Stork & Rushes Fruit Bowl vs. Punch Bowl

By Alan & Lorraine Pickup

We started collecting carnival glass many years ago with a gift from Lorraine’s mother of a marigold Stock & Rushes bowl. Many years and lots of carnival glass later we were the successful bidders in a local glass auction of a Summer Days vase. Knowing that this vase was used as the base for the Stork and Rushes punch set, we were delighted and surprised with a winning bid of $5.00.  And others at the auction were stunned as they were apparently caught dozing. One lady approached us immediately and asked to buy it.  We informed her that we would not even think of selling it as we had the punch bowl top at home.  Wrong!   To our surprise the Stork & Rushes we had at home turned out to be a large fruit bowl, not the punch bowl.

After several more years of watching and waiting we were finally able to purchase a punch bowl top.  This article hopefully will shorten the time it takes others to recognize the difference between the fruit bowl and the larger punch bowl.

The fruit bowl (on the right) is a slightly smaller bowl than the punch bowl that measures 8 ½” across and 3 ¾” high. But, has a very large collar base that measures some 5 ½” across.  On the other hand the punch bowl is somewhat larger, 9 ½” in diameter and 4 ½” deep, with a much smaller 4” collar base.  The Summer Days vase fits within this 4” collar. And yes the vase pattern, a bouquet of flowers is upside down when used as the punch bowl support. 

That one-inch difference in the size of the bowls is very evident when compared side by side but not that obvious when shopping in some remote antique mall. This punch bowl can be found as shown and also found ruffled.  This punch set is known in both marigold and amethyst. Amethyst punch cups are readily found, and we have seen one Summer Days vase in amethyst, and we were the runner-up bidder on an amethyst punch bowl top on eBay once. A seldom seen complete amethyst punch bowl was in the punch bowl display here in St. Louis last year.

The Summer Days vase was used for the base on this Dugan Stork and Rushes punch set. In the Angela Hallam’s 1981 book “Carnival Glass” it states: “A retired Davidson glass worker can recall turning them out.” Davidson Glass was a well-known English glassmaker. But, Glen Thistlewood, a very knowledgeable glass researcher, had told us some time back that the story was in all probability not the true. We believe today that the Summer Days vases were most likely made by Dugan.