"The Glass of Many Names", Gertrude LaCoss Conboy, 1952.

In January 1952, the first authoritative article about Carnival Glass appeared in the “Spinning Wheel, including Antiques Digest” magazine.

The article was written by Gertrude LaCoss Conboy, who was one of the early Carnival Glass Pioneers. The title was “The Glass of Many Names”, and 'Now Known as "Carnival" ' was added to it on the magazine's front cover (see right).

​Gertrude Conboy and another early Pioneer, May Plummer collaborated on their Carnival research, and we have written about this in a separate article, "The Earliest Carnival Pioneers"  - link at the foot of this page.

The Spinning Wheel article was published in black and white and the Carnival Glass images shown in it are not very clear. However, we have added illustrations of the pieces at the bottom of each page of the article.

​​
​Here is Page 1 of the three page Spinning Wheel article. Links to Pages 2 and 3 are at the foot of this page.

​Shown below are the pieces that were illustrated on Page 1 of the article. We are fairly confident (unless stated otherwise) that the pieces shown below are the ones that were on Page 1 of the article. Note that the colours of the ones shown below do not necessarily correspond with the descriptions given by Gertrude Conboy (partly because we could not be sure just how accurate these descriptions were), and we cannot know whether or not she actually saw them herself. We have also added some explanatory notes.

Windflower plate, blue, Dugan.
​Courtesy Burns Auctions (*1)

Rambler Rose water pitcher, blue, Dugan.
Courtesy Seeck Auctions

Tree Trunk vases, purple, Northwood.
​Courtesy Seeck Auctions

---

Four Seventy Four tumbler, green, Imperial.
Courtesy Burns Auctions (*2)

Peacock at the Fountain tumbler,
​blue, Dugan (*3)

Peacock at the Fountain tumbler,
purple, Northwood

---

Orange Tree punch cup, marigold, Fenton.
Punch set courtesy Seeck Auctions

Cherries and Little Flowers tumbler, blue, Fenton (a similar design was made by Northwood. (*4)

Oriental Poppy tumbler,
​purple, Northwood.

​Notes:
*1: Referred to as a "green plate". This colour is highly unlikely, as Windflower plates have not been reported in green. Most likely, the reference to green is about the colour of the iridescence.
*2: Referred to as "green glass". In those days, the various colour shades were not always recognised. The Four Seventy Four tumbler is found in aqua, and lime green shades - not a true green. Aqua is the more likely for the one she showed.
​*3: Referred to as "Peafowl & Fountain", but now generally called Peacock at the Fountain. It was made by Dugan and Northwood with significant pattern differences - and it is impossible to say which version was being shown. We have included both for reference.
​*4: Referred to as "tumbler with fruit decor in white enamel". Most likely it was what is now called Enamelled Cherries / Enamelled Cherries and Little Flowers (but in fact the "little flowers" are only on the matching bulbous water pitcher design, not on the tumbler). The pattern was made by both Fenton and Northwood, and are not always easy to tell apart.

---

Here is the link to Page 2: "The Glass of Many Names" Page 2

Here is the link to Page 3: "The Glass of Many Names" Page 3

​Carnival Glass Pioneers
In 2016, we issued two "NetworK Specials" that focused on the amazing work of several Carnival Glass Pioneers from the 1940s through to the 1990s.
Click on each image below to see these NetworK Special issues.