Carnival Glass ads: Sears Roebuck Catalogues 1909 to 1927
The wonderful Sears catalogue ads featured throughout our exploration of Carnival and iridescent glass that
appeared in the Sears catalogues from 1909 through to 1927 are courtesy and copyright of Phil Prince.
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to Phil Prince for his permission to use them. It is his hope they will be of interest to both the current and future collectors of the iridescent ware we call Carnival Glass. Phil is a part time genealogist, having traced his paternal line to Colonial Virginia ca. 1638. His love and collecting of carnival glass began in 1992, when he identified his mother's aqua opal Daisy and Drape vase while browsing through books at a Miami mall store.
Phil's passion for the glass, and the skills he developed while researching his ancestry, helped lead him to these amazing Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisements. He has generously shared them with Carnival and glass collectors, originally via our Carnival Glass Network Facebook Group, and now here on our website for the benefit of the wider glass collecting and researching commuity.
We are extremely grateful to Phil Prince for his permission to use them. It is his hope they will be of interest to both the current and future collectors of the iridescent ware we call Carnival Glass. Phil is a part time genealogist, having traced his paternal line to Colonial Virginia ca. 1638. His love and collecting of carnival glass began in 1992, when he identified his mother's aqua opal Daisy and Drape vase while browsing through books at a Miami mall store.
Phil's passion for the glass, and the skills he developed while researching his ancestry, helped lead him to these amazing Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisements. He has generously shared them with Carnival and glass collectors, originally via our Carnival Glass Network Facebook Group, and now here on our website for the benefit of the wider glass collecting and researching commuity.
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Extracts from the contemporary Butler Brothers wholesale catalogues are courtesy of Diane and (the late) Dean Fry and the Southern California and San Diego Carnival Glass Club: they sourced and preserved an amazing resource.
The catalogue images are really brought to life with images of the actual Carnival Glass and we are grateful to Jim and Jan Seek / Seeck Auctions for permission to use their images. Other Carnival Glass enthusiasts have shared information and images with us, and they are individually credited as and where we have used them. It is a truly worldwide collaborative achievement! Sears Roebuck and Co. was originally based in Chicago and it is probably the best known "mail order catalogue" service in the history of the USA. The first catalogue appeared in 1888. By the early 1900s it had grown to such an extent that the customer could buy literally anything from small domestic items through to "build-it-yourself" homes supplied in kit form ... even automobiles. Sears said of their business in 1908: "our volume of sales is larger than any other house in the world selling general merchandise ... we probably sell more merchandise direct to the user than all other mail order catalogue houses in the world." Sears claimed to have millions of customers, and that: "nearly one-half of all the families in the United States, outside of the larger cities, have sent to us for our goods. They are our customers ... they are our friends." What a claim! The catalogue became known as "the Consumers' Bible" and its Christmas catalogue was referred to as the "Sears Wishbook" (source: wikipedia), so it is not surprising to find Carnival Glass was offered for sale. A very successful way for Carnival Glass makers to promote and sell their wonderful products! How to use this resource. There is so much to see! It is impractical to have all the information on a single web page - it would take for ever to load up, and users would be endlessly scrolling. |
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So, this page is the "Homepage" - the index - for all the Sears catalogue ads, and they are organised primarily by date.
If you are interested in a specific pattern, we have a full A to Z Pattern Index, and an amazingly powerful Search facility. The Search box is on every page (at the top right in regular "browser view") - enter your search words and all the relevant results will be revealed!
Below is a gallery of thumbail images - a simple click on each one will open the link for you to explore them individually.
