Pillar Flute - Imperial
Distinctive with its melon rib flute pattern. Reported in many shapes, but few come up for auction. Many pieces have the Imperial Iron Cross mark. Pillar Flute can easily be distinquished from other flute type patterns in that each pillared flute has a rounded top that extends beyond the top edge.

Shapes include 4 inch tall compotes, 6 inch tall vases, rosebowls and double handled relish dishes that are 8 inches across including the handles as shown in the photo to the left. Also included are pickle or relish dishes, a 7 inch plate and square bowls as shown in the photo to the right.

Below to the left is a chop plate. A large round and flared bowl is also known and would sit on this chop plate to form a set. Below to the right is a creamer and sugar breakfast set and a single handled nappy. Also below are a dome footed bowl and a collar base bowl which may come in various sizes.

Colors are either clambroth or marigold. A rare smoke example may be found.


Above is what is identified as an 8 1/2 inch tall Pillar Flute water pitcher sitting next to a Flute and Cane water pitcher of the same height. Pillar and Flute water pitchers have sometimes been listed in auction brochures as "Flute and Cane without the Cane". But this pitcher is quite different than Flute and Cane. The Pillar Flute pitcher has 16 vertical flutes ending in a scalloped top. The Flute and Cane pitcher has 24 vertical flutes ending in a flat top. These two pitchers are different and unique patterns.

However, including the water pitcher to the left in the family of Pillar and Flute shapes may be a mistake. Pillar and Flute pieces all have vertical ribs that are concave while the pitcher has vertical ribs that are convex. From the Merriam-Webster dictionary: Concave means "hollowed out or rounded inward" and is easily remembered because these surfaces "cave" in. The opposite is convex meaning "curved or rounded outward." Also in Pillar Flute pieces, the top of the vertical rib is the scalloped top. In this pitcher the vertical rib top ends just slightly before the scalloped top.
The two photos above to the right show the handles of the water pitchers (top) and the sugar bowl (bottom). They are not the same. These two photos also show the differences in the scalloped tops.

Due to the differences in the pattern in the Pillar Flute water pitcher and all other Pillar Flute pieces, it is likely that the pitcher is a different pattern entirely. But at this point, there is no evidence of what that pattern may be. It is most likely still an Imperial piece, just not Pillar Flute.

To the left is a photo of these two pitchers from Imperial's 103B catalog from about 1915. It lists the Flute and Cane pitcher as mold #666 and the Pillar Flute pitcher as mold #614. All other Pillar and Flute pieces are known to be mold #682. So the pitcher is neither Pillar and Flute nor Flute a nd Cane, but a unique pattern.