Patterns - FEATHER

by Ruth Forsythe
Issue #1 - May 1973

Welcome to your brand new sparkling, unscratched and very healthy NATIONAL CAMBRIDGE COLLECTORS, INC.

The closing of The Cambridge Glass Company was regrettable. However, like all happenings, there is an influence of good and bad. The bad being so many people left without jobs. The good was that a new beautiful and exciting glassware was handed to the ever expanding collecting world.

It is the hope of every present and future Cambridge glass collector that there will be no more patterns re-produced. The experienced collector of a pattern can almost always tell the difference between the original and the reproduction ten feet away. However, the novice is in trouble and will shy away from any reproduced patterns in glass.

The now extinct Cambridge Glass Company of Cambridge, Ohio, created so much beauty for the human eye to encounter that their imaginative and creative originality in glassware should be guarded and preserved to eternity.

NEAR CUT

Near Cut was the Cambridge trademark for glass made to resemble cut glass. The mark is usually found in the center of a piece and is in relief as it was part of the mold. The mark is two words: one above the other. A few pieces, however, have the two words with one following the other. The mark is also found on pieces with handles, near the handle. Sometimes at the base of the handle and sometimes near the top. Not all pieces of Near Cut are marked. There were many patterns made in Near Cut, which will be covered later.

NEAR CUT #2651 - FEATHER

Feather pitcher There is no other pattern quite like the FEATHER, so it is not a confusing pattern. On a piece, you will find a row of feathers standing erect around the lower half of the body. Above the feathers, is a horizontal band of large Hexagonal buttons with pinwheels inside. Each of the buttons is inside a larger diamond, the points of which extend above and below the band. Most pieces have a rosette or rayed bottom and some have both. Bowls, cracker jars, etc., have scalloped tops. Drinking vessels such as wines, tumblers, etc. have plain edges at the top. On handled pieces, the handle is zippered down the back.

FEATHER pattern was made in four piece sets, (sugar, creamer, spooner, and butter), various sizes of vases, handled baskets, tumblers, various sizes in pitchers, pickle and celery vases, carafes, toothpicks, whiskey jugs, decanters, wines, goblets, candy dishes, footed sherbets, custard cups, punch bowls, many sizes of nappies and bowls, plates, two sizes of salvers, many sizes of footed compotes and probably other pieces at various times.

The wholesale price for tumblers was 80 cents per dozen.

An early pattern and possibly made in color as many Near Cut patterns were made in a beautiful emerald green.