A rare pattern. This bowl brought $750 at the 2003 Heart of America Carnival Glass Association convention auction. The lettering reads "Sterling Furnitured Co, 1049 Market St., San Francisco Cal." Like many other lettered pieces, Sterling Furniture pieces were made using Fenton's Garden Mums as the basis for the pattern.
Bowls Plates, 6-7 inches Plates, handgrip From The Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass Lettered Pieces, by John Resnik, 1989.
"The Sterling family really did exist. Although I can find no mention of them anywhere in the company hierachy. Don Moore; author, raconteur, and man-about-town assures me he has met at least one member of the family.
The historical data on this company is very sketchy, but a reasonable facsimile of events would seem to be as follows; Reason G. Davis entered the furniture businss in Sacramento, California, shortly after the Civil War. In the late 1800s, he expanded his enterprise to the San Francisco area. Somewhere along the way he acquired a plethora of partners. The first telephone listing for the company occurs in 1900 and lists the parent organizaion as Sterling & Bunster-Saxe. Various addresses up and down Market St. are listed until about 1910, when the company arrived at 1049, the address shown on this article. One Bunster or Saxe or another is consistently shown as president. In 1961 the San Francisdo store was closed and the company moved to Daly City, California. By 1970, retail sales had been terminated and the company specialized in Manufacture."
Updated 4/16/2022
Amethyst, round, 750 (2016), 300, 425 (2017), 575 (2018), 600, 800 (both 2021)
Amethyst, ruffled, 550 (2015), 300 (2017), 350 (2020)
Amethyst, ruffled, cracked, 100 (2018)
Amethyst, 700 (2017), 775 (2019), 600, 800 (both 2020)
Amethyst, 825 (2012), 600 (2015), 350, 550 (both 2017)