Many collectors are introduced to the Parisian pattern by an illustration in Revi's book (1965, p. 281) where a water goblet "with [an] unusual mitered stem" is shown. Seven years later it, or its twin, appeared in Kathryn Hait Dorflinger Manchee's account of the manufacturer with the claim that "This particular goblet, with its intricately cut foot, was never put on the market." (note 1). The fact that it has yet to appear in one of the company's extant catalogs would seem to confirm Manchee's contention. But, as the years have passed, this particular pattern/shape combination has appeared in the marketplace, where it is considered rare. We now know a bit more about it.
The goblet's shape is no. 80, more familiar to collectors as the stemware blank used for Dorflinger's Spiral pattern. Consequently, five or six different types of stemware are likely to have been made in the Parisian/80 combination. In addition, because this combination was probably made about 1890, it would not be surprising to find examples of wines produced on color-cut-to-clear blanks. And this is just the happy circumstance that occurred in the spring of 1983, when the writer came across a set of four Parisian/80 red-cut-to-clear wines in a general-line antiques shop on the Connecticut shore. Since then he has seen a fifth c-t-c wine (with a damaged rim) in the Catskills. Although probably not cut in abundance, certainly, this combination was not necessarily produced as a "special order" item either. Unfortunately, the writer disposed of his four wines before he could obtain a good photograph (note 2). But luckily we now have the set of images, below, of a colorless wine that duplicates the colored wines in all particulars except color, courtesy of the Internet.
The glass shown here has a height of 4.9" (12.4 cm) and a rim diameter of 2.9" (7.4 cm). The stem is blown with an air trap that extends through most of its length. The four c-t-c wines also had this air trap, and they weighed about one-half a pound each. They sold individually during 1983 and 1986 at prices that included: $140 (repaired rim), $250 (with a thin, uneven overlay, a fault that is sometimes found on Dorflinger cased glassware), $300, and $375. (The wines were purchased for $20 each.) The colorless wine shown here sold at auction for $700 in May 2002 (Images: Internet).
A few years after the foregoing, a matching decanter in the Parisian/80 combination appeared on eBay. Iyt is shown here. Note that this image does not show the decanter's applied foot which is cut on the under side in a hobstar motif that matches that found on the wine glasses. D = 10.5 (26.7 cm), D foot = 3" (7.6 cm). Slight cloudiness inside bottom. Several small chips on bulbous portion of the decanter. Sold for $760 at an eBay auction in 2006 (Image: Internet).
NOTES:
1. Manchee, K. H. D., 1972: Dorflinger glass, part II, The Magazine Antiques, June, pp. 1006-1011.
2. A fair-quality photograph, possibly of one of the original four wines, is shown in The Hobstar, Special Edition No. 1, p. 12 (Feb 1995).
Updated 22 Sep 2006