quite pricy, at least by my standards.
My sincere thanks to Roger and Millie Loucks for sharing pictures of Cambridge swans and a turkey. I cannot say enough about the DeStefano family for providing a vital source with the Mountain States Collector. Please remember and support local dealers and the upcoming Front Range Glass Show on October 5 and 6, 2024, sponsored by Jodi and Mark Uthe at the Loveland Ranch Event Center Complex McKee Building. I can assure you that many of the items I have described will be for sale there. The Rocky Mountain Vintage Glass and Pottery Club (also known as the Rocky Mountain Depression Glass Society) always is present at the Front Range Glass Show. Two books on glass animals by Dick and Pat Spencer, along with Lee Garmon, provide insight, as does a book by Debbie and Randy Coe. The Coes’ daughter Myra has given us a nice tome on Glass Elephants. An interesting 1978 paperback by Evelyn Zemel offers very nice insights. Collecting is and should be fun. Enjoy!
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