A little obscure maybe? This is one of the less well-known patterns from the depression era, Mount Vernon by Imperial. This particular piece is a lily pond or shallow bowl and it has a deeply carved fruit design. That deep carving is called intaglio. It adds an extra jolt of style.
Mount Vernon Crystal Intaglio Base 9 in Lily Bowl
Imperial made Mount Vernon in colors and clear plus some flashed pieces. It’s very similar to the Williamsburg pressed pattern from Tiffin. You can tell them apart by the centers. Mount Vernon continues the waffle design in the centers while Williamsburg has the star. OK, so how do I know this one, with the intaglio fruit, is Mount Vernon? I’m making an educated guess because Imperial made other patterns with intaglio centers. (Incidentally, be aware that Tiffin made a cut pattern also called Williamsburg. They must have liked the name.)
Imperial was an interesting company. At the same time they were making masses of lovely Candlewick and other quality glass they were busy producing several pressed patterns that we consider depression glass today. Patterns like Mount Vernon or Twisted Optic are perfectly decent, reasonable quality. But they didn’t have the hand finishing that Imperial gave to Candlewick and the glass quality is not as fine.
On the plus side, Mount Vernon, like Twisted Optic or Diamond Quilted, doesn’t have icky raised seams. It was mass produced glass, meant to be sold for low prices. In my mind it’s about equivalent to the glass you can buy today for drinking glasses – nice enough for every day but you wouldn’t confuse it with high end crystal.