Fenton Cranberry Glass Vase Hand Painted Signed Limited Edition 786 of 1000

A Fenton cranberry glass vase with a swelling bulbous body and a tall ringed neck, hand painted with enamelled flowers in cream, gold, lavender and soft green with fine white dot beading, and a band of white dots at the neck ring. The oval Fenton foil label is present, reading FENTON, Handpainted in USA. The base is inscribed in white enamel Hand painted by Sue Jackson, signed Nancy Sexton, and numbered 786 over 1000. Cranberry glass takes its colour from gold. Gold chloride is dissolved into the batch and the glass is struck, meaning reheated after forming, and the gold precipitates into particles small enough to scatter light toward red. It is expensive to make and unforgiving, because too little heat leaves the glass clear and too much turns it muddy, which is why cranberry has always been a premium line rather than a standard colour. Fenton of Williamstown, West Virginia kept hand decorating in house to the end, with named artists signing their work and limited runs numbered by hand, and that practice is what makes a base inscription like this one worth reading rather than ignoring. Measured against a rule the vase stands about eight inches tall.