Dogwood is so easy to identify! Look for thin pink or green glass with a mold-etched pattern of big, 4-petaled flowers all over. This Dogwood depression glass from MacBeth Evans.
MacBeth Evans made Dogwood in the early depression, from 1929 to 1930, in pink, with many pieces in green and a few in crystal, yellow, Cremax and Monax white. I’ve seen far more pink than green although the green is lovely, a light apple green. MacBeth Evans made very few patterns in green.
Note that the design is on the outside, as is true of all the Dogwood pieces. One would not want food to get embedded in the design!
Pink Dogwood is a full dinnerware pattern with several plates, one small bowl, cups and saucer, plus a few serving pieces. There are also a pitcher and several tumblers, although these tend to be harder to find and rather expensive. There are fewer pieces of green Dogwood, no serving platters and no dinner plate. MacBeth Evans made the divided grill plate in both colors.
There are two styles of cups, creamers and sugars. They are described usually as thin or thick, but it’s easier to tell the shapes apart rather than the thickness. In the pictures below the first of the pair is the thin style and its thicker counterpart follows.
The thin creamer and sugar are very similar to the thin cup with slightly flared rims. Here is a picture of the thick sugar bowl which has the classic sugar shape with small foot and no flared rim.
The tumblers are neat pieces. The design is silk screened on the glass as shown in this next photo.
There is a pink tumbler with a molded band that is considerably less costly than the silk screened versions. MacBeth Evans made plain tumblers without the band that are the same pink and make nice go-with pieces.
Dogwood availability and prices vary a lot based on the individual piece but you can get a basic, usable set without too much trouble. The 8 inch lunch plates must have been a premium because they are abundant and relatively inexpensive in either pink or green. Other plates are likewise fairly easy to find and oddly, so are the cereal bowls.
There are two pink cake plates, both fairly heavy. The smaller one, 11 inches across, can be very hard to find and correspondingly is expensive. I found several of the larger, 13 inch size on eBay in the $50-100 range (plus shipping). MacBeth Evans made only the larger size in green and the other colors.
The pitcher without ice lip comes in pink or green and the lovely, graceful shaped pitcher with ice lip is a pink only item and not easy to find. Searching just now there are several of the simpler style in pink online.
Dogwood would be a great pattern to collect if you like the exuberant flowers. It has a good mix of basic pieces that are fairly easy to find combined with a few that are more scarce, and thus fun to shop for (we always love excuses to go antiquing!). And there are no known reproductions. At one time we had quite a few pieces of Dogwood and I only noticed one lunch plate with any damage. The edges on Dogwood are smooth and not particularly prone to chipping and the big all over pattern will distract your eye from surface wear. Best of all, Dogwood is beautiful!