Antiques Attic

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Monday, March 11, 2013

Carnival Glass
extremely popular and admired at one point in history then faded.  What other kind of antique has gone from imitating L.C. Tiffany to being given away, just a few years later, by barkers at carnivals? What other story of something iridescent, a glass process lost from the Roman times until the late 19^th century, can fade in a Great Depression?

Well, some people felt differently and knew better.
The interest in what we now call Carnival Glass has been kept alive by the collectors, the clubs and societies internationally who knew it had a beauty within, who saw its place in our cultural history and who have or need a spark of iridescence in their lives.

Following is a brief history of carnival glass along with photos of some of the wonderful pieces we currently have available in our shop.

front Dugan Petal & Fan background Windmill Chrysanthiam

Carnival glass is moulded or pressed glass, always with a pattern and always with a shiny, metallic, 'iridescent' surface shimmer. Carnival glass gets its iridescent sheen from the application of metallic salts while the glass is still hot from the pressing. A final firing of the glass brings out the iridescent properties of the salts, giving carnival glass the distinct shine it is known for.

The keys to its appeal were that it looked superficially like the very much finer and very much more expensive blown iridescent glass by Tiffany, Loetz and others and also that the cheerful bright finish caught the light even in dark corners of the home.

Northwood Embroidered Mums

Both functional and ornamental objects were produced in the carnival finish and patterns ranged from simple through geometric and 'cut' styles to pictorial and figurative. A wide range of colours and colour combinations were used but the most common colours accounted for a large proportion of output, so scarce colours can today command very high prices on the collector market.

Carnival glass has been known by many other names in the past: aurora glass, dope glass, rainbow glass, taffeta glass, and disparagingly as 'poor man's Tiffany'. Its current name was adopted by collectors in the 1950s from the fact that it was sometimes given as prizes at carnivals, fetes & fairgrounds. However, that can be misleading as people tend to think that all of it was distributed in this way but evidence suggests that the vast majority of it was purchased by the housewife to brighten up the home at a time when only the well off could afford bright electric lighting.

Carnival glass originated as a glass called 'Iridill', produced beginning in 1908 by the Fenton Art Glass Company (founded in 1905). Iridill was inspired by the fine blown art glass of such makers as Tiffany and Steuben, but did not sell at the anticipated premium prices and was subsequently discounted. After these markdowns, Iridill pieces were used as carnival prizes.

Iridill became popular and very profitable for Fenton, which produced many different types of items in this finish, in over 150 patterns. Fenton maintained their position as the largest manufacturer and were one of very few makers to use a red coloured glass base for their carnival glass. After interest waned in the late 1920s, Fenton stopped producing carnival glass for many years. In more recent years, due to a resurgence in interest, Fenton re-started production of carnival glass until its closure in 2007.

Fenton Dragon & Lotus

Many other companies also produced carnival glass and some of those are more highly regarded by collectors today. Why you ask? Because they did not produce the quanity that Fenton did, therefore there are fewer available pieces. Examples of other U.S. companies that produced carnival glass would be Northwood, Dugan, Cambridge, Imperial, Millersburg, U.S. Glass, and Westmoreland. Competition became so fierce that new patterns were continually being developed, so each company ended up making a wide range of patterns.

Most U.S. carnival glass was made before 1925, with production in clear decline after 1931. Some significant production continued outside the US through the depression years of the early 1930s, tapering off to very little by the 1940s.

front Fenton Autumn Acorn background Millersburg Grape Wreath

Different and in many cases highly distinctive carnival glass patterns were designed and by non-US makers, most notably by Crown Crystal of Australia, now famed for their depiction of that continent's distinctive fauna and flora in their glass. Sowerby (England) are notable for their use of swan, hen and dolphin figural pieces in carnival finish as well as pieces which have figural parts such as bird figured legs. German production of carnival was dominated by the Brockwitz glassworks, with mainly geometric patterns which take their cues from cut glass. Other major European makers included Inwald (Czechoslovakia),Eda (Sweden) and Riihimäki (Finland). These again produced cut glass styles and simple geometrics with a few floral patterns. However, the most distinctive continental European patterns are probably the similarly styled 'Classic Arts' & 'Egyptian Queen', produced by the Czech Rindskopf works, sporting stained bands of figures over a very simple geometric form in a very even marigold. In other parts of the world most notable are the Argentinian Cristalerias Rigolleau for their innovative and highly distinctive ash trays and Cristalerias Piccardo for their highly desirable 'Jewelled Peacock Tail' vase. Finally, the Indian Jain company should not go unmentioned, notable for their distinctive elephant, fish and hand figural sections incorporated into the body of trumpet shaped vases and for their desirable and highly complex goddess vases.

European Four Flowers

Often the same moulds were used to produce clear and transparent coloured glass as well as carnival versions, so producers could switch production between these finishes easily according to demand.

Identification of carnival glass is frequently difficult. Many manufacturers did not include a maker's mark on their product, and some did for only part of the time they produced the glass. Identifying carnival glass involves matching patterns, colors, sheen, edges, thickness, and other factors from old manufacturer's trade catalogs, other known examples, or other reference material. Since many manufacturers produced close copies of their rivals' popular patterns, carnival glass identification can be challenging even for an expert.

Northwood Peacock & Urn

Imperial Lustre Rose

Imperial Star Medallion

Wishbone & Spades

front Fenton Orange Tree Mug background Dugan Grapevine Lattice Cup

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Mistaken Identity
See picture below of some glassware made by Colony Glassware called Harvest
This glass was produced 1960's thru 1970's and is not Carnival Glass but irredescent glass. Many people call this carnival glass but that is incorrect. The colors and glow are similar but the quality is less. This glassware is collectible and we also carry this in our inventory but we want you to know the difference. Why does this matter? Cost/Value

Monday, March 4, 2013

REPURPOSING IDEAS

Old Basket used as storage on wall

Old Dresser used as kitchen island

Old decanter bottles made into light fixtures

Globe turned into light and old map decoupaged on shade

Wood pant hangers used as photo or poster holders

Old rake hung on wall to hang garden tools

Old doors and architectural piece made into headboard

Old crates/wood boxes used as shadow boxes for collectible displays

Old shutters used as privacy screen in garden

Many misc pieces put together as unusual chair

Many different architectural pieces used to make an outdoor room

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Butter Molds/Stamps

Back in the good ole days

Alot of people have the idea that butter was made at home, which was true for country farm folks but city folks had to purchase butter at a general store. Here are photos of butter molds,stamps and presses.

After the butter was worked and salted by a farmer, if needed, it usually was molded into blocks or rounds to be measured, stored and sold.

The other option was to just pack it into tubs or crocks but printed butter usually received a higher price in many markets.

And sometimes consumers bought butter in tubs and then molded it themselves to make it more presentable on the table. Common butter mold sizes were 1/2, 1 and 2 pounds.

Since most butter was sold, having an accurate weight was important. If a customer paid for one pound of butter they wanted to get one pound. Many butter molds had provisions to adjust the size of the mold so that the amount of butter could be increased or decreased to get a print weighing the correct weight. This did not stop dishonest merchants and dairies from selling under weight rolls of butter. The problem became so bad that in 1893 the California state legislature passed a law stating: "Any person or persons, firm or corporation, who offers for sale roll butter not of full weight to each roll, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

The butter molds pictured above were very popular and many are found today. These had fancy designs carved into the press so that the impression was left on top of the butter. Common designs were a sheath of wheat, pineapple, thistle, cow, rooster and geometric designs. Butter would have been filled into the mold and then the plunger pressed to form a tight shape of butter. The handle screwed into the print so it could be removed from the case.

These came in a one pound size like the two molds on the left, a half pound size like the third mold and pat sizes like the last mold.

Sears, Roebuck & Company also listed a two pound size in their 1987 catalog as well as square molds(photo above). The price of these varied depending on the complexity of the carving but would have ranged from 10 to 30 cents for a two pound mold, 13 to 26 cents for a one pound mold, 12 to 22 cents for a half pound mold and 8 to 10 cents for a pat size mold. They could be special ordered with one's initials. Montgomery Ward was still selling the pat size for 8 cents and the one pound size for 35 cents in their 1935-36 catalog.

One of the simplest ways to mold butter was to just use the butter spades or hands that were used to work the buttermilk out of the butter. One just could form the butter into the desired shape after working the butter milk out.There was no mold, the butter was just free formed into a shape. Then a butter stamp, such as in first photo pictured, could be used to imprint a design on to the butter. The stamp was only to imprint a design on the butter, it did not act as a mold. It is likely that many carved plungers from butter molds were turned into stamps after the mold case broke.

Most butter stamps were made of hardwood such as maple however one can find stamps made of glass, metal and stoneware.

The butter mold pictured above was advertised as Kinerson's Combination Butter Print. These were advertised around 1885 and manufactured by James Kinerson of Peacham, Vermont. In this print, the box that formed the mold had tapered sides so that as the butter was ejected the print became loose in the mold. Also there were thin strips of wood set into the face of the print that would form lines into the butter that would mark where the print could be cut into smaller blocks. The design was carved into the face of the print and would be raised on the surface of the butter.

These are very collectible today,some are just used as display items, but some are actually used as their intended use.

Friday, January 18, 2013

VALENTINES LOCAL LOVE

Well here is the key to unlock some LOCAL LOVE.

Valentines Day is fast approaching us so if out and about shopping for that special someone please consider to show some Local Love by shopping Local at the Independent Businesses in your community. I have also added some choices for our local area so click on links!