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Surprise Patterns from McKee

By Gilbert Beeson

McKee and Brothers was a thriving Pittsburgh glasshouse in the 1880s. Tableware production for McKee has been well documented from various catalogues illustrating their wares. Innes and Spillman (1981) reprinted five early catalogues, and Stout (1972) reprinted the complete 1868 and 1880 catalogues as well as many illustrations from catalogues and trade journals for the factories that succeeded McKee and Brothers.

I recently acquired an original 1882 factory cata-logue of McKee and Brothers which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been reported in the literature. It is a short softcover document that is somewhat fragile and has several stains appearing on all of the 30 pages of the catalogue. Nevertheless the illustrated glassware is quite clear. The brown cover of the catalogue has faded gold letters, which are legible. It reads "1882, Illustrated Cata-logue, McKee & Brothers, Pittsburgh, S. S." A few words, presumably the firm's street address, are not clear. The size of the pages is 91/4 inches by 11 inches.

There are no price lists in the catalogue. Stout (1972), however, reprinted an 1861 Price List for "M'Kee & Brothers" in a Handbook that accompanied her encyclopedic volume on McKee Glass. This Price List contains many of the patterns illustrated in the newly surfaced 1882 factory catalogue.

The dealer from whom I purchased the catalogue states that "it came out of a general store in a small town outside Atlanta."

There are several surprise patterns never before linked to McKee. The first two pages of the catalogue picture 19 items in McKee's Jewel Pattern (Catalogue pp. 12). It is the pattern known to collectors today as Diagonal Band (also known as Diagonal Block and Fan). The pieces include the usual 4 piece table set, dishes in 3 sizes, quart and 1/2 gallon pitchers, covered pickle jar, and covered compotes in 3 sizes.
McKee produced a later imitation cut glass pattern, which was also called Jewel (Revi, 1973; Stout, 1972). Thus it appears McKee used the name "Jewel" for two different patterns. This pattern was not included in the 1880 McKee and Brothers catalogue, and it was not in the 1881 Price List. Thus it seems likely Jewel was introduced in 1882. Lee (1960) lists several standard tableware pieces for Diagonal Band that are not included in the 1882 catalogue. Apparently the line was expanded in the years following 1882.

The Welkers (1985) indicated that the date and origins of Diagonal Band are unknown. This catalogue establishes it as a McKee and Brothers product of the early 1880s and probably 1882.

A second surprise pattern is Modern (Catalogue pp. 4-6). This pattern turns out to be today's familiar Scroll with Flowers. Some 31 different items are offered in Modern. They include the standard 4 piece table set, salt, egg, radish, graduated size stemware, quart and 1/z gallon pitchers, various size dishes and covered compotes, and a molasses can.

Both Kamm (1948, Book 5, p.27) and Revi (1964, p. 240) found the Modern pattern in an 1880 McKee Price List but they did not know what it looked like. According to Kamm (1948, Book 5, p.27) " 'Modern' was their (McKee and Brothers) design for 1880, but what it was is not known. It came in the standard pieces, and, in addition, molasses can, pickle jar, champagne and wine glasses, in clear only."

The 1881 Price List includes essentially the same pieces of Modern for sale as are pictured in the 1882 catalogue. There are a few differences between the Price List and the catalogue listings, but these are due to the use of different names for the same piece in the two docu-ments. Thus we can safely say that Modern (Scroll with Flowers) was introduced by McKee and Brothers around 1880 if not before.
Scroll with Flowers (Modern) has been attributed to Central Glass Company and Canton Glass Company (Jenks and Luna, 1990).I have not located the source of the Central attribution, but Eige (1994, pp. 103-104) lists the known patterns of Central and does not include Scroll with Flowers. The Canton attribution was made by Kamm (1939, Book 1, p. 74) based on the similarity of Scroll with Flowers handles to those of Dahlia, a known Canton pattern. The identification of Scroll with Flowers as the unknown Modern pattern produced by McKee and Brothers proves that these earlier attributions are in error.

Since the 1880 McKee and Brothers illustrated catalogue was their No. 27 and this 1882 catalogue is their No. 29, it seems logical that a No. 28 was produced in 1881. We can also infer that 26 issues preceded the 1880 catalogue. Thus there are many catalogues and unattributed McKee patterns waiting to be found.

Eige, G. Eason. "East Wheeling Glass Works (Central Glass Company), pp. 97-104." In Wheeling Glass, 1829 - 1939, Collection of the Oglebay Institute Glass Museum. Gerald I. Reilly, Editor. Wheeling, West Virginia: Oglebay Institute,1994.

Innes, Lowell, and Jane Shadel Spillman. M'Kee Victorian Glass: Five Complete Glass Catalogs from 1859/60 to 1871. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1981.

Jenks, Bill, and Jerry Luna. Early American Pattern Glass, 1850-1910: Major Collectible Table Settings with Prices. Radnor, Pennsylvania: Wallace-Homestead Book Company,1990.

Lee, Ruth Webb. Early American Pressed Glass, Enlarged and Revised. Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts: Lee Publications, 1960.

Revi, Albert Christian. American Pressed Glass and Figure Bottles. 5th Printing. New York: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1973.

Stout, Sandra McPhee. The Complete Book of McKee Glass. North Kansas City, Missouri: Trojan Press, Inc., 1972.

Stout, Sandra McPhee. Handbook and Inventory Guide to The Complete Book of McKee Glass. North Kansas City, Missouri: Trojan Press, Inc., 1972.

Welker, John, and Elizabeth Welker. Pressed Glass in America: Encyclopedia of the First Hundred Years, 1825 -1925. Ivyland, Pennsylvania: Antique Acres Press, 1985.