Mayfair Open Rose Depression Glass from Hocking

Mayfair Open Rose Pink Depression Glass Sugar Bowl

Posts About Mayfair
Basic Information about Mayfair
Mayfair Pieces Made
Reproduction and Condition Concerns
Availability

Basic Information About Mayfair

Hocking Glass made Mayfair from 1931 to 1937, a Methuselah among depression glass patterns. Hocking called the pattern Mayfair, or Line 2000, and early collectors who did not know the official name, nicknamed it Open Rose. The pattern has big open roses in a center panel with vertical rounded panels on either side.

Mayfair Green Depression Glass Center Handled Server

Hocking made just about all pieces in pink, most in blue, green and yellow and limited pieces in crystal. The blue is stunning and I’ve never seen it outside of depression glass shows.

Mayfair Blue Depression Glass Console Bowl

I do not think I have seen any yellow pieces and only a few in green other than the center handled server shown. You will see some pink satinized pieces too, including some with painted decorations. (I doubt the painted designs were made in the Hocking factory.)

Gene Florence mentions that Mayfair is likely the most-collected depression glass pattern today. I can believe that. The blue is very hard to find, which is a shame since it truly is among the most gorgeous depression glass I have ever seen. Florence also says that green is very hard to find outside of 5 large pieces such as the center handled server, big bowls, cake plate.

Mayfair Pieces Hocking Made

Pink Mayfair Pieces. Mayfair is a dinnerware pattern with many serving pieces, tumblers and goblets and some superb accessories.

Look for plates ranging from square and round sherbet liners, luncheon plates and dinner plates. The dinner plates are 9 1/2 inches, measure from side to side, not diagonally. Plus Hocking made a small, 6 1/2 inch round snack plate and a grill plate. There is a saucer with cup ring but most people use the smaller, square sherbet liner as a saucer. That square sherbet liner also fits under the cream soup, a versatile piece.

There are only two place setting bowls, a 2-handled cream soup and a slightly larger cereal with no handles. Plus a coffee cup and saucer and your choice of three sherbets. Note the cup is square although Hocking made a round cup too that is much less common.

Serving pieces are abundant, including a platter, two relish trays, cake plate with little tab feet and handles, cake plate that is like a platter with handles, no feet, creamer and sugar, and 4 serving bowls including 2 with covers, butter dish and salt and pepper shakers. (Note the shakers have been reproduced.)

This is the cake plate with little tab feet. Top is flat and thus easy to use with layer cakes. You can hold onto the handles to frost or cut the cake and the flat surface makes it easy.

Mayfair Pink Depression Glass Cake Plate

This 10 inch bowl with two handles is called a vegetable bowl and has a matching handle.

Mayfair Open Rose Pink Depression Glass Serving Bowl

Mayfair has a wonderful selection of pitchers, goblets and tumblers. The 6 inch tall pitcher that holds a little over a quart seems the most common and the other two are taller and hold 60 or 80 ounces.

Mayfair Open Rose Pink Depression Glass Pitcher

At one time we had a nice set of Mayfair goblets but I did not keep the photos so cannot show them to you. Hocking made 7 different Mayfair goblets although some are rather scarce. The most common is the water size which holds 9 ounces and is 5 3/4 inches tall. There are also a cordial, small wine, cocktail, wine, claret and a second water that also holds 9 ounces but is 7 1/4 inches tall. The goblets are shaped much like the sherbet – round bowls, straight stems with wafers just below the bowl and small wafers just above the foot.

Mayfair Pink Sherbet With Bad Water Spotting

The three footed tumblers are cone shaped and are a juice, water and iced tea. For flat tumblers choose between two water sizes, a juice and an iced tea. As you can see, Hocking made an extensive set of drinkware.

Mayfair pattern line up includes some choice accessories like the center handled server, some unusual and lovely bowls – a 3-legged console bowl, low flat bowl, deep scalloped fruit bowl – covered candy dish, cookie jar, decanter with stopper, and a wonderful sweet pea vase. This is the pink center handled server.

Mayfair Pink Center Handled Sandwich Server

The deep bowl, a lovely, graceful shape.

Blue Mayfair has many of the same pieces as pink but the goblets and tumblers are limited and the blue line lacks some of the similar-but-different pieces, for example there is one cake plate instead of two. These next photos are from glass shows and include the sweet pea vase first, then the divided celery dish followed by a covered bowl with candy jar and goblets.

Mayfair Blue Depression Glass Sweet Pea Vase

Mayfair Blue Depression Glass Oval Divided Celery Dish

Mayfair Blue Covered Bowl and Candy Jar from White Rose Antiques November 2017 Show

Green Mayfair piece list shows more pieces, including goblets, but most pieces are difficult to find and costly. Yellow Mayfair is even more limited. I have never seen a piece of yellow Mayfair.

Reproduction and Condition Concerns

Beware of Mayfair salt and pepper shakers, cookie jar, small square-ish pitcher and shot glass reproductions. Many of the repros are very easy to spot because the companies used glass colors that were never in the original line up, such as a dark green or iridescent blue. Any red, dark blue, dark green, iridescent pieces are reproductions.

These two blog posts have information about reproduction Mayfair shakers and cookie jars.
Antiquing Fun – Oops! Watch Out for Reproductions!
Fake Mayfair Green Cookie Jar – Tell Tale Clues

If you like Mayfair, or most any other depression glass pattern, I recommend you invest in a good reference book that includes tips to spot reproductions. My favorite is Collector’s Encyclopedia of Depression Glass by Gene Florence. The last edition of this is 2010 and any of the last several editions have good reproduction sections.

I did not notice any unusual damage concerns. Plates are square-ish with smooth, sloping inner rims that are not prone to inner rim roughness. As with any pattern check rims for nicks and centers for wear and remember that bowls often have long, shallow nicks from stacking.

Plates and similar pieces have center designs that help your eyes skip over minor wear. The edges on plates have a rounded ridge right next to the rim and we had several plates with small dents or holes in the ridges. These were manufacturing flaws, not damage.

Mayfair Availability

We used to see pink Mayfair at antique malls and fairs, flea markets, some estate sales. We saw a few pieces of green, the deep fruit bowl, center handled server, and the lovely low shallow bowl, but I don’t recall seeing plates and such. I never saw yellow and saw blue only at glass shows.

Checking online there are many pieces of pink Mayfair, and some blue and the more common green pieces and no yellow. I saw several reproduction cookie jars in blue, green and red, easy to spot because the green and blue were much darker than true Mayfair and Hocking did not make red Mayfair cookie jars.

Mayfair is one of the most popular depression glass patterns, luckily many pieces of pink are fairly abundant. If you like the other colors be prepared to hunt a long time to get what you want, which is not a bad thing since depression glass shopping is fun!