Imperial Scroll & Flower Panels Purple Vase No. 2
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Imperial Scroll & Flower Panels Purple Vase No. 2


Description

As I sit here holding this vase, I am still somewhere between fantasy and reality. Not quite accepting the fact that it is really in our collection. This is a piece that one reads about and sees the pictures of in one of the carnival glass books but never thinking to someday owning such an incredible vase.

Scroll & Flower Panels is such an appropriate name. I look at the 4 identical panels and realize that this vase is the most stippled piece of carnival glass there is. This vase has its own unique shape, there is nothing else like it.

Being a purple Imperial vase with blue, purple & gold iridescence, the iridescence is quite subtle and one, judging by the iridescence, would never guess it was indeed Imperial. Purple Imperial glass with blue, purple & gold iridescence is normally vibrant, bright and electric. The most electric piece of iridized glass we have ever seen was Imperial.
 
So, this different application of iridescence on this particular piece is the norm. As a matter of fact, every purple Scroll & Flower Panels vase carries this special iridescent treatment. There are only five purple Scroll & Flower Panels vases known. Two have damage and the other three are perfect and this is one of the three. It is one of the rarest vases known.
 
This vase is 10" high and is cupped in at the top like a rose bowl. There are eight scallops on top with each having six rounded points. The base has an 18-point star pattern and this vase is a heavy weight, weighing in at 4 lbs. For a 10" vase, that is extremely heavy. We have a smoke contemporary Scroll & Flower Panels vase and that is heavier still at 4 lbs. & 12 ozs.
 
The photo of the main scroll design, at the top of each panel, looks out of focus in the photo, doesn't it? The vase comes out of the mold looking like a cylinder. The top third than gets bulged out, and the pattern of the main scroll gets distorted.
 
We purchased this vase while attending the Heart of America Carnival Glass Association, HOACGA, convention, out of the room of our good friends Emmett & Dorothy Morgan from Texas. Besides the room displays of carnival glass and the major carnival glass auction, room sales are just another reason to attend a convention.
 
Hope to see you at one soon.  

The Dick & Sherry Betker Collection

Note: Dick's vase is the 2nd one accounted for here on Showcase out of five that have been reported.


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