NetworK ezine Issue 65. October 2020
Totally Devoted to Carnival Glass
The Fire Within - Opalescent Carnival Glass
Opalescent glass has a distinctive pearly white edge, and often also shows that beautiful white effect on thicker parts of the glass as well.
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The secret to achieving this almost magical appearance was two-fold: a combination of ingredients and the skilled techniques of the glassmaker. The glass batch (the mix of raw materials that were heated together to make glass) needed to include specific ingredients, such as bone ash – and the glassmaker then had to perform the technique known as “striking” by which the glass item was skilfully re-heated to coax out the opalescent effects. Now add iridescence! The result is some of the most beautiful Carnival colours known – aqua opal, peach opal, vaseline opal and other seldom seen shades. Opalescent glass often has a “fire” within it, an inner glow of warm light just like the precious gemstone.
Seen in conjunction with the rainbow shimmer of iridescence, it can create a visual beauty that manages to be both subtle and mesmerising. 
Above: Northwood’s fabulous aqua opal Carnival
seen here on a stippled Grape and Cable bowl. |
Northwood’s Hearts & Flowers comport in aqua opal.
Among the Carnival Glass makers, Northwood and Dugan-Diamond created some exceptionally beautiful examples, often exhibiting a good depth of opalescence on the glass. Fenton, Westmoreland and U S Glass also made lovely opal Carnival, with Fenton using a wide range of base glass colours including amethyst and vaseline, as well as peach (marigold) and aqua. |
A Dugan-Diamond dome footed Ski Star bowl showing
wonderful colour and depth of opalescence. |
A display of Fenton opalescent Carnival bowls. They are, clockwise from the top left, Dragon and Lotus, aqua opal; Dragon and Lotus, vaseline opal; Peacock and Grape, vaseline opal; Dragon and Lotus, peach opal.
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To read more about opalescent glass, its origins and well-known makers (including Lalique) and its progression into opalescent Carnival, click to read the wonderfully illustrated feature here: Opalescence and Iridescence
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The Heart and Soul of Carnival
Carnival Glass was mass produced ... yet achieved uniqueness with individual hand-finishing by skilled glassmakers. In pursuit of the unusual and rare, we can easily lose sight of this. Yet it was mass-production that made Carnival the amazing artefact that it truly is ... and made it available. Scaled up from the individual (and expensive) items made by artisans, Carnival Glass fulfilled the public’s desire for a supply of beautiful affordable glassware. It took the world by storm. Sometimes also termed “the working man’s Tiffany” or “poor man’s Tiffany,” it was the pressed glass equivalent of the very expensive blown Art Glass. The availability of this inexpensive glassware that emulated the splendid Art Glass iridescence and also boasted rich and decorative patterns, was bound to please the buying public. Though the glass was press moulded, much of it was also hand finished. In fact, so much individuality was applied to each piece of glass in terms of its colour, iridescence or hand finishing, that it is really very difficult to find two pieces exactly the same in all respects, which added to its widespread appeal. 
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Easily found, but no less beautiful despite its availability
Dugan-Diamond Windflower bowl in blue. Left: same maker (Fenton), same colour (amethyst), same mould, and same pattern (Ten Mums) ... but hand-finishing produced two strikingly different bowls. A different iridescent treatment, and a very different edge ("three-in-one" on the left and ruffled on the right).
See more examples at the end of this issue of NetworK. Pictures courtesy of Seek Auctions. |
The method of Carnival Glass manufacture was relatively inexpensive compared to Art Glass, and the output was huge – it was packed into barrels and loaded onto riverboats. In fact, it could have taken the average worker almost two months’ wages to buy a Tiffany vase. The wholesale price of a dozen iridised vases from makers such as the Fenton Art Glass Company, was less than a dollar!
Above: Workers packing glass into wooden barrels at the Fenton Art Glass factory at the time Carnival was being made. The glass was packed in straw, to cushion it and protect it from breakage. Courtesy of (the late) Frank M. Fenton.
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Northwood's Grape & Cable banquet size punch set was so large that it had to be packed singly in one barrel, as you can see in the Butler Brothers’ extract abobe: "1 set in bbl. [barrel], 50 lbs." 
A lot of glass could be packed into a barrel, but big items like punch sets were usually packed three to a barrel.
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Barrels packed full of Fenton glass being loaded onto an
Ohio riverboat in 1907. Courtesy of (the late) Frank M. Fenton. 
Above: a beautiful Dugan-Diamond Brooklyn Bridge bowl, surely not considered to be "only marigold"?
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Frederick Carder, whose beautiful iridescent “Aurene” glass rivalled Tiffany’s stunning iridescent “Favrile” glass, condemned what he referred to as “cheap artificially iridised glass” (that we know as Carnival) as “crude, harsh-colored products for the five and dime stores”. He didn’t have kind words to say about the makers either, referring to them as “hustling American and European firms flooding the market”. Carder’s often quoted phrase “when the maid could possess iridescent glass as well as her mistress, the latter promptly lost interest in it” illustrated his frustration at what must have been a loss of his own business to the Carnival makers such as Fenton, Northwood, Imperial and Dugan. And of course, the ads of the era even promoted the mass-produced iridescent glass as “Imitation Tiffany”. It’s easy to understand Carder’s resentment. The low prices of the new mass-produced glass were commented on in 1911 by Victor Wicke (the General Manager at Imperial). He explained that the price of pressed glass had fallen so low that profits were hard to make. He noted, in particular, that iridescent glass was being offered at “very low prices” going on to state that “sharp competition on these lines has reduced the prices of iridescent ware practically to the level of those asked for crystal goods.” (Crockery & Glass Journal, 1911). 
Fenton's Rustic Midsize Variant vase was depicted in elegant style in a 1910 San Francisco newspaper. Note the description in the ad’s text that this is “An exact reproduction of a high priced Tiffany”. On the right, the same vase in amethyst, courtesy of Seeck Auctions.
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Certain patterns and colours were undoubtedly very popular and clearly greatly loved when they were first produced. Their popularity ensured further production, making them likely to be found more easily by today’s collectors. Human nature may make them seem less precious due to their very availability (people like finding rare items, often equating them with higher prices and hence desirability). Yet, the more available items were probably those that were desired and loved more when Carnival was first made.
We see this when considering the colour marigold – the first Carnival colour – this golden “imitation Tiffany” brought glowing light and a touch of elegance to many homes. Yet we often hear it referred to as “only marigold” or described as “common”! In truth it’s actually glorious marigold, synonymous with Carnival, its very heart and soul. Many of today’s collectors understand and appreciate this, and consequently they cherish and respect not only the beauty, but also the historic significance of marigold Carnival.
Here are a couple of links for further reading:
Glass for its time and made to sell
Sumptuous Marigold
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'The wheel is come full circle' (Shakespeare's King Lear). Earlier, we referred to Tiffany's "Favrile" and Steuben's "Aurene" iridescent glass. It is perhaps the ultimate flattery, that in the early 1990s, Fenton re-created their look and style, and called it Favrene. Fenton deliberately set out to recreate this version of the two early glass formulas, giving it a name that was an amalgam of the two words, Favrile and Aurene. Favrene" is a gorgeously iridised silvery blue colour. It was technically very difficult to make, as the glass batch contained real silver, and required a special reheating process to coax the silvery layer to the surface of the glass. But the result is spectacular. Shown here on the right is Fenton's fabulous Seasons (aka Two Seasons) vase in Favrene. |
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Dating Carnival
One of the questions we are frequently asked is “in what year was this piece made?”. A seemingly simple question, it’s often very hard indeed to give a precise response, and a wide time span is often the only fair answer.
It is fair to say that glass hides its age very well. Other artefacts may develop a patina, or simply decay over time, but glass carries its years well. Though endowed with fragile beauty, glass remains resilient: fluid when molten, hard when cold, the Egyptians called glass “the stone that flows.”
One of the questions we are frequently asked is “in what year was this piece made?”. A seemingly simple question, it’s often very hard indeed to give a precise response, and a wide time span is often the only fair answer.
It is fair to say that glass hides its age very well. Other artefacts may develop a patina, or simply decay over time, but glass carries its years well. Though endowed with fragile beauty, glass remains resilient: fluid when molten, hard when cold, the Egyptians called glass “the stone that flows.”
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Here, we look at three aspects that can help with dating a piece of Carnival Glass: the colour, pattern / contemporaneous ads, and the maker. Colour. Sometimes the specific colour of the glass will suggest a time frame. Red Carnival, for example, was not made until the early 1920s, around the same time as Fenton’s celeste blue (although Dugan-Diamond celeste blue was a few years earlier). As we showed in NetworK #64, Northwood’s pastel colours date from 1912, and were probably in production for just a few years.
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Sometimes the piece tells you its age!
The date 1929 is clearly moulded on the face of this Turku commemorative plate, made by Riihimaki. |
Maker. The period of operation of the glass works itself can sometimes give an indication of the general time of manufacture. Millersburg, for example, was only in operation for a few years, so their Carnival must be from c. 1909 to 1912.
Above: Millersburg Rose Columns vase in amethyst can be dated to c.1910-12. The ad is from Butler Bros 1911 (Mid Spring) catalogue.
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Millersburg Rose Columns vase, green. Seeck Auctions
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Eda Glasbruk in Sweden is known (from company records) to have made pressed Carnival from c.1925 to 1930
Sometimes however, catalogues, ads or records will show an extended production period for a particular pattern, making precise dating very difficult. Below are two extracts from Butler Brothers wholesale catalogues. The first one is from 1911, and it has a Maple Leaf assortment which includes a 4½ inch footed nappy. The second ad is later, from 1928. The mixed assortment includes the same Maple Leaf item (the footed berry / nappy, now called a footed bonbon).
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Dugan-Diamond ads in Butler Brothers wholesale catalogues - left, in 1911, and right, in 1928.
The Dugan Glass Co. produced Carnival from c.1908 to 1913, after which the factory became the Diamond Glass-Ware Co. (and Tom Dugan left). So, by the time of the 1928 Butler Brothers ad, production was under Diamond. Exact dating of that little Maple Leaf item would be speculative, and in fact attribution to Dugan or to Diamond is equally problematic. (Note: for this reason we often use the more general "Dugan-Diamond" as the factory attribution.)
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A Date moulded on the glass itself. This is seldom seen, but is a delight when found. The Turku commemorative, shown at the start of this section, is a wonderful example, bearing its date 1929. (The item commemorated a Jubilee, as the city of Turku was founded in 1229). In more recent years, Contemporary Carnival such as the bicentennial items bearing the date 1976 as well as club and other souvenirs with lettering and dates moulded on them, allow us to be reasonably firm on the years of production. This only touches on the subject of dating Carnival Glass; it’s important to remember that most Classic, old Carnival Glass was produced over a lengthy period of time. For example, Imperial’s Heavy Grape (far left) and their Rose (OMN American Beauties, aka Lustre Rose and Open Rose) patterns are shown here in this Butler Brothers’ ad from 1929. In Classic Carnival, these two patterns enjoyed a very long production span of around two decades, with both being first issued c.1910-11, and both patterns were reissued much later in Imperial's Contemporary Carnival Revival. |
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And this takes us on to another consideration in dating - moulds were reused later, moulds moved, often more than once, and Carnival was reissued and/or reproduced from the 1960s up to the present day. The "Imperial" patterns shown above were both reproduced later still by Fenton in Contemporary Carnival.
The Three Eras
Carnival Glass production can be broadly split into three time periods, Classic, Late (Depression era) and Contemporary. Here is the classification that we use.
Carnival Glass production can be broadly split into three time periods, Classic, Late (Depression era) and Contemporary. Here is the classification that we use.
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Jenkins Late Carnival Glass These two vases on the right, made by Jenkins are not seen very often, and may go unrecognised, so we are showing you this very clear representation of them to aid identification. On the left of the two vases is the Stork Vase #312 and on the right is Golden Flowers #313. The catalogue extract above is from c.1930. Their iridescence is typical of Late Carnival and is usually fairly light marigold. |
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The same ... but very different!
Earlier, we talked about how Classic Carnival, although mass produced, achieved a huge degree of individuality with hand-finishing by skilled glassmakers. The example we showed earlier was Fenton's Ten Mums. Here are more examples from Dugan-Diamond, Millersburg and Northwood, where the iridescent and/or edge treatment produced very different pieces. The pictures are thanks to, and courtesy of Seeck Auctions (except Good Luck pie crust edge). 
Above: Dugan-Diamond Cherries sauces in purple.
Below: Millersburg Nesting Swans bowls in green. 
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Above and below: Marigold Northwood Good Luck bowls.
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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.
