DAVE SHETLAR
March 8, 2016: "Colonial" Candy Jars
Happy Stretch Tuesday! It’s BugDoc Dave again! It has been great to see all the incredible iridized glass items over the last three weeks. Since Tim sent in images of his candy jars after I discussed the covered bonbons, I thought that I would cover the “Colonial” candy jars tonight. This is the name that is commonly used by collectors to describe the taller-than-wide candy jars that have panels on the sides. Fenton and Northwood were the major manufacturers of two sizes of these jars - 1/2-pound and 1-pound versions. Most folks miss the fact that Diamond also made two sizes of jars that are very similar but their jars seem to be 1/2 and 3/4-pound jars. I see the Diamond ones listed as “Fenton” all the time on eBay!
If you look at the header image, the two jars on the left are the Diamond ones. These have panels with no ribs between them and two distinctive rings just above the panels. These are most commonly found in green and blue, but crystal, pink and marigold examples are known. These have also been seen in the Ruby Lustre and Royal Lustre (shiny silver or gold on red or cobalt blue glass). I have the hope (dream?) of finding one of these in Egyptian Lustre (black glass) or even Wisteria (purple glass). So far, none have come to my attention.
Like the covered bonbons, the Fenton and Northwood Colonial candy jars are nearly identical. In fact, both companies used #636 to describe their 1-pound versions!! These #636 jars are very difficult to separate unless they have lids. The Fenton’s lid has a straight lip that fits inside the base (same as the covered bonbon) but the Northwood lip has an indentation (also like their bonbon). If you only have the base, you will have to look at the foot where the raised rays meet the rim. If the mold seam is on the left (as you look at the jar sitting on a surface) it is Fenton. If the mold seam is on the right of the ray, it is Northwood!
The ½-pound Fenton jar is #635 while the ½-pound Northwood jar is #659. To my eye, the base of the Fenton jar is very rounded while the Northwood jar is more tapered. If they have lids, the straight lip and indented lips are diagnostic features. Otherwise, the seam locations can be used.
The Fenton jars come in the common Fenton colors (i.e., Florentine Green, Celeste Blue, Topaz, Wistaria, and Grecian Gold) with Tangerine, Velva Rose, Persian Pearl and Aquamarine being tougher to find items. I have hopes of finding one in Ruby or Royal Blue, but none have shown up yet. The Northwood jars are most commonly found in Blue, Topaz, Russet, Jade Blue and marigold. There are custard ones and one opaque white jar known.
Loved to see the Double Diamonds dresser items. It’s amazing to see the variety of items in this line.
Speaking of dresser sets, thanks Cal for sharing the Celeste Blue items. These items keep rising in price and are becoming increasingly difficult to find in any color!
Doug and Sue, hope someone can help identify your bowl with what looks like the peacock-tail loops. I’m not a big fan of the radium finish (stretch collectors shy away from shiny! LOL!), but your bowl certainly is an outstanding example of this effect!
Okay, let's see what we have for the mail list tonight. Our first message tonight is from Pam Mills.
From: Pam Mills, President www.cga
To: all members
Yesterday, your Board voted to make a Four Thousand ($4,000) Dollar Cash donation to The Museum of American Glass West Virginia to purchase an additional www.cga showcase. This showcase will go with our existing showcase and be used to display Carnival Glass at the Museum. Here we will house the www.cga souvenir mould, donated by Glen Thistlewood, and a few examples of items made with the mould.
The Museum is FREE to the public and if you are planning a trip, you might consider taking along an item of Carnival Glass to donate. Your donations will be kept for display or if they have duplicates, the duplicate will be sold in the Museum Store to help fund the museum. Oh, Ed Perva, a former www.cgaBoard Member, has his Tumblers housed here too. The Museum is totally donation funded at this time. http://magwv.com/ At this link you can also become a member of the Museum.
To: Anne, Dave, Galen, et al
From: Shad
Hi Anne...the piece you have I would consider a nut bowl. Yours like mine has a rather plain olive green exterior, but the sunflower interior has some beautiful shades of blue. Wish they had reversed that when they were made. Would probably have ended up with a couple beautiful emerald green nut bowls! Thanks for sharing yours! I'd love to see your other rose bowls.
Dave...I think clambroth is one of those "in the eye of the collector" type colors. Personally, I look at a pastel marigold piece as having a clear base with the spray causing the pastel marigold color. With the clambroth pieces I have, the spray doesn't create the base color...instead the base is actually the color of a light broth. It's most likely one of those accidental mixes that occurred at the factories where a clear glass batch had a little too much something stirred in. Otherwise, I'd expect we'd see more of it. After looking at your pics on the showcase site, I would call it clambroth too. I've attached a pic of the different shades of marigold Leaf and Bead pieces I have as well as some pics of the couple clambroth pieces in the pattern, a Dragon and Lotus 3/1 in clambroth and also a Good Luck ruffled bowl in the same color.
Galen...It's taken 20 years to put all those rose bowls and nut bowls together. It wasn't until a few months ago I was finally able to add a smoke rose bowl to the collection, and recently I acquired a vintage green opalescent piece with a sawtooth edge iridized and signed by Crider. That's the fun of carnival for me, always something old but new around the corner. I've added some more photos of my favorite pieces. They like Dragon and Lotus have such an amazing color run if one is persistent! ~smile~
My best,
Shad
From: King Hoppel
To: Doug & Sue
Re: Peacock Tail
I had one of these and queried Mike Carwile about it. In his book he lists it as Millersburg. Note that the large ruffle curves up rather than down.
From: Carl B. (Indiana)
To: Galen, Brian, All
Re: 2016 purchases
We had a great trip to Florida to visit my sister and attend the Tampa Bay Convention. The antique shops and malls were not as plentiful as we would have hoped, but we were able to buy some nice pieces of carnival glass. Some of these were purchased in South Carolina while visiting Joan Doty. Others were purchased on the road somewhere between Griffith, IN, Naples, FL, Charleston, SC, Knoxville, TN, and Leopold, IN. In this mailing I've attached three items. These are a purple Heavy Grape nappy, a marigold Imperial Grape nut bowl, and a green Little Stars Ice Cream bowl 7 3/8". Other purchased items will be sent at a later date.
From: Tim Reaburn
To: Shad
I love the Fashion Rose Bowls. However, I think that your trinity really needs to be a quartet. Here is a picture of a smoke example and I’m sure that if there is one then there has to be others. This one has lovely yellow iridescence on the inside and more purple/blue on the outside. We always need something to look for, right?
Newish Purchase pic:
I found this #220 Fenton Celeste Blue jug in Christiansburg, VA on my way down to Tampa for the convention there. It also came with four handled mugs that I haven’t pictured. What was most exciting for me was the coasters under the mugs and under the pitcher. I had seen the coasters pictured for the mugs but I had never heard of one under the jug!
From: Glen and Steve
To: Doug and Sue
Re. your mystery bowl
Your bowl is very similar to the "Beaded Peacock Tail" pieces that are seen on a variety of metal epergnes (e.g. Goddess of Athena). Yours appears to be a little different, as we can't see any beading, so perhaps yours is a variation on the theme. We feel that these items are almost certainly European, and you can read more about them in our Collectors Facts series under Beaded Peacock Tail (with "hats off" to Stan Hoegerman for his photos and help). We will be writing more about these distinctive items soon. Here is the link to see the feature on our website.
To: Everyone
From: Seeck Auctions
March already! That means the S. California convention in Ontario, CA is first up for us this month. This year we will be selling the Estate of David Hamilton from Kansas City. The auction is this Saturday, March 12th. We hope to see many of you at the convention and auction but if you can’t make it, you may enter your absentee bids into Auction Flex with the cut off for entering bids Friday night the 11th at 9 pm CST.
If you have specific questions about the glass, feel free to give Jim a call on Friday.
Jim and Jan Seeck
Seeck Auctions