"Near-Cut" Patterns
by Phyllis Smith
Issue #93 - January 1981
Did you find a piece of Cambridge glass under your tree Christmas morning? I hope so, and I also hope that some of you received a piece of Cambridge Nearcut. Its popularity seems to be growing by leaps and bounds here lately, so if you have been passing it up, you might want to reconsider and give it another look.
One pattern you might want to give a second look to is the #2760
Daisy. First mention of this beautiful pattern has been found in the
January 6, 1910 issue of Crockery & Glass Journal, page 30,
which stated "For the Cambridge Glass Company, Wm. Dealing will show,
among others, design No. 2760." The design of this pattern was
magnificently created and molded into very heavy, thick pieces of
glass. Perhaps the weight of each piece aided in its survival over the
past seventy years!
Pieces in this pattern turn up regularly at antique shows and flea
markets and usually command reasonable to high prices. As you can see
from the catalog pages shown here, some of the pieces have the "arched"
foot (which was patented), while others do not. Also, many pieces have
been found with the Nearcut mark, while others have none.
The exquisite covered compote shown here (above right) turned up at a show in Florida last winter. It went home with a collector of compotes, not a Cambridge glass collector. This particular piece is not shown on any of the catalog pages we have at our disposal, and it was not marked, but there is no doubt it was the Daisy pattern made by the Cambridge Glass Company.
In an article written by Ruth Forsythe in the October 1973 issue of the Crystal Ball, this pattern was referred to as "Red Sunflower." Further research indicates that the Red Sunflower name was applied to the pattern by Minnie Watson Kamm in her book entitled A Second Two Hundred Pattern Glass Pitchers, copyrighted in 1940.
To our knowledge this pattern has been found in crystal only. Sometimes the flowers and leaves are frosted, adding to the beauty of the design. Pieces have also been found with a ruby flashing, which undoubtedly led to the Red Sunflower name. Thus far in our research we have not discovered a piece of Daisy in color. If anyone knows of this pattern in color, please let us hear from you.