NetworK ezine Issue 76. September 2021
Totally Devoted to Carnival Glass
Welcome to our September Carnival NetworK. It’s astonishing to realise that including all our "Specials", this is the 85th issue we have produced since we began our free ezine in 2015. We started to count up how many hours we have spent producing them ... but gave up! We do hope you are enjoying them.
This issue starts with Northwood, takes an “expert” look at Dugan, and ends with Imperial. We cover all the eras, from Classic to Revival and offer you some fascinating insights along the way. And we are especially honoured and delighted to have a special feature in this issue courtesy of vase expert, Joan Doty.
This issue starts with Northwood, takes an “expert” look at Dugan, and ends with Imperial. We cover all the eras, from Classic to Revival and offer you some fascinating insights along the way. And we are especially honoured and delighted to have a special feature in this issue courtesy of vase expert, Joan Doty.
The Birds are Singing Northwood’s Singing Birds is a well-known and much-loved pattern, found on Carnival Glass water sets, table sets, mugs and berry sets.
It appeared in ads in 1911 as premiums (give-aways with other purchases), so we can probably assume it was introduced at least a year or so earlier. Clear glass and decorated items are also known in Singing Birds, in the same shapes as the Carnival items and as a range of stemware. |
Green Singing Birds tumbler.
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Above: a 1911 ad for the Lefstein and Rosenfeld furniture store in
New York, featuring a full Singing Birds water set. |
Classic Singing Birds Carnival colours are mainly marigold, green and amethyst – with a little more variety in the mug (which is also known with stippling) with some more unusual colours, including aqua opal, ice colours and smoke in that shape.
Blue is a favourite colour for the mugs, and yet it is not reported in water or table sets. It is, however, seen – albeit rarely – in the berry set. We were privileged to see a blue berry set in our NetworK Facebook group in March, 2021. Above: beautiful green Singing Birds full water set,
courtesy Burns Auction Service. Singing Birds is an iconic pattern, probably inspired by Oriental design, especially evident in the blossom branches. Although we did come across an 1898 Sears Roebuck catalogue ad (shown on the right). It was for a pocket watch that had a design that was incredibly similar to Northwood’s Singing Birds, setting a train of thought in our heads in which we wondered if Harry Northwood might have had a similar watch that inspired his design. |
Shown above is a 1911 Lee Manufacturing ad,
featuring a Singing Birds mug. |
Did you know that Singing Birds has been reproduced? In the mid-1970s, Summit Art Glass began to reproduce the Singing Birds tumbler. Here are the four known Carnival colours from Summit, all the photos are courtesy of the late Bob Smith.
Did you know that Singing Birds has been reproduced? In the mid-1970s, Summit Art Glass began to reproduce the Singing Birds tumbler. Here are the four known Carnival colours from Summit, all the photos are courtesy of the late Bob Smith.
Summit's reproductions of the Singing Birds tumbler. Left to right: cobalt blue, amethyst, ice green and ice blue opal (sometimes reported as aqua opal).
The cobalt blue and light (ice) green Singing Birds tumblers were featured in a 1982 Summit catalogue, an extract from which is below, left. As you can see, Summit even used the "Singing Birds" pattern name which was already in use by collectors for the Classic old Northwood pattern. It’s worth repeating that Classic Northwood Singing Birds tumblers are not reported in blue – so any in that colour will be Summit reproductions.
The shape of the old Northwood originals usually features a gentle flare at the top, whereas the Summit reproductions are straight up (and in fact, some even seem to lean slightly inward). Many of the old tumblers were marked with the Northwood N in a circle underlined. Some Summit examples have the Summit V in a circle mark (V for Vogelsong, the owners of Summit). |
It’s also worth noting that there are some Singing Birds tumblers that have been re-iridised (post-production) by Crider, and whimsied into different shapes, like this "vase" with spittoon-shaped top.
Being blue base glass, it was made from the Summit tumbler. It's signed Crider on the base (but not all of them are). Courtesy Burns Auction Service. |
The Dugan Marie, by Joan Doty
So, what exactly is a “Dugan marie”? The marie of a piece is the configuration/pattern on the bottom of its base. A Dugan marie has a star in a sharply recessed flat dome, surrounded by a 1/4 to 3/8-inch flat circle upon which the piece rests. The points of the star extend up the sides of the sharply recessed dome. I’ve seen them on 3.75-inch and 3.87-inch base diameter pieces, some with 32-point stars and some with 36-point stars. This particular marie seems to be unique to Dugan pieces. Hence it became a vital clue back when collectors were struggling to identify which US glassmakers made which patterns. Right: the Dugan marie, courtesy and copyright Joan Doty. |
Get Acquainted with “Azur Ware”
Aaah, we have just the one purple Imperial Flute tumbler, but it really is a beauty, as you can see (below, right).
Aaah, we have just the one purple Imperial Flute tumbler, but it really is a beauty, as you can see (below, right).
And here (below) it appeared in a wonderful 1910 Cox & Lafferty ad for Imperial’s "Azur Ware", which was their purple iridescent glass. The splendid ad above shows (left to right) Diamond and Sunburst Wine Set, Broken Arches Punch set, and Imperial Flute Lemonade Set. The items are all "Azur", Imperial's marketing name at the time for their purple Carnival. The ad was a push for sales aimed at wholesalers.
And below is another 1910 Cox and Lafferty ad, showing more “Azur” Carnival – featuring three large berry bowls in the pattern we now call Heavy Grape. This ad was from November and the push was on for Christmas sales. The promotional text began by describing berry bowls as “staple as wheat – sell all the year round” but it continued by extolling the special virtues of “Azur” iridescence (purple Carnival), describing it as having a “Christmasy quality”. To see the full ads and explanatory text - click on the images. |
Above: Imperial's Diamond and Sunburst wine set in purple Carnival, courtesy Seeck Auctions.
Below: Imperial's large Heavy Grape bowl in Azur (purple Carnival), courtesy Burns Auction Service. |
Originally, the pattern we know as Heavy Grape was actually called Colonial Grape by Imperial (the “colonial” name refers to the flute /panelled exterior design) - this was Imperial’s No. 700 pattern.
Clip from 1915 Imperial Catalog 101B
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A note about Re-issues and Reproductions
Imperial’s Classic Heavy Grape was re-issued in the large bowl shape by Lennox Imperial in the 1970s, and should be trademarked LIG. Two colours were made by Lennox – pink and Horizon Blue (ice blue).It was their #42696, and the pattern was called “Antique Grape”. The images above are from Lennox Imperial catalogues (1970s). The large bowl was later reproduced by L. E. Smith in various Carnival colours including red, cobalt blue and purple.
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More surprisingly, the small berry was also reproduced in the 1970s, by Fenton. It was Fenton's #8225, shown on the right, and they called it “Grape Cluster”. All examples should be marked with the Fenton trademark. On the far right is the "Grape Cluster" nappy, which was in fact a new mould made by Fenton. The mould image is courtesy of the Fenton Family and Fenton Art Glass Company. |
A Grape by any other Name would taste as sweet! With apologies to William Shakespeare for the misquote.
Over the decades, Imperial changed the names of some of their lines, probably for marketing or promotional reasons.
The pattern we know as “Imperial Grape” also had an interesting name change that is not widely known. Originally it was Imperial’s No. 473, and when introduced it was often described in Imperial’s catalogues as “Grape Design”. Marion Hartung, in her first pattern book back in the 1960s, referred to the pattern as “Imperial’s Grape”. No doubt because of the many grape patterns in existence, the prefix “Imperial” stuck and the pattern became known to collectors as “Imperial Grape”. Above: an Imperial Grape "berry bowl". It clearly shows the characteristic scalloped design near and around the top rim.
The extract is from the Imperial Second Bargain Book, c. 1924. Courtesy Jon D Bartell. |
Above on the left is an extract from the 1912 Imperial Catalog, courtesy Jon D Bartell. As you can see, it was presented as a vase, whereas today, this shape is generally referred to as a carafe (shown on the right in purple). The description also confirms that it was "blown", that is blow-moulded, rather than pressed.
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Imperial, however, gave this grape line another name, which they used for crystal and satin finished glass from c. 1930s into the 1960s and 70s. The name was “Niagara” and was no doubt intended to reflect the popular Niagara grape variety.
Composite re-creation of an Imperial catalogue page showing Niagara, extracted from “Imperial Glass” catalogues by Archer.
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Above on the left is a Butler Brothers ad from their Mid Spring 1911 catalogue, for an Imperial Grape "wine set" (decanter with stopper and six wine glasses). On the right is our Imperial Grape decanter and stopper in purple.
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Note that the decanter shown in the "Niagara" ad is similar to the carafe shape that we showed earlier. The difference is that the neck of the decanter is straight up, whereas the carafe is flared out. This was done to accommodate the blow-moulded stopper for the decanter. Do you see anything unusual about the 1911 Butler Brothers illustration? Look at the stopper on the decanter, and compare it with the actual one on ours - they are different! Panic stations - maybe ours is not the correct stopper! A quick look at pictures of lots of other decanters and - relief - they are all just like ours, with the band of beads that mirrors the same design around the top of the decanter. It is pure speculation as to how Butler Brothers got it wrong ... but we have this lovely image of their illustrator dropping and breaking the stopper that Imperial supplied, and decided to "improvise" a design. After all, no one was going to notice ... were they! Anyway, just to put our minds at rest, we looked at other sources to confirm we have the correct stopper with the band of beads, and yes, the Imperial Catalog No. 200, 1925, shows it correctly. Here it is on the right. Right: an extract from Imperial Catalog No. 200, from 1925.
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Speaking of Imperial's pattern names, they did in fact change the names of various patterns over time. Another interesting example, which we have researched extensively, is what we now call Octagon. The original Imperial name for the pattern was “The Bellaire” and it was Imperial’s No. 505, but in a 1970s Imperial Crystal Giftware catalogue we see it called “Westbury” for the pitcher and “Salem” for the vase. Octagon/The Bellaire is also notable for its longevity, from Classic through to Revival/Contemporary production, and also for its various "look-alikes" such as Indiana's 123 pattern (which predated Octagon and was later called Heirloom), Fenton's Hobstar, and Imperial's own No. 535 (sometimes called Lace Variant). All about The Bellaire, its fascinating variations and the long history of this pattern here: Octagon - the Story behind the Glass. And to read more about Imperial's Pattern Names, go here: Imperial By Name! Right: a purple Octagon pitcher, courtesy Seeck Auctions.
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If you have missed any of the previous issues of NetworK and NetworK Specials, they are all here: Back Issues.
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