There’s just something really pleasing about an egg’s shape, whether it comes from hens – or glassmakers! Many companies made functional versions of white glass eggs, beginning in the late 19th century, to be placed as a prop in a nest to entice hens to lay real eggs. They worked quite well for that purpose!

Much later, Fenton made affordable eggs on stand as well as larger, free-standing, blown forms. Fenton eggs on stand were made occasionally as early as the mid 1970s but were issued annually from 1990 until the factory closed in 2011. These were solid and easy to mould. Versions were painted with every decoration Fenton artists could imagine.

The Fenton solid eggs on pedestal weren’t my favorites. I only have a couple of them, but my sister Rosie loved them, and I bought them for her whenever I found one. When she died a couple of years ago, her son, who’d already become an avid Fenton fan under our family’s influence, inherited her Fenton collection.

The larger blown Fenton eggs, on the other hand, were more fragile, both to produce and to collect. They were made as special editions for the Fenton Art Glass Collectors of America (FAGCA), one of two national Fenton glass clubs. I have two of these hand-decorated blown eggs, one in Topaz Opalescent Rib Optic and one in Blue Opalescent Rib Optic. The blue one is atypically unmarked as a FAGCA piece. I was able to confirm its authenticity only when I saw it in the club’s own glass collection, where it was also unmarked as a FAGCA.

Fenton also made a blown egg for QVC in a pattern called Roses on Diamond Optic Burmese (Fenton made this pattern for QVC in many shapes and forms). I acquired one of these eggs at a Fenton Museum de-acquisition auction in 2014 with the hand-painted Museum mark on its base, 69.99.37. In decoding those numbers, 69 meant it was made for QVC, 99 for the year (1999) it was acquired for the Museum, and 37 for the sequence of acquisition.

Artisan Eggs

Although Fenton is probably the best-known 20th century maker of decorative versions of glass eggs, they were also made by Murano and Annalise. Murano eggs on stand retail for $300-$400!

Dave Fetty made blown eggs for Fenton in “Mosaic,” colored swirl (“Crayon”) patterns, and “Hanging Hearts.” After 33 years there, Dave had “retired” from Fenton in 1998, but the company asked him to come back to produce special forms in his inimitable style. His work for Fenton is signed “DLF” above “Fenton” in a convex oval mark stamped into the glass itself, as found on the base of the eggs. Fetty survived a bout with COVID in 2020 with no long-term effects and is still making glass – in a career that started at Blenko Glass when he was just 19. Now in his 80s, he still freelances for Mosser and other glassmakers.

Fetty also worked with glass carvers Kelsey Murphy and Robert Bomkamp (the latter now sadly deceased) on various Fenton glass forms; Fetty would blow out the form and then Kelsey and Bomkamp, who worked with other companies in addition to Fenton, would carve it. I have in my collection a large, freestanding egg by Fetty/Kelsey/Bomkamp, featuring carved chicks on a blue overlay egg. This one was probably a one-of-a-kind as I have found no other records for it. I purchased it at a FAGCA consignment auction held during the club’s national convention in 2016.