Sharra asked me to help her with a pretty amber opalescent spiral piece marked Fostoria.
I had a vague recollection of a later, small Fostoria spiral pattern, but could not think of any that were opalescent besides Heirloom and Seascape, neither of which had spirals or swirls. Shanna told me her piece (which I thought was a vase) is marked Fostoria on the bottom. Since most Fostoria marked pieces are from the 1960s or so, that gave me another clue.
I searched online for Fostoria amber opalescent, Fostoria spiral, Fostoria opalescent, but didn’t find anything matching Sharra’s pretty piece. Nothing popped up on Replacements or eBay.
Today I checked one of my reference books, Fostoria, An Identification and Value Guide of Pressed, Blown and Hand Molded Shapes by Ann Kerr. I don’t use this book often because it shows a tiny line drawing of the pattern, but it is pretty helpful for decorative patterns and those where the shape is important, not an etch or cutting.
Sure enough, the book shows Homespun, pattern #4183, made in gold, moss green, teal blue in the late 1950s and discontinued in 1965. Apparently Homespun is a tiny pattern with only three tumblers, 9 ounce juice or old fashioned, 11 1/2 ounce water or scotch and soda and 15 ounce ice tea or highball. There is no record of any plates or pitchers to go with the tumblers.
You’ll notice the colors, amber, moss green and teal blue, are definitely the colors of the late 1950s/early 1960s. Often when you have a color you can narrow in to the decade it was popular, which can be helpful. Oddly my book does not mention that these are opalescent colors!
I was curious why my earlier searches hadn’t turned up Homespun. Replacements describes it as gold, gives production dates of 1959-1965, but doesn’t mention it is opalescent or a spiral design.
eBay has a teal old fashioned and an amber iced tea. Neither listing uses the words “spiral” or “swirl”, the amber tumbler does use “opalescent”. No wonder I couldn’t find it.