Goddess of Harvest, by Bob Grissom

The Goddess of Harvest carnival glass pieces were produced by the Fenton Art Glass Company and are very rare. Presently the pattern has been confirmed only in bowls, although most of the reference material state that it was also made in a plate. Bowls are known with tight crimped, three-in-one, ice cream shape, and six-ruffle edges. The only colors known are amethyst, blue and marigold.

The book Carnival Glass Identification Guide to Rare and Unusual Pieces by Bill Edwards and Mike Carwile shows a three-in-one and a six-ruffle bowl. They give some information about the face on the bowl. "According to Nellie Fenton Glasco, John Fenton's daughter (John Fenton was Frank L. Fenton's brother and co-founder of Fenton Glass), said in1980 that this bowl was designed by her father and depicts her mother." Note: This has not been confirmed by any of the Fenton family.

William Heacock wrote in Collecting Glass Publication, Volume 1, page 95, Collectors Corner, "We have the discovery of the year in this one-of-a-kind purple Goddess of Harvest plate." He did not give the name of the owner. He has a picture of what he calls the plate (the photo is in black and white and the details are not clear). He goes on to describe the plate. "This picture shows the unique rim on the piece for the first time, with alternating large and small scallops. The 'ribbon candy' crimp tends to distort these scallops from being compared to other known plates for attribution. Believe me, this is a plate -- not a low bowl." Note: This description does not describe any carnival glass manufacturer's plate and especially not the usual Fenton plate. Fenton plates are usually rather flat.

In an article, Collar Base 9" Plates, by Don Moore that appeared in March 1989 of The Carnival Pump, Don lists his Top 25 Plates. The Goddess of Harvest is listed as his "Number One." He states, "Amethyst ($7,500) and marigold ($6,000). Rumored for years, at least one in each color has now been confirmed. The amethyst one sold privately in 1987." Tom Burns states that he has seen a photograph of an amethyst plate, but the person that had the photo would not say who had the plate and the actual plate has not been seen.

Marion Hartung did not identify this pattern in any of her ten books. It is illustrated in Presznick's Book III, plate #258. The Bill Edwards/Mike Carwile, 8th Edition shows a bowl that has a tight crimped edge and they reference a plate. Margaret and Kenn Whitmyer's book, Fenton Art Glass, 1907--1939 shows an amethyst three-in-one edge bowl and they list a plate. In an article written by Tom Mordini in July 1994 for the Texas Carnival Glass Club, he states, "A plate shape is rumored to exist but has never been confirmed." Dave Doty's website, ddoty.com, does not reference plates.



Amethyst Bowls

The tight crimped edge, above, sold at the September 13, 2014 auction of the Jackie Poucher collection, the selling price was $25,000. The Pouchers purchased it from Steve Morrow and Tom Mordini. Steve and Tom purchased the bowl from Norene Durand, who lived in New Mexico.

A three-in-one edge bowl, which was in the Fenton museum, was purchased by Russell Umbraco, a Fenton Glass collector from Nevada.

Carnival Glass Society Journal #12, June 1986, page 240, Pattern Notes article by Ray Notley. He reported an ice cream shape bowl, "A very desirable and true rarity it resides in a collection in Australia."

A tight crimped edge bowl was also reported in the same article by Ray Notley. "The one in the UK has a tight continuous crimp which too is rather unusual when compared to the candy ribbon edging found on this dish in the USA." Note: Galen & Kathi Johnson have visited the UK and have not been able to obtain any information regarding there being any Goddess of Harvest bowls there.

A six-ruffle edge bowl is owned by Roger McCauley, Illinois, a LLCGC and ICGA member. It was purchased from Carl Schroeder, a past president of ICGA.

Marigold Bowls

Tight crimped edge bowl (only one tight crimped edge marigold bowl ever reported). Burney Talley of New Mexico owned this bowl for a short period of time. He had a friend buy it for him from an auction, he paid $3,500 for the bowl. The bowl was taken from his home while he was out of the house doing some errands. His housekeeper allowed a person, whom he was familiar with because this person had visited with Burney on other occasions, in the house. The housekeeper went about his chores in other parts of the house. When the housekeeper came back into the room the visitor had left. When Burney returned home he noticed this piece was missing. To date the bowl has never been seen. Note: since this is the only known tight crimped edge marigold bowl it should not be difficult to recognize.



The six-ruffled edge bowl, pictured here, was owned by Joe Benner prior to his selling it to Bill Reyan (The Trapper). Bill sold it at the 2007 SSCGC convention auction, which was conducted by Jim Wroda, the Pouchers were the successful bidders. It was sold by Jackie Poucher at the September 13, 2014 auction of her collection which was conducted by the Seeck Auction Co. Roger MacCauley was the successful bidder.

A six-ruffle edge bowl was purchased by Galen and Kathi Johnson in February 1997 from Tom Mordini, who purchased it from Steve Morrow. Steve got the bowl from Dave Sharp.

A three-in-one edge bowl was found and purchased by Brent Mochel at the Mid-America Antique Mall in Springfield, Ohio in 2012. The current owner of this bowl is Don Clark.

A three-in-one edge bowl is reported to be owned by Evan Walker. He said that he purchased it at a farm auction, all of the glass at the auction was sitting on a farm wagon.

A three-in-one edge, Tom and Ann Bumpass purchased the bowl at the November 10, 2012 auction of the Fred Roque collection.



Blue Bowls

Only two blue bowls are known, one has a tight crimped edge and the other has the six-ruffle edge. The tight crimped edge bowl sold at the September 13, 2014 Seeck auction of the Jackie Poucher collection, the selling price was $52,500.

According to an article in the December 2001 HOACGA newsletter by Jack Adams, the tight crimped edge blue bowl first appeared in the late 1960s when a couple from Bellefontaine, Ohio wrote to Rose Presznick inquiring about their bowl. She referred them to her book and she made them an offer. The couple also wrote to Paul Steiner, a carnival glass collector in Kenton, Ohio in late 1969. He went to see it, but he went home without the bowl that day. A few days later Mr. Steiner drove back, through a blizzard, and made a second offer. The couple promised to call him within two hours but when he did not receive the call, Steiner called and increased his offer by $100, "if you deliver the bowl tonight." He got the bowl.

While negotiating for the bowl, Steiner had talked to Dick Lochinger in Dayton, Ohio. He had encouraged Steiner to purchase the bowl and Lochinger expressed interest in purchasing the bowl from him. After Steiner got the bowl, he called Lochinger, but got no answer. Steiner then went to Pontiac, Michigan to see a prominent collector, Harry Whitlow. He promptly bought the bowl.

In 1973 Whitlow sold his collection to Marshall Shafer, a former President of ACGA. Shafer put a price of $4,250 on the bowl, but it did not sell. He put the bowl in an October 1973 auction in Akron, Ohio. Delton Kemp, Raymond, Ohio took the bowl home for $2,550.

Kemp then sold the bowl to Sam Roebuck, from North Carolina. It stayed with Roebuck until he had John Woody auction his collection in St. Louis, MO, September 4, 1982. Jack and Mary Adams drove from their home in Wisconsin. Mary was seven months pregnant with their daughter, Laura. Knowing this may be their last carnival purchase for a while, they felt fortunate to get the bowl for $3,100.

Charles and Eleanor Mochel purchased the bowl from Mary Adams in 2004, after Jack's episode. The Mochels sold the bowl to Tom Mordini and Bruce Hill who then sold it to the Pouchers in April 2008.

The six-ruffle edge bowl was purchased at an 1993 auction in Carrollton, MO. The owner, Darrell Neeley's, own story as to how he obtained it is told below:

My Needle in a Haystack, by Darrel Neeley

As a kid, my parents dragged me around to all the farm auctions nearby. They would buy all sorts of things, nothing specific. My mother started collecting the Orange Tree pattern in marigold in 1992. I decided to start collecting carnival glass a year later, and chose to collect Orange Tree in blue. Of course, we all know that you can't just stay with one pattern. I did what all of us have done. I started hitting the paper for local auctions, flea markets, and antique shops. I saw an upcoming auction in Carrollton, Missouri, stating it had old carnival glass. It was a cold, wet, snowy day on the morning of December 4th, 1993. I was only 25 years old, soon to be 26. My parents lived in nearby Brookfield, Missouri, and I resided in Chillicothe, Missouri. They picked me up, and we were off to the auction. There was a lot of glass and household items at the sale, and it was going to be a long day. I saw only one bowl that looked to me to be carnival glass, but it had a human figure on it, and I was not knowledgeable enough to know if such a pattern existed. I went outside and looked at my Bill Edwards encyclopedia, but did not find the pattern. The auction was going slow, so we decided to leave and go home. My parents were driving, and I was in the backseat thumbing through Bill Edwards still trying to come up with a pattern. Then "bam" there it was, a Goddess of Harvest. Somehow, I had overlooked it. It's easy to do when your heart is pounding with excitement. I looked in back at the suggested price list, and I said, "Dad, I think we should turn around." He agreed to go back, not even knowing if it would even still be there. We arrived and it was still there. They had just started on that row. I studied the design and went to the car to compare it with the photograph in Bill Edwards again. It looked like what was depicted in the book, but I did not know if this was a pattern that was reproduced. I was going to just see what the bidding started at and just where it would go. It started at $5 and was going up in $5 increments. As the price went up, so did my mother's blood pressure. Soon she was taking off her coat, and then her sweatshirt. Her face was turning beet red, and she was starting to sweat.

This was told to me by my father, who was watching my mother and making sure she did not pass out. Finally, we arrived to the end of the bidding, and I had a bowl. I really did not know what I had until I showed it to Mickey Reichel and talked to John Britt. I guess I found my "needle in a haystack" so to speak. So good luck to you. I am sure there are plenty of needles still out there for others to find.

Special thanks to Darrell Neeley for sharing his collecting story.

Information for this article was supplied by Brent and Eleanor Mochel, Tom Mordini, Burney Talley, Gary Lickver and Tom Burns. Seeck Auctions and Darrell Neeley supplied the photographs.

This article originally appeared in the November 2014 issue of Carnival Glass Action, the HOACGA/Texas newsletter and is reprinted here with the permission of the author.