Additional information needed: This pattern is referred to as Renaissance in this discussion because as a pattern it has been given several different names by different companies. It was cut in West Virginia as early as the 1860s and continued to be available, from several other companies through the 1950s. The shape used at the White House is also an old one. It -- a bucket bowl on a stem with a annulated knop -- as early as the 1820s (a blown three-mold wine glass).
A considerable amount of basic information about this pattern can not be readily confirmed, unfortunately. For example, when did Hawkes first use this pattern? Was it called Venetian at this time? When did the company change the pattern's name to White House (or Modern White House)? Why does Spillman's account fail to mention that the Seneca Glass Company also supposedly supplied the White House with this pattern and at the same time as the Hawkes company? How does this pattern relate, if it does, to pattern no. 39 in Daniel 1950, pp. 276-7?
Val St. Lambert's 1905 catalog shows this pattern with the names Steindamm aor Florian (depending upon stem style). More modern examples, with at least three horizontal miter cuts, are often advertised on eBay. They usually are examples of colored cut-to-clear. It is believed that they are foreign imports. If from Val St. Lambert they probably date from after 1905. They are usually described as "Dorflinger cut glass" although that company produced only the "standard" Renaissance pattern which has two horizontal cuts. The identical pattern and shape was also marketed by the Pairpoint Corporation.
An examination of material at the Rakow Research Library indicates that Hawkes did not advertise this pattern, under any name. And that it was not cut by Steuben Glass nor by the Hunt Glass Company. A reference in Farrar 1974 (Vol. 1, p. 26) is to a plate with three horizontal miter cuts. It is believed that this plate is a foreign import. Farrar does report, however, that workmen at her grandfather's plant cut a pattern they called "picket fence". Her photograph of it, taken by her husband, is of the aforementioned item, a 9"D "soup plate" with its three, not two, horizontal miter cuts. Late in the Sinclaire company's history it cut the Renaissance pattern for C. Dorflinger & Sons when that company was about to close. "Picket Fence" is also mentioned in Farrar 1975 (Vol. 2, p. 62), but there is no illustration.
Labels at the Corning Museum of Glass
Water Goblet from a White House Service.
U. S. A., Corning, New York, T. G. Hawkes & Company, 1938.
51.4.534, gift of T. G. Hawkes & Company.
This goblet is from the service ordered for the White House by President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Joseph Sidot engraved it.
Sample Finger-Bowl from The White House Service, ordered by President and Mrs. Roosevelt in 1937.
97.4.214, gift of Polly Hawkes in memory of Penrose Hawkes.Wineglass in "Venetian" Pattern, 1925-1933.
97.4.223, gift of Polly Hawkes in memory of Penrose Hawkes.
Updated 10 Aug 2007