Set of Four Daisy and Button Pressed Glass Fan Relish Dishes, Assembling into a Round Tray, c. 1930–1970

The Piece

Four pressed glass dishes, each shaped as an open folding fan, that fit together into a single round serving tray. It is a genuinely clever piece of design. Set apart, each one is a shallow wedge-shaped dish with a scalloped outer edge; pushed together, the four pivot points meet at the center and the pattern resolves into a complete circle with a scalloped rim, like a fan opened all the way around.

The design detail is what sells it. Each dish is molded as a real fan: a spread of fine radiating sticks at the narrow end, a raised rivet boss where the pivot would sit, and a curved loop of glass standing in for the handle. Above the sticks, the whole leaf of the fan is filled with Daisy and Button — alternating fields of many-pointed stars and faceted round buttons pressed deep into the glass. The clear glass carries a faint natural green cast in raking light, and the density of the pattern means the set throws light in every direction at once.

History & Provenance

Daisy and Button is arguably the most successful pattern in the history of American pressed glass. It appeared in the 1880s, when factories from Pennsylvania through the Ohio Valley were competing to give ordinary households the look of expensive cut crystal at a fraction of the price, and the design succeeded because it does the job better than almost any other: the deep-cut stars and raised buttons catch light from every angle. It was produced in enormous variety across the following century, in clear and in color, by more makers than can be counted.

The fan is a period signature of its own. Through the 1870s and 1880s Western taste was gripped by Japonisme, and the folding fan turned up everywhere — in painting, on wallpaper, on textiles, and pressed into glass. A relish or hors d'oeuvre service in four fan segments that close into a circle belongs squarely to that vocabulary, and the form was revived and reissued repeatedly through the twentieth century. This set carries no maker's mark, which is normal: pressed glass of this kind was identified by catalog number and paper label rather than a molded mark.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

This is a serving set that solves an actual problem. Assembled, it holds four things separately on one round footprint — olives, cornichons, nuts, and cheese; or dates, almonds, chocolate, and dried apricots — without four bowls crowding the board. Broken apart, each fan works alone as a spoon rest, a soap dish, a ring dish on a nightstand, or a small tray for a single course. Clear glass keeps the food the visual event and goes with any china you own.

It also photographs and displays beautifully when empty, which is not nothing: the assembled circle on a dark wood table or a bar cart reads as a piece of design rather than as tableware in storage. A note on care: hand wash in warm water with a soft brush to get into the buttons and star points, dry promptly so nothing dries in the pattern, and avoid the dishwasher entirely — detergent and heat etch pressed glass and permanently dull the facets that make it sparkle. To lift the paint spots, start with warm soapy water and a fingernail or a plastic scraper; if that fails, a little mineral oil left to soften the residue works better than anything abrasive.