Wassail Milk Glass Punch Bowl with Satyr, Imp, Goat, and Grape Harvest, Imperial Glass, Ohio, 1950

This is a very unusual wassail punch bowl that was made by the Imperial Glass Company, Bellaire, Ohio. It was only made for one year, 1950 (pattern 1950/20), and came with a set of 12 cups with grapes, foliage, and twig handles imprinted with tree bark (which we have, but not pictured). The punch bowl and cups are made of milk glass and in this case come with a satin finish, or doeskin as Imperial referred to it. The bowl is surrounded with a range of different bacchanalian scenes, including a satyr reaching to pick some grapes, an imp riding a goat, the harvesting of the grapes, a woman (a maenad) pouring wine down the throat of a fellow reveler (Silenus?), and a young boy (or putti) looking perilously close to falling in a vat of wine. When we bought this, we had no idea who had made it and thought the cups looked like Hobbs & Brockunier, grapes with overlapping foliage. The satin finish threw us off the trail, but we eventually identified this based on the National Milk Glass Collectors Society's rare item gallery (see https://www.nmgcs.org/feature-gallery/). This impressive punch bowl stands 8 ¼” high and is 11 ¾” in diameter.

If anyone has suggestions for photographing this type of white satin glass, please let us know (we would like to eventually post better pictures).