Antiques & Collectibles A Carnival Glass Primer

Yes, Dorothy, they really DID give them away at carnivals. The term "Carnival" applies to pressed & iridized glass manufactured in various countries between about 1905 and 1930, utilizing a "spray" or "dip and swirl" combination of chemicals, prior to firing, to provide a cheap but beautiful alternative to the "art glass" of the times.

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Don't be surprised at the variety and/or outstanding quality of this glass; it was the last mass produced example of hand-shaped glass in the U.S., and evidences much of the individual glassmaker's art and skill in rendering a beautiful product.

SHAPES: a compote is a small stem-based bowl, a nappy is a spade-shaped one-handled shallow dish, and a bon-bon is a two-handled dish with or without a stem. Vases, pitchers, tumblers and mugs are pretty self explanatory, whereas the difference between a bowl and a plate is all in how tall they are, with a plate being no higher than 2 inches from bottom to the highest top point. A variety of use-specific shapes also exist, such as sweet meat, pin tray, pickle dish, creamer and sugar to name a few. Additonal info is available through any of the fine resources we've listed below.

COLORS: all are determined (supposedly) by holding the glass up to a good light to see the base color of the glass (rather than the color taken-on by the glass/iridescence combination. This works fine for pieces made of a colored base glass, but not so well for those with iridescence applied to a clear base. In the latter case, we've opted to name the piece color by the majority iridescence color (true for "white" carnival anyway).

The common colors include mariglod, amethyst, green and cobalt (our preference over the more hum-drum "blue"). Red is rare but easily identifiable, as is white, whereas the various pastels such as amber, smoke and vaseline are both rare and somewhat open to personal opinion. Peach and aqua opalescent are marigold and green, respectively, with a white opalescent exterior overlay. Again, check-out some of the listed resources for more.

MEASUREMENTS: these are best taken by measuring across the bottom of a piece, not including anything added by the actual base, from side to side. This obviously leads to may discrepancies, but at least removes the variance caused by each glassmaker's personal hand shaping. We've listed sizes as they appear in major carnival glass resources whenever possible.

MAKERS: many of these remain unidentified, particularly when dealing with glass made in England, Australia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Sweden or Finland. Major U.S. makers are Northwood (often, but not always, identified by his trademark circled and underscored N), Dugan, Millersburg, Fenton and the still infamous Imperial (they reissued galss in the 1960's using the original molds - throwing the purist collector into fits). Many others exist, and no intentional slight is meant by not including them here.

RESOURCES: try some of these for more information, and again, no slight is meant by leaving someone out: Bill Edwards, Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass; Crol O. Burns, Collector's Guide to Northwood's Carnival Glass (and others); any in the series by William Heacock, James Measell and Berry Wiggins; and, of course, the ten book set by the "original" carnival glass collector Marion T. Hartung.

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A Carnival Glass Primer