NetworK ezine Issue 17. October 2016
by Glen and Stephen Thistlewood
Totally Devoted to Carnival Glass
BOGOF! (or BGO or maybe BOGOHO)
“BOGOF” is perhaps an unusual way to greet all our Carnival Glass friends to this edition of NetworK. But of course we mean the sales technique, “Buy One Get One Free”.
Some years ago, we began to look into a very under-investigated area of collecting that really fascinated us: how Carnival Glass makers such as Imperial, Fenton or Northwood promoted and sold their glass at the time they were actually making it.
In 2004, we were asked to write an article for Martha Stewart’s “Living” magazine about the role that Carnival Glass played in the decorative styles of the day. Subsequently, we developed this into a unique way of appreciating Carnival Glass and looking at its provenance through the authentic old ads, the newspaper reports, and the catalogue / promotional material being used at the time the glass was being made.
In this issue of NetworK and on our website, we bring you a taste of those early days of Carnival. Much of the information in these features cannot be seen anywhere else – you’ll find the website links at the foot of this NetworK.
Special Offers (1911 style)
|
We are surrounded by sales and marketing techniques today, but how “modern” are they? Some are not as new as you might think!
|
Northwood's Singing Birds table set, courtesy Seeck Auctions
|
Forty nine cents! That’s right – just 49c for a full Singing Birds table set or a complete water set for readers of Brooklyn’s “Daily Standard” back in 1911.
Avid coupon clippers would have taken their coupons to the Lefstein & Rosenfeld furniture store on Broadway in Brooklyn (NY) and been rewarded with the magnificent, Northwood, Singing Birds set for your 49 cents (photo courtesy of Seeck Auctions).
Or maybe a Singing Birds water set was more to your taste!
Avid coupon clippers would have taken their coupons to the Lefstein & Rosenfeld furniture store on Broadway in Brooklyn (NY) and been rewarded with the magnificent, Northwood, Singing Birds set for your 49 cents (photo courtesy of Seeck Auctions).
Or maybe a Singing Birds water set was more to your taste!
|
Aren’t these ads splendid? Note the way they describe the table set as a six-piece set, counting the two lids as extra pieces! That’s smart marketing. You’ll also have spotted that the glass was described as “Florentine”, which was one of several aspirational ways to describe Carnival (others included “Venetian Art” and “Pompeiian”). Looking back at these fascinating old ads makes you wonder what it was like back in the days when Carnival Glass was first made. |
It’s not easy to appreciate what life was really like a century ago, before the internet and TV, but our research into contemporaneous advertising methods will certainly help your imagination!
It’s not easy to appreciate what life was really like a century ago, before the internet and TV, but our research into contemporaneous advertising methods will certainly help your imagination!
|
The 1910 ad on the left offered two FREE Northwood fruit bowls - Grape and Cable, and Stippled Rays (like the one below, picture courtesy of Seeck Auctions).
Just spend more then 50 cents on tea, coffee, baking powder or spices and extracts at your local A & P store ... and maybe take home some new laid eggs at the same time! 
Northwood Stippled Rays bowl, courtesy of Seeck Auctions
|
What a Bargain!
You know how it is today … an expensive “designer” outfit gets copied and soon you see affordable versions of it everywhere. That’s exactly what happened with Carnival. The exclusive, iridescent blown “Art Glass” (such as from Tiffany) that was an expensive luxury item back in the early 1900s was copied in the form of pressed glass that was much cheaper to produce. This beautifully illustrated 1910 ad from the “San Francisco Call” offers “an exact reproduction of a high priced Tiffany” vase. No obfuscation – they called it exactly as it was – a Tiffany reproduction!
You know how it is today … an expensive “designer” outfit gets copied and soon you see affordable versions of it everywhere. That’s exactly what happened with Carnival. The exclusive, iridescent blown “Art Glass” (such as from Tiffany) that was an expensive luxury item back in the early 1900s was copied in the form of pressed glass that was much cheaper to produce. This beautifully illustrated 1910 ad from the “San Francisco Call” offers “an exact reproduction of a high priced Tiffany” vase. No obfuscation – they called it exactly as it was – a Tiffany reproduction!
In fact it was Fenton's Rustic Midsize Variant vase, and what a tempting deal it was for the housewife at just 25 cents.
|
Another ad (below), this time from the 1909 “Jamestown Evening Journal”, showing again Carnival Glass being marketed as "imitation" Tiffany. It also clearly demonstrated the cheapness of the glass compared to Tiffany’s Art Glass, saying that it was “worth twenty times the price”. What’s not to like? The housewife wouldn’t have to break the bank to adorn her humble home with decorative (and useful) glassware that previously only the rich folk could own. 
|
Buying the Glass
Mail Order catalogues back then were very big business. In the Sears Roebuck 1912 catalogue you could have gotten anything from fancy hats and jewellery, bedbug exterminator and liquid skin (for cuts) to wagons, cars and houses. Plus just about everything else in between and that included Carnival Glass.
Smaller companies too, like Lee Manufacturing, as well as the big boys such as Montgomery Ward in the USA and Foy & Gibson in Australia, all promoted and sold Carnival or offered it as premiums (gifts). The magnificent full colour image below, is from Lee Manufacturing's 1915 catalogue.
|
And naturally, you could get Carnival Glass at carnivals and fairs! Ads in the trade press from as early as 1915 were offering iridescent glassware to the Carnival and Circus trade. The ad on the right was in the 1915 “Billboard” journal in 1915. It was from Imperial offering their iridescent Carnival Glass, and it was aimed directly at “Concessionaires, Carnival and Showmen". |
|
|
And in the Home - That Golden Glow What must it have looked like inside the home back in those early days? You can imagine how the shimmering brightness of Carnival would have stood out against the dark furniture of the time. China cabinets and cupboards were usually made from dark oak – how wonderful the glisten and glow of Carnival would have looked. In our article in Martha Stewart’s “Living” magazine, we explained why marigold Carnival was a best-seller in the early twentieth century - because indoor light levels were low and the furniture was dark. Candles and oil lamps were still in use (the tungsten light bulb was only just becoming available). As we said: “Put marigold on a dark oak table, light one small lamp … and the glass just glows.” Right: a china cabinet offered in the 1912 Sears Roebuck catalogue. How amazing would a marigold Fenton Thistle plate look against the dark wood of that cabinet? |
|
|
Let’s close this issue of NetworK with one of our favourites - the ad shown on the right is from the Washington Times in 1912. It would have been very hard to choose which Iridescent Glass Dish to take with your $1 purchase! It's an eye-opener to see how supposedly "modern" sales and marketing ploys were actually used to sell Carnival Glass to the buying public up to a hundred years ago. |
|
We hope you have enjoyed this taste of how it was back in those early days when Carnival was being made.
If you want to explore this further, then "Sell it to me" is one of the special Feature Sections to be found on our website in our unique Carnival Glass Times.
It's packed with illustrations, insights and a huge amount of information that cannot be seen anywhere else.
Discover more by following these links:
Sell it to me - main page with lots of links to ads and features.
Glass For Its Time - discover what inspired the birth of Carnival.
Read All About It! - the title says it all.
