MacBeth Evans Dogwood

by Kathy Eickholt

MacBeth Evans made several well-known depression glass patterns, such as American Sweetheart, Stippled Rose and Dogwood. Dogwood has an all-over pattern of large flowers that almost make it look like brocade etch. It is unmistakable; you won't have a problem identifying this pattern! One MacBeth Evans depression glass characteristic is the glass is fairly thin and not perfectly clear. Dogwood is no exception. The pieces appear very delicate, yet it is actually not particularly prone to damage. Edges of the bowls and sherbets are not truly round but have rounded corners.

Green Dogwood is much less common than the pink, at least here in mid-Michigan, and I have never seen a piece. The book values for green pieces are somewhat higher than for the pink. It looks pretty in the pictures!

There are uncommon pieces in pink Dogwood, notably the tumblers, sherbets, cake plate, pitcher and coaster. Tumblers and cereal bowls are scarce in almost every depression glass pattern, but usually sherbets are easy to find. Not so with Dogwood. The one piece that could be called common is the 8 inch lunch plate. For some reason this is the piece you will see most often.

Dogwood came in a full dinnerware set, including dinner, lunch and sherbet plates, cereal bowl, two sizes of serving bowls, sherbets, five sizes of tumblers, cups, saucers, pitchers and platters. MacBeth Evans did not make a huge number of depression glass patterns but they did make a wide variety in each style. Besides the dinner set you may find the coaster, which is rare. These would be choice additions to anyone's collection.

There are two sizes of cups and if you have a depression glass reference book they will be called thin and thick. That is not helpful if you have not seen both together. The thick cups look like most cups. The sides flare out slightly and they are more or less straight. Thick cups are 2½ inches tall and 3 5/8 inches across at the lip. The thin cups look more delicate and are shaped like small flared bowls with handles. The flared shape and thin glass give the impression of being blown but of course the cups are pressed glass. Thin cups are 2 3/8 inches tall and 3 7/8 inches across at the lip.

There are two sizes and shapes of sugars, too. One is taller and footed and the other is short, flat and looks a little thicker glass than the other. The taller one looks like the classic depression glass footed sugar, and is shaped similar to the American Sweetheart sugar. It is 3½ inches tall and 3 3/8 inches wide. The smaller sugar looks like a cup with two handles; it does not have a foot and is 2¾ inches tall.

Our tumblers are pink with a decorated band of flowers that is raised and grainy, similar to the Coralline decoration. It reminds me of the sprinkles one would put on cookies. There is another style of Dogwood tumblers that have the design molded into a band but not the raised grainy design. These are far less valuable because they don't have the looks of the decorated style. MacBeth Evans made tumblers in the Stippled Rose pattern that have the same band and if you have seen those the design is less distinct than with the decorated styles. According to my books, there are also tumblers with no design on them whatever that are nice go-withs.

The tumblers should be hand washed as dishwasher heat makes them prone to cracking and the detergent could harm the raised decorated band. In fact it is a wise practice to wash all your depression glass by hand. This is old glass that simply was not made to go in the dishwasher. Hand washing also reduces the chance of glass getting hazy or made brittle.

Webmaster's NOTE: The NDGA wishes to thank the author for permission to use this article. Kathy is a dealer from Midland, Michigan. Her web site is Cat Lady's Glass.