March 2014 Newsletter

The Lucky Cloverleaf Pattern

Cloverleaf is a pattern of Hazel Atlas glass that has spanned more than 80 years and still has the charm as when it was first sold in the 1930's. Although we call it a lucky pattern, there are no four leaf clovers iin the pattern! The Cloverleaf pattern is stippled and banded around the 15 known pieces.

Originally sold as a luncheon set consisting of the lunch plate, cup, saucer and cereal bowls. Later the serving pieces were added; which included the 7" serving bowl with 4" berry bowls, tumblers and the ashtrays. It is likely that pieces were sold for commercial use as well as home use, hence the heavy grill plate and the heavy footed tumbler. These types of pieces were common in diners, store lunch counters (like G.C. Murphy's, F.W. Woolworths, etc) and ice cream parlors.

Green appears to be the most coomon color and usually the most desired for collectors. It seems the black was just as heavy produced as the green since it is easier ti find, although less desirable. The pink and yellow is hard to assemble a complete set, it may be that these colors were not well received by buyers or they did not survive through the years. Nevertheless, pink and yellow are not rare colors, just less desirable.

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Color and Pieces Cloverleaf Pattern

The colors produced in the Cloverleaf pattern are green, black, pink, clear and yellow. The known pieces are

• 7" Serving Bowl
• 5 1./2" Cereal Bowl
• 4" Berry Bowl
• Salt and Pepper Shakers
• Footed Creamer
• Footed Sugar
• Lunch Plate
• Grill Plate
• Cup
• Saucer
• Sherbet
• Ashtray
• Flat Tumbler (straight side)
• Footed Tumbler
• Flared Tumbler
• Candy Dish with Lid

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Odd - Rare -Unusual

Price Trends

*Please note: prices quoted are retail prices, if you are selling to a dealer, you should expect at least 30% less

The prices for Cloverleaf pattern are quite stable. They hover in the moderately affordable range of $10 -$40 and have maintained their prices even through the last decade of price crashes that many glass patterns suffered from. The common color of green does command a little more in price than the other colors, mainly because that is the obvious color collectors lean towards. Although I think the pink is just as attaractive and it is usually priced around the same as the green, it is a harder sell!

The black is by no means rare or hard to find. It appears that Hazel Atlas went through a large black glass phase in the late 1940s producing a lot of unpatterned pieces. The Cloverleaf pattern is one of the few patterned pieces in black, however, it never really caught on as a collectible. I have seen black Cloverleaf sit on antique dealer shelves and at flea markets for years! Mainly, the black is usually priced by sellers at the same as the green; however, collectors have little interest in black at the higher green prices.

The yellow cloverleaf pattern is a different story. While the grill plate and footed tumbler are easy to find, assembling a complete set in yellow would seem impossible to me. As a collector, I see no problem paying the same price for the yellow as the green (except the grill plate and footed tumbler), if you can just find the pieces!

When buying pieces, make sure you are getting unchipped or undamaged pieces, the grill plates seem to suffer the most from scratches and chips, probably because of their heavy usage.

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Reproductions - Rumors - Fantasy Pieces

To date, there are no known reproductions in the Cloverleaf pattern. This does not mean that it could not happen, as of this newsletter date (March 2014) there has been no reprodcutions produced in the Cloverleaf pattern. For all the latest reproduction news on depression glass, visit our facebook page or join the Hazel Atlas site to keep up to date.

There also has been no fantasy pieces found in Cloverleaf. A fantasy piece is a piece that was never prodcued by the original maker, yet passed off as a piece that was. Most of the time, people will assume fantasy pieces are rare never before seen pieces.

Now for the rumored pieces. There are three pieces in Cloverleaf that are rumored to exist. It is rumored that Hazel Atlas produced a similar pattern to Cloverleaf, that instead of the banded rim, it has random cloverleaves floating throughout the piece.

I held a 5" cereal bowl in this pattern about 10 years ago, however, it was out of price range for me at the time. The dealer was sure it was Hazel Atlas, and I tend to agree that it may have been, however, I was not thouroughly convinced. It appeared to be the same color green, however, without confirmation, I choose not to buy it at the price offered.

Another rumored piece is the cup and saucer in the same random pattern. I was told about the unbanded Cloverleaf cup and saucer by a collector who claimed he had a set and wanted to find more. I asked for a photo, yet he never followed through.

If you know of or find pieces with this different Cloverleaf pattern, please let me know about it, I would like to share it with other collectors.