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WCN
Magazine Issue 18
Carnival Glass - The American Influence?
by Susan Brewer |
Carnival
Glass Message Board
Discuss, Buy and Trade Carnival Glass with other
collectors
 The
United States was the home of Carnival Glass. It was developed
there, and though other countries soon began to produce their
own versions, most collectors today begin with American glass
as it is the easiest to obtain. A previous
article described the manufacture and appearance of this beautiful
product, but briefly, it is a living glass - vibrant and bright
- which reflects colour rather like spilt oil on water.
Although the patterns are formed in a mould, unlike pressed glass
Carnival Glass needs a lot of hand- finishing and decorating,
and the iridescence (created by adding metallic oxides to the
hot glass) means that the finished product doesn't have that somewhat
flat appearance often noticed in pressed glass. Pictured
left is a Northwood fruit and flowers electric cable ice blue
small bowl.
 Carnival
Glass didn't really become of interest to collectors until the
late 1950s, and consequently the history of many of the early
companies is still not fully-researched, so many dates are vague.
A trawl through textbooks throws up a variety of dates - it seems
that no-one is absolutely certain when the various manufacturers
first developed their Carnival Glass products, though it is known
that by 1905 the first cheap, iridised glass to rival the expensive
Tiffany's was in production. Pictured right
is a Noryhwood Rosette rare green bowl.
The Northwood Glass Company was founded by English-born Harry
Northwood, son of a talented glass manufacturer. Harry left England
to work in America in 1880, when he was twenty years old, and
founded his own factory in 1887 in Ohio, before eventually moving
to Wheeling, West Virginia. Many people believe that it was Harry
who brought the technique of iridisation to the USA, having seen
it at his father's glassworks. By 1908 he was producing a range
of iridised glass, using moulds from earlier pressed glass. He
began by making a range of marigold Carnival Glass, which he called
'Golden Iris'. Iris is from the Greek word for rainbow, and Harry
thought that this was a good name for a glass which seemed to
contain and reflect so many colours. Pictured
left is a Northwood grape and cable plate..
 Northwood
proved to be a very productive factory, introducing designs such
as grape and cable, fine cut and rose, beaded cable, wild rose,
singing birds, peacock at the fountain, leaf and beads, nippon
and rosette. Of all its designs, grape and cable was the most
popular, and at one time could be obtained in over seventy shapes
of dishes, vases, plates and bowls. Other companies, noting the
popularity, copied the designs, which seemed to be quite a common
practice at the time. Harry Northwood also introduced some lovely
pastel carnival glass, which came in delicate shades of ice blue,
ice green and white.
Today, the pastels are highly sought after but are quite rare.
White is perhaps the easiest to find and is very pretty with a
delicate pearly sheen. Later, in 1915, a range of iridised custard
glass appeared. This opaque and cream coloured glass has a pastel
iridescent overlay, and is now very rare, commanding high prices.
Most Carnival Glass is unmarked, but the Northwood company regularly
marked their products with a letter 'N' in a circle, which makes
them easily identifiable even by novice collectors. For a round
ten years the Company was at the forefront of the Carnival Glass
industry, but then, sadly, Harry contracted a fatal disease. He
died in 1918, and without him the company seemed to lose direction,
finally foundering to a halt in 1925.
 Harry
Northwood at one time leased the Dugan Glass Company (when under
a different name), and was related to Thomas Dugan, one of the
managers. When Harry left, the name was changed to Dugan, and
in 1910 the company began to produce Carnival Glass, often using
old Northwood moulds. Normally it marked its pieces with a 'D'
set inside a diamond shape, which is probably why, in 1913, it
again changed its name, this time to the Diamond Glass Company.
Based in Indiana Pennsylvania, Dugan was responsible for many
wonderful pieces of iridescent glass with opalescent edges, using
patterns such as fan, cherry, apple blossom twigs, butterfly and
tulip, farmyard, fishnet, starfish stippled, pastel swans, raindrops
and heavy grape. This company continued production right up until
1931, when the factory was destroyed by a disastrous fire. Pictured
right is a Dugan grape delight amethyst rosebowl.
 The
Imperial Glass Company, Ohio, was set up in the early 1900s, though
the iridised glass didn't appear till 1910 . Before then, it made
pressed glass tumblers, water sets, cruets, pickle trays and other
items of table ware. When the company finally introduced its range
of Carnival Glass, it was an instant success and huge quantities
were manufactured. It was so prolific in its output that most
collectors today have some Imperial pieces in their collections.
This company decided to specialise in geometric designs rather
than the naturalistic patterns favoured by many of the other Carnival
Glass companies, and it continued to produce items of practical
use as opposed to the more decorative glassware which Northwood,
Dugan, Fenton and Millersburg preferred. Pictured
right is an Imperial grape marigold tumbler.
 Imperial
experimented with many types of glass, often producing unusual
base glass colours such as clambroth (a pale ginger-ale) and smoke
(light blue-grey). They also managed to achieve an exceptionally
brilliant iridescence on their wares, while their purple glass
was a very deep, rich shade which no other manufacturer could
accomplish. Much of their work resembles the Bohemian glass of
the same period. At the time it was apparently quite common for
a complete workshop group to decide to emigrate, and Imperial
employed many Bohemian German-speaking workers who brought their
expertise and ideas with them. The Company also produced a tremendous
amount of marigold Carnival Glass, the commonest colour, and so
one of the most affordable. Pictured left
is an Imperial heavy grape one-handled dish.
 Glass
from Imperial was sold not only in America but also in Europe
and Australia, and the Com pany continued to produce items even
through the 1930s Great Depression by using earlier moulds to
form a cheaper range of pink, blue and green items, now referred
to as 'Depression Glass'. When collectors began to show interest
in Carnival Glass nearly forty years ago, Imperial started to
produce it once more - and this reproduction ware is now also
very collectable, as the company finally ground to a halt in the
early 1980s. Pictured right is an Imperial
clambroth open rose plate.
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