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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 (unnamed, unnumbered) Imperial geometric pattern.

Above: Imperial Twins punch bowl top sitting on a different (unnamed, unnumbered) Imperial geometric pattern- a "marriage" that was always intended from when it was made. (Seek Auctions)

The splendid 1911 ad above shows Imperial’s No. 411 (known to Carnival collectors as Twins) teamed up with an (unnamed, unnumbered) Imperial geometric patterned foot or stand. It is described in the “Topeka Daily State Journal” as a punch bowl, while the later Lee Manufacturing ad referred to it as a Fruit Dish and Stand. Fruit bowl or punch bowl – the customer could use it as they wanted. Imperial catalogues generally described this item as Fruit bowl on foot, but they wouldn’t have protested if the customer wanted to use it for punch. Whatever sells!

The stand depicted has no name and no pattern number. Collectors often refer to it as Twins, while others call it Long Hobstar. In fact it’s a generic, “universal” foot that was intended to be used with a number of bowls in different geometric patterns. The Grand Union Tea ad shows that Imperial intended it to be like this! The same combination of patterns was definitively confirmed (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 work 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