NetworK ezine Issue 63. August 2020
Totally Devoted to Carnival Glass
Welcome to the Ruby Red issue!
Red is a challenging colour that can be seen as happy and passionate, like a red, red rose. Or it can be associated with the frustration of “seeing red” and the perception of danger. In fact, the use of red as a glass colour reflects both these extremes.
Red is a challenging colour that can be seen as happy and passionate, like a red, red rose. Or it can be associated with the frustration of “seeing red” and the perception of danger. In fact, the use of red as a glass colour reflects both these extremes.
|
Red glass for tableware, vases (especially when filled with roses) is a popular best-seller (such as the Classic red Fenton Peacock Tail bowl above) – while red glass for stop lights, warnings and brake tail lights is vital to signal danger. We have to thank Franz Welz! In 1881 in Bohemia, Franz patented the use of selenium, combined with cadmium, to make red glass. The technique was developed in the USA by Kopp from around 1894, and from about that same date, Frederick Carder also noted the use of selenium for a “new rose color”. 
Above: extract from a list of patents compiled in 1919 by Mock and Blum Patent Lawyers. Welz's 1891 patent was for the production of red ("rose") glass by adding selenium.
Adding cadmium as well as selenium produced an orange-red colour. |
Above: a beautiful Peacock Tail bowl in red,
made in Classic Carnival by Fenton |
Refinements by various glass makers followed, and it wasn’t until the early 1920s that red Carnival Glass firmly came onto the scene. Fenton was the main maker of red Classic Carnival; Persian Medallion, Grape and Cable, Holly, Dragon and Lotus and other familiar Fenton patterns were made in red Carnival.
Above: a red Vintage bowl, courtesy of Seeck Auctions - the yellow colour at the bottom of the bowl is the iridescence, not the base glass colour.
|
Above: a beautiful red stretch glass Chesterfield water set,
courtesy Burns Auctions |
Technically, red was a very challenging colour to produce, as the red colour often shaded into yellow, which is known as amberina. It came about because to produce red, the glass had to be heated, pressed (into the mould), and then reheated to get the red colour to appear - a process known as “striking (to another colour)”.
Sometimes the red colour didn’t appear evenly all over the glass, and there were yellow parts in the middle (amberina) or on the outer edges (reverse amberina).Imperial also made a very limited amount of Classic red Carnival, but their red stretch glass is much more predominant.
|
|
Two stunning examples of Fenton's amberina Classic Carnival.
Left: Dragon and Lotus (courtesy of Seeck Auctions) and right: Little Flowers
Left: Dragon and Lotus (courtesy of Seeck Auctions) and right: Little Flowers
The red Fenton Holly comport on the right (below) has a deep red top, and a very obvious yellow foot where the red colour did not strike.
The red Fenton Holly comport on the right (below) has a deep red top, and a very obvious yellow foot where the red colour did not strike.
|
It was probably because when it was reheated to strike the red colour, it was held by the foot which, unlike the top of the comport, was not reheated to the right temperature for striking. A Carnival Glass “myth” that has enjoyed quite widespread belief, is that red Carnival Glass contained pure gold. But the reality is that we have to thank Franz Welz and selenium. Read more about the myth and reality here: No Gold in My Glass
|
|
|
Turning a Problem into a Solution
The perennial challenge of red glass turning out as amberina was cleverly shifted from being a problem into an attractive marketing advantage. In Fenton’s 1990 and 1991 catalogues they produced a magnificent array of red Carnival (note they also referred to it as ruby) that was described thus: “Fenton Red Carnival is made with Ruby glass and iridized with a special metallic salt formula. Occasionally there will be unusual colorations because of the way the ruby strikes and some pieces will have an amberina effect. These variations will be searched out by the collector as being the most rare of the collection.” It was a brilliant move! Fenton, and especially (the late) Frank Fenton, were fully engaged in the world of Carnival Glass - both Classic and Contemporary - and they knew full well how much collectors searched out unusual variants and rarities. The amberina effects also emphasised that Fenton's Carnival was handmade using traditional techniques and skills, which meant that variations were very much a part of the process. |
Above: Puritan comport and
a happy Bear. (extract from Fenton's 1990-91 catalogue). |
Fenton's famous Alley Cat also made a star appearance in red! This is from a 2003 catalogue, these beingthe only red Carnival pieces shown. Note the obvious amberina foot on the #2926 Nut Dish.
|
|
Courtesy of the Fenton Family and the Fenton Art Glass Company, we are proud to be able to feature an increasing number of Fenton's catalogue pages showing their Contemporary Carnival Glass. There are already some 20 catalogue pages on our website already, and we can now present another nine pages - nine pages dedicated to Fenton's output of Contemporary red Carnival from 1976 to 2010. Hereon the right, is a little "taster" of what there is in them. These are both low resolution images, but we show them in full size and full detail in our Contemporary Red Fenton pages - the link is at the end of this section In 2003, Fenton added “Notes” entitled “The Art of Ruby Glass” which read: “In the first half of the twentieth century, glassmakers strived to make a uniform ruby color suitable for railroad signals, lantern globes and auto tail lights. Today, Fenton’s ruby glass is made with selenium and cadmium. This glass batch is sensitive to heat and interesting color variations often occur. Collectors take great delight in the red-orange effect called ‘amberina’.” |
1976
|
1991
|
Fenton continued making red Carnival until they closed, with some significant pieces made in the colour, such as the plate and the water set shown below.
The red Carnival Holly plate, below left, was made in 2000 to mark Frank M. Fenton’s 85th birthday. Picture courtesy of Seeck Auctions. It was marketed by Fenton in a special flyer in which it was noted that: “the Holly pattern was first produced about 1909, shortly after the Fenton plant in Williamstown, West Virginia, was established. Examples of the Holly pattern are displayed in the Fenton Museum, which was started by Frank more than 25 years ago”.
On the collar base of the plate are the words, FRANK M. FENTON, 85th BIRTHDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2000.
|
Above: the Founder's Series water set was produced in 2004 in red Carnival, pictured courtesy of Seeck Auctions. The design was based on an original pencil sketch made by
Frank L Fenton in the 1920s, shown on the right. |
|
On the right is a screenshot of our Fenton Contemporary red Carnival Homepage. Currently there are nine individual catalogue pages to view. Each of the nine "thumbnails" on the page has a click-through link to view that catalogue page full sized - with more information about the pieces (including some of the actual moulds used). Click on the image, or here: Fenton Contemporary Red Carnival |
|
Karhula Surprise!
Marigold on milk glass is a seldom seen Carnival colour sometimes used by Westmoreland and Imperial. The base glass is opaque white throughout with a marigold iridescence – a beautiful and hard-to-find Carnival colour. Some fifteen or more years ago, we were amazed to find scarce examples of this colour made by Finland’s Riihimaki, on their Starburst sugar bowls.
And now, in a wonderful surprise, Sarian Stade has discovered an amazing marigold on milk glass vase in the Spinning Star pattern, made by Karhula - pictured below courtesy of Sarian. The image on the right is from Karhula’s 1934 catalogue. This is a significant discovery: the first recorded example of this rare colour from Finland’s Karhula glass company.
Sarian’s further research uncovered yet another amazing Karhula vase in this rare marigold on milk glass – Starlight. Shown here (with permission) and Karhula's 1934 catalogue image of the vase.
Marigold on milk glass is a seldom seen Carnival colour sometimes used by Westmoreland and Imperial. The base glass is opaque white throughout with a marigold iridescence – a beautiful and hard-to-find Carnival colour. Some fifteen or more years ago, we were amazed to find scarce examples of this colour made by Finland’s Riihimaki, on their Starburst sugar bowls.
And now, in a wonderful surprise, Sarian Stade has discovered an amazing marigold on milk glass vase in the Spinning Star pattern, made by Karhula - pictured below courtesy of Sarian. The image on the right is from Karhula’s 1934 catalogue. This is a significant discovery: the first recorded example of this rare colour from Finland’s Karhula glass company.
Sarian’s further research uncovered yet another amazing Karhula vase in this rare marigold on milk glass – Starlight. Shown here (with permission) and Karhula's 1934 catalogue image of the vase.
Spinning Star vase, Karhula.
Courtesy of Sarian Stade. |
|
Grateful thanks to Sarian for her superb work in uncovering more about the fascinating production of Carnival in Finland.
|
News from South America
In earlier NetworKs, we have introduced you to the ground-breaking work being done by Carnival Glass researcher, Claudio Deveikis on the glass made by Esberard in Brazil. The Esberard Gallery has all their currently known patterns - 30 of them! This latest addition is called Arabesque and is shown on the right, courtesy of Waldemar Defacio. Be sure to visit both pages of the Gallery. Click on the image on the right, or here: Esberard's Carnival Gallery. |
|
The Iridescent Ware Agreement
In 1911, “The American Flint” (a journal for workers in the flint glass trade) there was a report about a dispute and subsequent agreement between workers and management at the Northwood glass works. It was about payments made for treating the glass with the iridescent spray (known in the trade as “dope”). The journal explained that “after considerable controversy, it was agreed that all employers making pressed sprayed or doped wares shall comply with the agreement made at our annual conferences in 1911. You can see the “Agreement” below (source: Hathitrust).
In 1911, “The American Flint” (a journal for workers in the flint glass trade) there was a report about a dispute and subsequent agreement between workers and management at the Northwood glass works. It was about payments made for treating the glass with the iridescent spray (known in the trade as “dope”). The journal explained that “after considerable controversy, it was agreed that all employers making pressed sprayed or doped wares shall comply with the agreement made at our annual conferences in 1911. You can see the “Agreement” below (source: Hathitrust).
|
In those days, the employment of young workers was normal throughout industry and commerce, all around the world. However, a word of caution: the expression "boys" can easily be misunderstood, as it was often used as a general term for unskilled workers, irrespective of their age. In the Agreement, applying the iridescent spray was a job for “snapping-up boys”. If the items were so large or heavy (such as a punch bowl or pitcher) that the younger lads couldn’t cope, the more experienced “finisher” would take over the task. This heavy Memphis punch bowl would have needed a skilled "finisher". 
The Agreement also implies that the challenge of the iridising process itself (perhaps a poor mix or temperature difficulties etc) as well as issues arising from re-shaping, could cause problems that sometimes resulted in was was referred to as “bad ware”.
The Agreement was worded to ensure that the workers would be paid for such goods when the inferior result was clearly not their fault. |
There were many roles for boys in the glassworks; it's fascinating to see how specifically the roles (and pay rates) were set out - turning-out boy, warmer-in boy, and snapping-up boy to mention but a few. On our our website, we have a more comprehensive article, including factory-floor pictures of workers and glassmaking of the day, here: Glassworkers in the Early 1900s. There is much food for thought.
On a lighter note, although "dope ware" was a regular term used for iridescent glass, we are thankful that it did not catch on as the name for our wonderful Carnival.
On a lighter note, although "dope ware" was a regular term used for iridescent glass, we are thankful that it did not catch on as the name for our wonderful Carnival.
Privacy and the use of your information: we only use your name and email address to send you your FREE Carnival Glass NetworK ezine. We will not share your name or email address with anyone else, or use it for any other purpose. You can change your mind about receiving your NetworK ezine at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the foot of every issue, or by emailing us at [email protected]
Join us on Facebook
We would love you to come and join in the fun, and we invite you and your friends to join us all on NetworK's fast growing and very active Facebook Group (link is below), and if you have missed any of the previous issues of NetworK and NetworK Specials, they are all here: Back Issues.
We would love you to come and join in the fun, and we invite you and your friends to join us all on NetworK's fast growing and very active Facebook Group (link is below), and if you have missed any of the previous issues of NetworK and NetworK Specials, they are all here: Back Issues.
