Stamp of Approval
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Trading stamps and coupons! Who doesn’t remember them? In the USA it was S&H (Sperry & Hutchinson) Green Stamps, shown below and right. In Australia it was Green Coupons – and in the UK (where they came late to the party, arriving in 1958) it was Green Shield Stamps. They were promotional schemes, loyalty programmes: retail organisations bought the stamps from the issuer (such as Sperry & Hutchinson) and gave them to the customer as a bonus with every purchase. The more expensive the purchase, the more stamps you got. When the customer had saved up enough stamps (which would have been stuck into a saver’s book) they’d exchange their stamps for a “gift” (chosen from a catalogue). 
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Sperry & Hutchinson (S&H) began the scheme in the USA in (amazingly!) 1896, and they were followed in Australia just two years later, in 1898, by the Green Coupon scheme.
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Sperry & Hutchinson, USA
This 1911 extract, right, from the Omaha Daily Bee for Bennett’s Department Store shows the range of goods that were on offer in Bennett’s “Premium Parlour” in exchange for S&H Stamps. Surely there was some Carnival Glass on those shelves? 
In those early years green stamps and coupons were everywhere – boosting sales for stores wherever possible. The stamps were redeemed for a range of household goods either using S&H’s own catalogues or, in some cases, from individual department stores.
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Omaha Daily Bee newspaper, 1911
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In some stores, your Carnival Glass purchases would have earned you S&H Green Stamps. How about this fabulous marigold Wide Panel Epergne by Northwood? If you’d have purchased this in April 1911 from Greenhut-Siegel Cooper Co., in New York before midday, you’d have been presented with Double Green Stamps! And just look at the price … |
Evening World, New York, 1911
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A magnificent marigold Wide Panel epergne, Northwood. Courtesy Seeck Auctions
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Bushell's Tea Company, and Marcus Clark & Co. Ltd., Australia
In 1915, over in Australia, the well-known Sydney Department Store, Marcus Clark & Co., were strongly promoting Green Coupons for all kinds of purchases including “Cutlery and Glassware”.
Marcus Clark & Co. Ltd. ad from 1915
And just over a decade later, Marcus Clark were offering Double Green Coupons with a Kookaburra or Kangaroo Carnival bowl by Crown Crystal. We have to agree with the ad, which says: "Sensational Value"!
Marcus Clark & Co. Ltd ad. October 1929 Newcastle Sun (New South Wales)
Also in Australia, Bushell’s Tea Company ran their own sales promotional scheme, offering customers the opportunity to save tea packet labels and exchange them for gifts. And can you guess what some of those gifts were? Yes – CARNIVAL GLASS.
Bushell’s issued catalogues through to the 1930s that included a variety of Classic American Carnival and Australian Carnival (plus some European glass too, though we can’t confirm it was Carnival).
Bushell’s issued catalogues through to the 1930s that included a variety of Classic American Carnival and Australian Carnival (plus some European glass too, though we can’t confirm it was Carnival).
Bushell's Tea ad for their catalogue, 1916
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Bushell's Tea catalogue, 1935
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A 1923 Bushell’s catalogue page, shown below left (courtesy of Gary Workman) had a whole selection of Fenton items on offer: master bowls in the Two Flowers, Little Fishes and Panther patterns; regular bowls in the Holly, Vintage and Leaf Chain patterns plus a Leaf Chain plate. Another Bushell’s catalogue shows a Sowerby Derby rose bowl and several Inwald vases in the Laurier Nelly pattern – but we can’t confirm they were Carnival.
A 1929 Bushells catalogue offered a variety of splendid Australian glass, which included a Crown Crystal Swan master and nappies, which was described as an “Iridescent Swan Salad set, comprising 1 large bowl and 6 small dishes, for 72 1 lb. or 144 ½ lb. labels”.
It certainly was worth drinking all that tea for, wasn’t it!
A 1929 Bushells catalogue offered a variety of splendid Australian glass, which included a Crown Crystal Swan master and nappies, which was described as an “Iridescent Swan Salad set, comprising 1 large bowl and 6 small dishes, for 72 1 lb. or 144 ½ lb. labels”.
It certainly was worth drinking all that tea for, wasn’t it!
A selection of Fenton Carnival, 1923. Courtesy of Gary Workman.
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Top to bottom: Holly, Leaf Chain, Two Flowers
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And on to the 1960s, USA
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Who’d have thought that you could get Contemporary Carnival Glass with S&H stamps? In 1965, The Pantograph, an Illinois newspaper, carried this amazing ad (right) for a “Genuine Re-issue of Iridescent Carnival Glass” being sold by Ensenbergers Furniture Store.
The glass was all Imperial’s, and a splendid array was on offer, as you can see. Note that the by-line described the Carnival as being “In perfect harmony for Spanish and Victorian décor". 
Imperial's Salz 'n Pfeffer, in contemporary amber Carnival. Marked IG
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The Pantagraph, 25 June, 1965
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Read more of The Stories Behind The Glass in Carnival Glass Times