My  First True Love ~aka~ COSMOS & CANE

My very first “sighting” of the Cosmos and Cane pattern was at a meeting of the Southern California Carnival Glass Club in Long Beach, CA. It was during the “Show and Tell” portion of the meeting, and Judy Maxwell, the Club President, had brought along a tall Cosmos and Cane compote in Honey Amber. Since we aren’t supposed to touch the displayed items, I asked Judy after the meeting if I could just look at it a little closer. She said it would be all right, so I very gingerly picked it up. I was hooked! I ran my hands over every inch of that compote . . . absolutely lovely! It even has small flowers and leaves/vines impressed into the bottom of the base! A caning pattern is in four areas around the base of the outside of the compote, with tall slender leaves between each one, with Cosmo-like flowers above the cane and daisy-like flowers above the leaves. The interior of these compotes have no pattern, however, I have other pieces (bowls) that have the headdress interior pattern. I wondered then, as I do now, “Just how did they do all of this beautiful work with the tools available??” The mold maker must have been a wizard, and the glass worker a master craftsman! I don’t see ANYTHING being made today that even comes close to matching this beautiful pattern . . . and it is getting on toward 100 years old . . . give or take a year. The next time I saw the Cosmos and Cane pattern was at an open house at Judy Maxwell’s house. (I am beginning to think that collecting this pattern is somehow all Judy’s fault!) I asked her if I could take the compote out of the case and show it to my daughter. Judy agreed, and I could tell that my daughter suspected she would be seeing a lot of that pattern around my house soon! (Nearly 40 pieces later, I think she was right!) Later in this same year, Judy called me and asked if I would be interested in buying the compote from her . . . geez, you would think I had been bugging her about it or something . . . I jumped at the chance! I sent the check, and she sent the compote. This was the first of many happy purchases of this pattern. I have a complete table set in White, as well as one in Honey Amber, several bowls of all shapes from very low ruffled to several taller and slightly scalloped, several White sauce dishes, (to go with one of the larger serving bowls), a White open breakfast sugar, (still looking for the breakfast creamer), a large dark Marigold rosebowl, several whimsies, several dome based compotes in both White and Honey amber, and 3 tall compotes. (One White, one Honey Amber, and one a very light Marigold.) I also have a pitcher in White and a tumbler to match. Lots of other odds and ends, but that is the general gist of it! Enough you say? I think not! Cosmos and Cane pattern has the most whimsies I have seen in any pattern, and, of course, I need them all. You will notice that it is not a matter of “want”, it is a matter of “need”. . . I also have a Lavender sugar bowl that I would very much like to find the other pieces of the table set. I also just purchased a clear (non iridized) 8½ inch bowl with gold decoration on the Cosmos and around the edge, and have the bottom of a sugar bowl that is not iridized either. Someone mentioned to me once a long time ago that they thought that Cosmos and Cane was a “Carnival Glass Only” pattern. Nope, not hardly... and I have the proof! ~~~by Doris Bliss~1/04