Comments by Alan and Lorraine Pickup
Orange Tree Fruit Bowls
From HOACGA bulletin November, 2003

Orange Tree, a popular Fenton Glass pattern can be found in so many different shapes, colors, and varieties that just a collection of this one pattern could be a challenge in itself to assemble. Orange Tree fruit bowls, sometimes listed as orange bowls, are pretty common in marigold and blue. But green bowls are another story. But there have been several of them sold at auction in the last few years and they usually cause some spirited bidding. Such as the bowl in Bob Stremming's 1998 auction in Ohio at $1000 and another in a Mickey Reichel consignment sale in Missouri in January of 2000 for $1800.

When a fruit bowl shape has been worked into a centerpiece shape the bidding really gets seriious such as the bowl in the Garth Irby sale on January 13 of 2001 conducted by the Woody Auction Company here in St. Louis. That bowl left here for $6500 to its new home in North Carolina.

Can they be found in other colors? There was an amethyst fruit bowl that was sold by Jim Seeck in 1999 at an Illinois sale, listed as a rare color that only brought $525. That seems to be a low price for such a rare color Orange Tree fruit bowl. Do other colors exist? Maybe, we could have missed one along the way and someone will surely let us know.

Those of us with the patience and good enough eyesight to wade through hundreds of carnival glass listings on eBay each week have been rewarded many times in the last few years with sightings of glass patterns in colors that were not previously known to exist. Unfortunately, however, due to other priorities like eating, most of us can do nothing but L$$K. Does anyone else have that problem?

Orange Tree

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