If a picture’s worth a thousand words, what’s a Thousand Pitchers worth?
Written by Glen Thistlewood, Immediate Past President of wwwcga, April 2003.
What a week! What a Hotel! A stunning once-in-a-lifetime display of Carnival Glass pitchers at the wwwcga (*) Carnival Glass Convention held at the impressive Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Louis in April 2003. Thanks to Pete and Paula Bingham and all the other wonderful contributors to this major project.
Let's talk about Carnival Glass pitchers.
The One Thousand Pitchers Display.
Picture it. A vast banquet room with only empty flat tables arranged in a U-shape around the room. In front of them were Pete Bingham and Steve Thistlewood preparing for the hundreds of valuable pitchers that would start arriving for the Thousand Pitcher Seminar and Display. Pete and Paula Bingham had been planning and organising (and packing) for weeks in anticipation of this event. Pete had everything organized so that he could construct made-to-measure staging on top of the flat tables, so that the pitchers could be ranged and staggered in height. Paula and Kelani Lee had hauled planks of wood and supports from Texas to St Louis, along with all their fabulous pitchers. With the help of a chain saw (yes, really!) Pete constructed the staging in-situ!
Eventually, we were all set to receive the pitchers which started to arrive later in the evening, and continued in a steady stream right up to midnight. The next morning there was an almighty, last minute rush to label all the pitchers from around 6.00am! Pitchers were arriving in boxes and more boxes. Sensational pitchers, rare pitchers, one-of-a-kind pitchers. But there was no time to marvel at their beauty – they had to be put out, in alphabetical order naturally, and labelled correctly. It was awesome. Unique. Sensational. If you were there, you will never, ever, forget that Pitcher Show. Going on for half a million dollars worth of Carnival Glass pitchers all in one place – on Pete’s carefully constructed shelves and staging.
Picture it. A vast banquet room with only empty flat tables arranged in a U-shape around the room. In front of them were Pete Bingham and Steve Thistlewood preparing for the hundreds of valuable pitchers that would start arriving for the Thousand Pitcher Seminar and Display. Pete and Paula Bingham had been planning and organising (and packing) for weeks in anticipation of this event. Pete had everything organized so that he could construct made-to-measure staging on top of the flat tables, so that the pitchers could be ranged and staggered in height. Paula and Kelani Lee had hauled planks of wood and supports from Texas to St Louis, along with all their fabulous pitchers. With the help of a chain saw (yes, really!) Pete constructed the staging in-situ!
Eventually, we were all set to receive the pitchers which started to arrive later in the evening, and continued in a steady stream right up to midnight. The next morning there was an almighty, last minute rush to label all the pitchers from around 6.00am! Pitchers were arriving in boxes and more boxes. Sensational pitchers, rare pitchers, one-of-a-kind pitchers. But there was no time to marvel at their beauty – they had to be put out, in alphabetical order naturally, and labelled correctly. It was awesome. Unique. Sensational. If you were there, you will never, ever, forget that Pitcher Show. Going on for half a million dollars worth of Carnival Glass pitchers all in one place – on Pete’s carefully constructed shelves and staging.
A "once in a lifetime" event, unlikely to ever be repeated. The One Thousand Pitcher Show!
The seminar itself was truly EXCELLENT. Paula made us all giggle when she pointed out that she had put two different shoes on (not matching) in her haste that morning. Pete "talked" us round the pitchers on display as Paula pointed them out to us. After the talk, the display was on show for photos and general admiration and study. Afterwards it all had to be taken down - people collected their pitchers (and thought about smuggling a few extra ones out of the room, but security was tight).
The Workshops had started our Educational programme. People brought glass to the seminar room and carefully entrusted them to the workshop tables. Computers and videos were set up, glass was arranged and boxes and boxes of mysterious goodies were set up.
We had a fabulous array of Levay glass set up by Gary and Dodie Levi. Carl and Eunice Booker had an intriguing selection of exquisite Miniatures on display. Ray & Jean Rogers from Australia had prepared some superb large illustrations and hosted a great workshop on Australian Carnival. Howard Seufer and Fred Stone manned the Whimsey table - Howard had kindly brought all the auction whimsies from Fenton (Williamstown) and Fred kindly brought a selection of his own personal wwwcga whimsies for viewing. You can read the full end-to-end story of how this commemorative was conceived, designed (by Glen Thistlewood) and made by some amazing people at Fenton - read "The Art and Craft of Mouldmaking" (aka, We made a mould with Fenton!).
Angie Thistlewood set up a laptop and held 'one on one' tutorials on how to showcase Carnival. Steve and I had a workshop table on European Carnival, which attracted a lot of attention. Dave Cotton presented an excellent seminar: "The Other Side of the Rainbow - a Fresh Look" that encouraged us to look more closely at our glass.
The Levay Workshop display
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wwwcga whimsey display
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It was a “once in a lifetime” event, unlikely ever to be repeated. That it happened at all was due to all the wonderful, generous people who helped to make it happen. The kindness and warmth of Carnival Glass collectors never ceases to amaze me.
And finally ...... here are just three of the amazing pitchers on display.
And finally ...... here are just three of the amazing pitchers on display.
Oriental Poppy, Northwood. Electric blue
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Frolicking Bears, attributed to US Glass. Green
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Cherries, Millersburg. Rare. Green
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* Sadly wwwcga is no longer in existence. It was closed in March 2016.