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Read All About It - Pot Pourri

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Topeka Daily State Journal, 1911

Who could refuse this Saturday Special on offer in 1911? A magnificent "Rubigold" (marigold) punch bowl and stand, free with a one pound purchase of baking powder*. There are also two other offers- a sweet pea vase and a handled berry dish, but there is no illustration, so we are left to imagine what they could have been. The punch bowl top is Twins, made by Imperial, but the base is a different pattern - Long Hobstar, also made by Imperial.

Above: Imperial Twins punch bowl top sitting on an Imperial
Long Hobstar stand (both marigold) - a "marriage" that was
always intended from when it was made. (Seek Auctions)

Interestingly, the ad clears up one of the little conundrums of Carnival Glass: why is there no punch bowl stand known in the Twins pattern?

Collectors have generally matched the Twins punch bowl top with other geometric patterned stands made by Imperial, most usually, a Long Hobstar stand.

The Grand Union Tea ad shows that Imperial had actually intended it to be like this! If there was any doubt that this tea ad was a "one off", the Twins / Long Hobstar combination was definitively confirmed recently (in 2020) when we came across another ad - it was in a Lee Manufacturing mail order catalogue from 1915, shown here on the right. Although the offer is not Carnival (it was for a "Clear Crystal" glass, Imperial's intent was obvious, that the two items were meant to be together.

To see the Lee ad in full detail, click on it, or go here: Lee Manufacturing, 1915

* It's interesting how many Carnival Glass special offers and "premiums" seemed to have been accompanied by baking powder! Many of the offers and assortments that we show in our unique "Sell it to me!" review of mail order catalogues have baking powder as part of the "deal"- to the extent that one of the names that has been given to Carnival Glass was "Baking Powder Glass". Clearly, in the absence of self-raising flour, and probably the difficulty in keeping fresh yeast, baking powder was the essential baking requirement of the day! As the tea ad so aptly put it (below): Grand Union baking powder makes cakes and biscuits fluffy and light.

Say no more ....!

Lee Manufacturing mail order catalogue, 1915