The Bargain Basement

​“Develop imagination .. throw away routine”  - Harry Selfridge.
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​The Bargain Basement was the brilliant brain-child of a certain Mr Harry Selfridge, who went on to establish the great London department store, Selfridges.

The concept of the basement bargain centre or budget floor was invented by Selfridge when he worked at the Marshall Field Department store in Chicago. The genius of Harry’s idea was that he turned the idea of a discount into an advantage instead of some kind of embarrassment.

It was as early as 1885, that the first Bargain Basement (also called the “Budget Floor”) was unveiled in Chicago at Marshall Field’s store.

​It was an instant success and shoppers flocked into the basement to purchase the bargains. Like all great ideas, it spread: soon department stores everywhere were opening Bargain Basements.

Below is a 1906 ad for the opening of a Bargain Basement at the Leader Department Store in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Press, 1906

Butler Brothers booklet, 1914.

​Butler Brothers (Charles and Edward) are best known by Carnival collectors for their "Our Drummer" catalogues which were a significant wholesale outlet for Carnival in its heyday. ​However, they also published an intriguing booklet that set out advice on how to design, stock and promote the Bargain Basement Store. The booklet, published in 1914, was dubbed as “a marketing manual for increased sales”. It described the Basement Store as “part of a store’s selling machine” and gave the astute store owners sound advice on how to make their basements successful. ​The target audience was the thrifty housewife and the less-well paid.

Naturally, the booklet also encouraged store owners to buy their wholesale stock from Charles and Edward Butler. To our knowledge, the booklet has not been seen online before and publishing these extracts is a "first" for Carnival Glass Worldwide. We have put them on a separate page so that they can be seen more clearly - they are truly fascinating! See more, and larger, images from the "Basement Store" booklet here.

​Carnival Glass in the Bargain Basements

In the USA, Bargain Basements were brimming with Carnival. 

In the Basement Store of Gilman & Co. of Newport, Vermont, back in 1910, you would have found Carnival with other pressed glass and fancy china, all at ten cents! (See right)

Vermont Stanstead Journal, 1910

​In Reading, Pennsylvania, back in 1911, you would have found Carnival Glass water sets being sold alongside “Parlor Brooms” and “Extra Fine Quality Japanese Toilet Paper” in Whitner’s Department Store’s Bargain Basement.
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The knock down price of the water sets was 79 cents for the pitcher, six tumblers and a nickel plated tray (the full price had been $1.00). It's interesting to compare Whitner's retail price of 79c with the then current wholesale price from Butler Brothers. On the right is a typical ad from Butler Brothers, for Carnival Glass water sets (for Dugan's Maple Leaf and Wreathed Cherry patterns), at 69c wholesale. Butlers did offer some slightly cheaper Carnival sets, but the retail mark-up was clearly very modest in the Bargain Basement offer!

The nickel tray is interesting, as we’re not aware of any Carnival water sets that were sold that way, so it’s likely that the wholesaler or even Whitner’s Department Store themselves, married up the trays with the water sets.

Butler Brothers did sell non-Carnival water sets with metal trays included, so maybe the trays were available separately. In any event, they were not expensive - the cost of a set with a metal tray was only about 4 to 5c more than a set without a tray!

Butler Brothers wholesale ad, 1911

Reading Eagle ad for Whitner's store, 1911

Whitner's Department Store, early 1900s. Courtesy of "Go Reading"

What was on offer?

It is interesting to speculate what customers may have found in those Bargain Basement offers. We know from other advertising at the time that the main Carnival Glass makers, and particularly Fenton and Imperial, were active advertisers. Our unique features "Read All About It!" and "Sell it to me!" show the very creative ways that the glassmakers used to both generate public interest, and to sell there products.

A glance through Butler Brothers catalogues from around the 1912-1913 period shows an amazing array of wholesale assortments and individual sets that were on offer from Dugan, Fenton, Imperial and from Northwood. Page after page of ads appeared for this "new" iridescent glassware. Here is a minuscule sample of what you could have obtained from Butler Brothers around that time - mostly at wholesale prices of between 60c to $1 per dozen.

Below, left to right: Peacock and Urn bowl, Fenton; Imperial Grape decanter; Grapevine Lattice pitcher, Dugan: Peacock at the Fountain butter, Northwood.

Moving on to the early 1920s.

Below is a 1923 ad from the Spokane Daily Chronicle for Carnival Glass for 15 cents a piece in the Bargain Basement of McGowan Bros. Hardware Company.
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On the right is one of the few Carnival ads in Butler Brothers at that time - for a Fenton selection. Note how Butler Brothers suggested the likely retail price - yes, 15c. At 96c per dozen, 8c each, it was still a good retail mark up! 

Spokane Daily Chronicle 1923

Butler Brothers wholesale ad. 1923

Meanwhile, in Australia ...

The concept of the Basement Store was very popular in Australia too. Brightlights was a “Big Bargain Basement” in Sydney’s splendid Strand Arcade back in the 1920s. They sold glassware, crockery and household goods “at the lowest possible prices” – including fabulous Carnival Glass.
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Ad for "Brightlights" in the Hebrew Standard of Australasia, 1925

The store was officially opened on March 26, 1925, and just a few months later, alongside tins of Heinz Baked Beans, Bourneville Cocoa and Upton’s Pure Emu Soap, was a selection of magnificent Imperial Carnival vases, as shown in this ad (below, left) from the Hebrew Standard of Australasia newspaper.

The artist’s rendition of the three Imperial vases is stunning and possibly one of the best we have yet seen in an old ad. However, the ad is transformed into shimmering Carnival Glass by Joan Doty’s exquisite photograph of the same three vases. Her re-creation brings them to life in front of our eyes - from a black and white line drawing to shimmering colour. Imperial at its stunning best. The vases are, from left to right: purple Beaded Bullseye, purple Ripple and marigold Parlour Panels. 

Imperial Carnival Glass vases in Brightlights, 1925

Joan Doty's amazing re-creation of the 1925 Imperial ad

To find an ad as fascinating and as beautiful as this in a ninety year old Australian newspaper is thrilling; the accompanying text adds further interest and information. Note the description of the iridescence on the Beaded Bullseye and Ripple vases refers to “azure”. In Imperial’s catalogue 101B their “four principal iridescent colors” were carefully described, the text for “azur” (sic), Imperial's "L glass", read as follows: “Amethyst glass, with green, blue, red and yellow iridescent colors. This is the darkest one of the four colors, of very striking appearance.” There is more about Imperial's Carnival Product/Colour codes in our article about their US Representative, Cox and Lafferty of New York.

​It was not only US made Carnival Glass that could be found in the Australian Bargain Basements - Crown Crystal glass made in Australia was also on offer, as shown in this 1929 ad from The South Coast Times (below right). A large sized Kangaroo bowl for 1/3 (one shilling and three pence)? Yes please!

Large Kangaroo bowl in dark Carnival, Crown Crystal

The South Coast Times, 1929

Read more of The Stories Behind the Glass in Carnival Glass Times