The
bowl in Figure 3 is Fenton’s "Polka Dot", characterized by staggered
rows of spots and a band of white opalescence around the crimps.
This
pattern I believe is circa 1955. At the bottom of Figure 4 are two bowls made
in an entirely different way. These bowls, one cobalt and one cranberry, started
life completely cased in white - which was then ground away in a slightly
concave manner (thumbprint) until it was through to the inner colored glass.
Because these little ground windows or optic eyes are concave, when you look
into them, you see many small images of the spots on the other side. That
is why they are often called "thousand eyes". The third bowl in this picture
is a more conventionally formed thumbprint in white opalescent. It is believed
that all three of these bowls are late models - possibly made in Japan. A
good tip off to their origin is their ground smooth bottoms. Both Fenton and
Jefferson did make bowls similar to the one at the top which I
believe
were called "Coinspot". Next, in Figure 5, are two antique bowls from that
venerable English glass house - Stevens & Williams. These are formed with
reverse thumbprints in the threaded glass ground - yielding an interesting
dot effect which
was
called "raindrop". Finally, in Figure 6, on the left is another Japanese cranberry
bowl in a large thumbprint motif. Wright made similar bowls but in their classic
wafer footed style. On the right is another imported "thousand eyes" - this
one ground through the ruby exterior to the clear interior. In the top bowl,
captured controlled size bubbles of air between two layers of glass also give
a dot effect. This is likely from the Italian maker Barovier and made in the
1950s. Well, I hope this little tour of dot embellished rose bowls has given
you a basic understanding of this decorative form. It is by no means meant
to be comprehensive as this was an immensely popular theme and made in many
shapes and colors. I have purposely not touched on "hobnail" bowls, for instance
as these could be the subject for an entirely new article.