New Beaded Shell Water Set in Vaseline

Authentic Beaded Shell (originally called New York) was made by Dugan Glass beginning in 1904. Original colors include a light green opalescent, clear opalescent, blue opalescent, transparent apple green, transparent blue and crystal. An original water set of pitcher and six tumblers is worth about $750 - $900. The new 7-piece set wholesales for $65.

Reproductions of Beaded Shell date back to at least 1969 when the pattern was offered by the L. G. Wright Glass Company. In 1939, Wright purchased a number of original molds descended from the Northwood and Dugan glass factories and it's thought that Beaded Shell was included among those.

An authentic water set was not available for a side by side comparison with the reproduction at the time of this writing. For now, the best way to avoid the new set is to go by original colors. Vaseline is a new color, it would be very rare and highly unlikely that genuine Dugan-made set exists in vaseline. Do not use black light as a test of age for this particular vaseline glass. The new set does fluoresce under long wave black light.

These reproductions of Beaded Shell, including the vaseline version shown below, were made at Mosser Glass. Some but not all of Mosser's pieces are marked with a letter M and a line underneath. Size of the mark varies. The new Beaded Shell pitcher has a tiny letter M on one foot, the tumbler is unmarked.

Special thanks to James Measell for his help with this information. See Dugan/Diamond, Heacock-Measell-Wiggins © 1993 and The L.G. Wright Glass Co., Measell-Roettis ©1997, both titles by Antique Publications, Marietta, Ohio.