Galen
March 22, 2016: Heavy Grape Plates From the Imperial Art Glass Company
Galen here. The Tuesday Stretch begins!!
Heavy Grape Pattern on left in Rose Ice (pink crizzled on clear glass -- marigold) Stretch Glass.
Heavy Grape Pattern on the right in Rubygold (on crystal glass -- marigold) Carnival Glass.
Stretch Tuesday featuring Heavy Grape Plates from the Imperial Art Glass Company
It is mainly accepted by collectors that Carnival Glass is iridized pressed pattern glass and that Stretch glass is usually non patterned pressed iridized, ‘refired’ glass having a wrinkled-“stretched” surface effect. But Imperial made patterned “Stretch Glass” as well as non-patterned pieces!
Imperial called one of their lines of stretch glass “Satin Iridescent Colors”: “All in crizzled satin effects.” It came in the following listed colors: “Iris Ice, white crizzled on crystal glass [white stretch]; Rose Ice, pink crizzled on crystal glass [marigold stretch]; Blue Ice, crizzled on crystal glass [smoke stretch]; Amber Ice, crizzled on amber glass [amber stretch]; Green Ice, crizzled on green glass [green stretch]; and Amethyst Ice, crizzled on mulberry glass” [amethyst stretch]. The color names for the Heavy Grape pieces both stretch and carnival glass are from original Imperial catalogs.
The Imperial Carnival Glass in this line was referred to in the same old catalog as “Bright Iridescent Colors.” The colors are listed as: “Peacock, -- the glass has a very brilliant iridescence, but the effect is not loud, with every color of the rainbow represented, with golden yellow predominating, and many color variations; Rubygold , -- dark red iridescent glass with tints of other colors (on crystal glass); Nuruby, -- very similar to Rubygold, but with a change of chemicals (on crystal glass); Saphire, -- a dark blue-gray iridescent color on crystal glass; Azur, -- a very brilliant iridescent effect on a dark amethyst colored glass with all colors of the rainbow such as yellow, green, and rose combined in the treatment; Purple Glaze, -- a very brilliant blue iridescent effect on dark amethyst glass with the effect being similar to that of the plain blue iridescence on the expensive lead luster glass; Helios, -- a silvery iridescence on green glass.”
Imperial used numbers and colors to denote its glass. In the Satin iridescent line (Stretch): the eleven inch Heavy Grape cake plate #7007/4D was sold in Rose Ice, Blue Ice and Iris Ice. This particular group of three was sold as a lot #2079 consisting of 4½ dozen assorted plates in one barrel, 6 each of 3 plates in bright iridescent colors each in 3 satin iridescent colors.
The plates in “Bright Iridescent Colors” (Carnival) were given the same number designation but listed in Azur (dark Amethyst), Rubygold (Marigold), Helios (Green), and Peacock (Rainbow of colors) colors.
There is also a 7 ½” salad plate in the Heavy Grape Pattern in Azur (dark amethyst) and also in Rubygold (marigold). But none have been found in the Satin Iridescent Colors (stretch glass). Has anyone ever seen any?
The Iris Ice Heavy Grape Plate comes both in a plain plate with a stretch finish and 5 are known to have a hole drilled in the top paneling of the plate. They must have been drilled soon after the plates were made as the holes look professional. We surmise that the holes were drilled so that salesmen could hang the plate on the wall. The plates with the drilled holes were found in the early 1970’s in the Los Angeles area by Bill Carol.
In the early 1970’s, the Fenton Art Glass Company had a line of “Heavy Grape” pieces mainly consisted of nappies and small pieces no plates. We showed Frank Fenton a page of the old Imperial catalog with the Heavy Grape plate. Fenton’s line of Heavy Grape was immediately discontinued. All of the Fenton pieces were marked with an embossed Fenton in an oval on the base of the pieces.
Any questions?
Happy stretch and carnival glass collecting,
Russell and Kitty
A lot of beautiful carnival and stretch glass changed hands at the Southern California Carnival Glass Convention. Plus Jim and Jan Seeck had a lot of highly iridized beautiful carnival and stretch glass in their auction. We brought home the rich marigold Imperial Shell plate and a Fenton tangerine opal stretch glass puff box plus a lot of other carnival and stretch glass that we fell in love with. Hope that everyone will join us next year the first week of March at SCCGC.
Galen here again.
Barb C, Doug and Sue and Mitchell – thanks for helping Colin identify his compote/punch bowl base! It’s one of the things I love about the mail list – so many people are so willing to help.
Carl (and his lovely wife, Eunice) – I think the best people to help you with Jain glass would probably be the former editor of the mail list – I hope Glen and Steve can help you with your questions.
Doug and Sue – I don’t have 50 years of collecting carnival glass, but I, too, have to ask for help and don’t know everything about anything! I’m glad you have a place to share your questions (and your knowledge). Thanks for your message – hope someone can help you with your question.
Tonight’s header is a Millersburg Rosalind amethyst sauce with great color.
Ok, it’s time to see what we have for the mail list tonight.
From: Charmaine
To: Doug and Sue
Re: Grape & Cable tumbler
Could the grape and cable tumbler possibly be peach opalescent made by Dugan after they took over the Northwood moulds?? Dugan was known for their peach opalescent carnival. Just speculating, as I've never seen one like it either.
From: Glen and Stephen Thistlewood
To: Carl B (Indiana)
Re: Jain Glass
We have a full section on our website devoted to Indian Carnival Glass, which includes the Indian Carnival Tumbler Gallery with around 44 tumblers featured. As always, when we mention Indian Carnival, we want to add a comment ... "hats off to Bob Smith!" Many of the tumblers we show are Bob's and of course, the pioneering work of discovering Indian Carnival began with Bob, with whom we had the honour of working so closely.
You mentioned a tumbler with swans. Back in 1997 (in our NetworK journal) we featured a Swans and Flowers tumbler by Jain, courtesy of Lance and Pat Hilkene, who had just found it. We also showed a line drawing of the tumbler in two of our books (Carnival Glass The Magic & The Mystery and A Century of Carnival Glass). I am sure Lance will be able to tell the full story.
Here is the link to our Indian Carnival page. At the foot you'll see a link to click to the Tumbler Gallery. The line drawing of Swans and Flowers is shown there.
http://www.carnivalglassworldwide.com/india.html
Also, in one of our "Blast From The Past" features (where we share excerpts from our early NetworK journals) you can see the page that featured the Swans and Flowers tumbler, back in 1997.
From: Dave Ayers
Hello,
Could someone please help to identify this?
Thank you,
The Other Dave