Baking Powder Glass!

Images from Lee Manufacturing catalogues courtesy of Lance Hilkene.

One of the more unusual names we came across that has been given to Carnival Glass, was "Baking Powder Glass" - we wondered why .... what's the connection?

Well, a Lee Manufacturing catalogue from 1911 provided the answer. We already knew of Lee Manufacturing's mail order practice of giving Carnival Glass as "premiums", gifts and sales incentives, but this particular catalogue seemed to use Baking Powder as one of the main products associated with Carnival Glass, and no doubt the association of names just stuck in the memory of some of Lee's regular customers and agents.

Baking Powder features in both the above offers, as does Northwood's Carnival Glass: on the left, a Strawberry ruffled bowl (with Basketweave exterior), and on the right, a Three Fruits plate in a metal handled basket. 

Note the descriptions being used for the Carnival, which are very much like the descriptions we find in other publications, like Butler Brothers catalogues and trade advertisements. The Strawberry bowl is "made by a new process and shows all the beautiful colors of the rainbow" and "Comes in Rich Dark Iridescent Glass." The Three Fruits plate is described as ""Egyptian Art".

Baking aids were a relatively big thing, and Baking Soda also frequently appeared in the assortments on offer, like the two below. 

On the left, an offer that ought to have been hard to refuse - six free iridescent tumblers for FREE when you spend just one dollar on such household essentials as Witch Hazel Carbolic Salve and Antiseptic Tooth Soap, as well as Baking Soda and Baking Powder!

On the right, no Baking Powder this time, bur you get Baking Soda and "High Grade" Toilet Soap for 25 cents plus a free Northwood Grape and Cable jelly dish, described as "one of the prettiest pieces of glassware offered."

Left: Fenton Butterfly and Berry tumbler, blue
Right: Northwood Three Fruits stippled plate, purple

However, just a word of realism about these FREE offers - they were not necessarily as wonderful as they might look to collectors today. How much did those pieces of Carnival Glass really cost Lee Manufacturing? 

Around the same time, 1912, Butler Brothers had an ad for a selection of Northwood Carnival Glass. It included Peacocks, Hearts and Flowers, Corn vase and other very desirable pieces. The price wholesale? 85 cents a dozen! That's 7 cents each. Lee, like Butler Brothers would have paid less that that to buy them from the glassmaker. So, the Northwood Three Fruits plate in the ad, top right, represented at the most, a 10% discount on the sale for the customer - and for this, Lee's agent had to secure and send off an order, unpack it when they received it from Lee, get it to the customer, take the payment and bank it. Not forgetting the risk of breakage.

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