Unusually Large Hand Painted Mary Gregory Style Cranberry Glass Rose Bowl

A superb and unusually large antique Mary Gregory cranberry glass centrepiece. Mary Gregory glass indicates a style of glass rather than a manufacturer. It originates from a delightful myth that an American lady named Mary Gregory painted stylised designs of children on thousands of pieces of glassware. It is known that the style of decoration originated in Bohemia. There was indeed a Mary Gregory living in 1880s America working for the Boston & Sandwich Glass, but she in only known to have painted landscapes not children. Many Bohemian factories produced this decorative glassware in the Victorian period. The name Mary Gregory Glass was developed and promoted by the Westmorland Glass Company in the 1920s as an advertising hook and were so successful that the name continues to be used. This stunning cranberry glass vase has a pedestal foot raises to a clear glass stem which in turn opens to the urn shaped cranberry bowl with a fluted rim. The base is decorated with elegant white scrolls. The body of the vase has a child playing in a landscape, all completed in white, relying on the thickness of the enamel and the skill of the artist to produce the detail of the design. The vase is huge and would have been designed to provide a stunning centrepiece. It is without damage.