Featured Victorian glass cameo casket - Mary Gregory?

I found a piece very unlike the things I normally pick up. In this case I saved it when it was literally on its way to a dumpster because of covid-19 disrupting the normal estate handling chain. No one to research this and the other cardboard boxes full of stuff, and no place to keep it, so just discard it. Yes, this is happening.

I quickly found an identical item that had been auctioned (https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/38830137_3-14-x-4-black-amethyst-art-glass-hinged-jewel) but note that the one in the link is missing its base, present on mine which identifies the metalwork as being from Middletown Plate Co (1866-1899).

I noticed the name Mary Gregory is used a lot when listing these glass cameo caskets. Does anyone know who she was, and whether this one would actually be by her; or is it a style of glass making that is named after her like Kleenex?

 

You should have no trouble finding info on Mary Gregory on the Internet. It's the decoration that is being described as being by her or in her style. I've only seen a little of her stuff, but would say in her style only. But mine is not a word you should take for it.

 

That one sold for $400, so looks like connoisseurs accepted it as genuine Mary Gregory.

 

What a sensational find!

 

Hooo Boy... Mary Gregory was a young woman who painted at the Boston & Sandwich glass factory sometime in the 19th Century. This is fact. The Barlow and Kaiser four book series on Sandwich glass very gently points out that the bulk of the work done by Mary Gregory was of the "Farmyard in snow painted on white glass" variety. the white glass representing the snow on the ground and roofs. Left out of the books, but they often related privately the finding in her attic a box of gathered balls, possibly kept when found in her yard. Didn't like little boys and girls playing in her yard. This last an assumption. It is known that once impasto painting on glass could be done to emulate cameo carving, it was done indiscriminately by anyone with a brush and a kiln where they could fire the decoration. (This last, too, is speculation) but Mary Gregory didn't do it.

 

WONDERFUL!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!

 

so glad you were able to save this beautiful piece makes me sad to think of so many treasures that might be on the way to dumps during this time

 

It's a beauty alright, good score!

 

GORGEOUS !!! ... Joy.

 

If ever I loved a Mary Gregory piece, this would be the nicest one!

 

Very unusual to still have the silk lining in place and in such nice condition.
Lovely.

 

What Cherryhill fails to understand is that Mary had the ability to paint with both hands and both feet. She did this twenty-four seven. This must be, because there are so many works credited to her.

 

Yah, "like Kleenex" I think! But this one is beautiful!

 

Work like this was advertised as "quarkmal"(sp) ie white painted by Bohemian decorators.