Does anyone know if Westmoreland ever made pieces in the Paneled Grape pattern that also had the grape cluster and leaves on the bottom? My mother found a black slit handled oval basket PG-86 in the Paneled Grape pattern, but it is unmarked on the bottom. She has a white one that has the WG logo on the bottom, but the black one she found has the grape clusters and leaves on the bottom where the logo usually is. I was wondering if this was something that Westmoreland ever did or if it sounds like a reproduction with a Westmoreland mold, and if so what company would have reproduced it? The woman who currently has the basket claims to have purchased the basket directly from Westmoreland between 1982 and 1984 if that would help. [img size=300]https://kovels.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/133160a.jpg[/img]
I have a book on westmoreland and the company experiemented black glass in 1984 just before plant closed. It is called “carnival black” very very shiny and only in paneled grape, peices were marked Westmoreland in a circle. They were never listed in a catalog. One observer who visited the plant saw pallets and pallets of black glass that never sold. What happened after plant closed I don’t know. So the person who has it is probably telling the truth and these peices are rare.