| About 100 years ago or so,
just about the time automobiles were starting to be developed, there became
a need to freshen the smell in the car a little. There were no air fresheners
as we know them today so people installed vases in the car and put fresh
flowers in them. Some people used silk flowers and a few vases even came
with them. There was also an electric flower that ran off of 6 volts
that could be installed. We have information that this started about 1895
and continued until the 1930's. It seems the first vases were used in electric
cars. The vases were made by many different glass companies and some were
done by noted artists of the time like Steuben, Hawkes, Quezal and Sinclaire
and were quite striking. The better vases were sold in jewelry stores and
custom shops while the more common vases were found in autoparts stores,
flower shops and catalogs that catered to the auto trade. The vases were
made of pressed glass, cut crystal, porcelain, metal and wood. A lot of
hand work went into some of the better vases. Many were made in molds and
then shaped while still soft. The vases by Steuben may have been mold assisted
at some point in the blowing process but can essentially be considered
hand blown. This accounts for the many variations in the shapes and sizes.
The bracket that held the vase was sometimes fancier than the vase itself.
Some were were hand made silver and a few were even gold plated. These
brackets are very rare indeed. |
|