Maple Leaf Tumblers

Maple Leaf Tumblers, A Research Report
by Carl and Eunice Booker

1. Purple Maple Leaf tumbler. This tumbler has a wavy line near the top. Above the wavy line is a ring of scalloped panels. There is a star in the base.

2. This marigold tumbler has a straight ring near the top. It, too, has a ring of scalloped panels above the ring. It, too, has a star in the base. (This tumbler is in the Booker collection.)

3. This marigold Maple Leaf tumbler has the straight ring near the top. It, however, does not have a ring of scalloped panels above the ring, nor does it have a star in the base. (This tumbler is in the Booker collection.)

4. This marigold Maple Leaf tumbler is the same one as in picture 3. It has the straight line but no paneled scallops or star in the base. This pictures shows the plain base. (This tumbler is in the Booker collection.)

This report on the Maple Leaf pattern will probably never be quite finished. The more information that comes forward makes one want to find out even more (if that is possible). This pattern was reported by Mrs. Hartung (Book 1) as being a Northwood product. It is now known that Northwood did produce different items in this pattern, but, to our present knowledge, none that were iridized. There are Northwood pieces known in custard, clear, and opalescent glass. To the best of our knowledge the iridized pieces were made by Dugan. It is thought that the original molds were left at the factory when Northwood moved and were later used by Dugan to produce the Carnival Glass items. The iridized pieces are known in water sets, table sets, and berry sets.

Now the interesting discoveries begin to show themselves. (These "interesting discoveries" tend to be found in the Carnival Glass tumblers.) Most of the Carnival Glass pieces show the large Maple leaf (debatable identification) with the Soda Gold or Tree-of-Life background and a prominent wavy line near the top of the pattern. Above this wavy line and surrounding the entire pattern is a series of arched (scalloped) panels. Above the arched panels is a band of non-patterned glass. Most of the pieces have a wavy line surrounding the pattern near the base and some have the arched panel (upside down), under the wavy line. This, however, is not the end of the story. Some tumblers are found with a ring near the top instead of the wavy line. Most of these ringed tumblers carry the arched panel above the ring. Some of the arched panels are very hard to see, but close examination shows them to be there.

The tumblers mentioned above all seem to have a twenty-four point star in the base. The star seems to have every other point extended a bit beyond the point next to it, but this may not hold true for every tumbler. Now comes the next interesting aspect. Some of these ringed tumblers have a plain base--no star. These tumblers also seem NOT to have the arched panels around the top.

It is known that Northwood made several of their tumblers with a ring or band near the top of the tumbler pattern. Does one dare to think that maybe, just maybe, Northwood made this ringed tumbler without the star and arched panel? While Mrs. Hartung indicates that some of the Maple Leaf tumblers are signed, she drew a tumbler with the wavy line and arched panels. In our collecting experience we have not seen a Maple Leaf tumbler that is signed with either the Northwood or Dugan sign.

The Maple Leaf water pitchers all seem to have been made with the wavy line around the top and bottom and the panels above and below the wavy line. It would be interesting to know if an iridized water pitcher can be found with the ring instead of the wavy line.

While color is not the expressed interest for this report, it might help one understand the difference in some of the items that were made. Colors reported for the tumblers are amethyst (purple), blue, marigold, and green. Blue seems to be harder to find than the other colors and the green is reported only in the Carl Burns' book. Some other color variations are reported in amethyst-purple and blue.

While the Maple Leaf pattern seems to have been made from 1910 until 1928, its availability keeps the selling prices rather low. This report is only intended to bring out the differences in some of the tumblers. This report has not named any of the tumblers as a variant, but the ones with the ring are usually referred to as "variant." While the tumbler with the plain base adds a bit of interest, I would hesitate to give it a different identification than just "variant with plain base."