|
 Most of us
have probably toyed with a bowl of alphabet soup when we were
young. The pale chunky vegetables floating in a ruddy colored
broth always seemed more palatable if you could swallow them
with some soft, noodle letters. I used to try and find the
letters that made my name, but the G always evaded me. There
were plenty of other letters, and I even found a Z once (or was
it a letter N?) but a G never appeared in my soup bowl.
A fascination with letters is present in the world of
Carnival too, and there’s an interesting range of items on which
they can be found. John Resnick’s “Encyclopedia of Lettered
Pieces” is a good place to read about many (but by no means all)
of them. Carnival “Lettered Pieces” are usually thought of as
the advertising, commemoratives and similar items made by
several of the Classic manufacturers in the USA. Pieces such as
the Fenton “Getts Pianos” amethyst bowls and plates were
produced to advertise the musical merchandising firm of George
W. Getts of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The delightful lettering
on the glass provides the above promotional information. A wide
range of other, well-known lettered items are also known, such
as Millerburg’s “Bernheimer Brothers” bowl, Dugan’s “Brooklyn
Bridge” and the splendid “Elks” pieces.
Click images below for larger
versions.
Millersburg's fabulous Bernheimer bowl in
rich, cobalt blue
Then there’s Northwood’s “Good Luck”. Surely no one reading
this is unfamiliar with the wonderful pattern. The sentiment
expressed on it was suitable for so many occasions, and surely
many “Good Luck” bowls and plates were carefully wrapped up and
lovingly handed over as wedding, birthday or baptism gifts. We
have often speculated that they were also exported to the UK
during the years of WW1, to be given as auspicious tokens,
perhaps to soldiers or their families.
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Northwood’s pastel marigold Good Luck
bowl
with a candy ribbon edge |
A close up of the lettering on a
purple Good Luck bowl |
But what about other kinds of lettering on Carnival Glass?
What else can be found? Well, for a start, there were a number
of pieces that had souvenir lettering stencilled onto the glass.
The example shown is a Fenton “Orange Tree” goblet that has
white painted (stencilled) letters that spell out “Souvenir of
SHEDIAC, N.B.” Shediac was well known for its transport links
(in both maritime and commercial aviation) so it’s likely that
travellers and tourists would have been the targets of the
“Orange Tree” Shediac souvenirs.
Fenton’s Orange Tree goblet was a
souvenir of Shediac in New Brunswick
Trademarks too, can be found in letter form on Carnival.
Surely everyone immediately thinks of the famous Northwood N
mark - arguably the most well known Carnival trademark of
yesteryear. But did you know that there are also many others?
Since the 1970s we’ve all been familiar with the Fenton
lettering, as well as a number of other contemporary trademarks,
but there are some fascinating older ones too, that originated
in many parts of the world.
Take India, for example. The lettering JAIN is well known as
the trademark of the Jain Glass Company of Firozabad - but did
you know there are several other Indian trademarks that also
used letters? One of them even gave its name to a pattern: it’s
the CB vase, and it features the letters CB intertwined with
floral motifs on the body of the vase. AVM (representing the
Indian AVM Works) is another trademark found on some Carnival,
and so is SASNI.
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The moulded Jain trademark is found
on various items and in several different “script”
forms |
A close up of the CB lettering set
amidst
the floral motifs on the CB vase |
Scandinavia, Argentina, Czechoslovakia and Australia also
produced Carnival Glass with lettering in the form of trademarks
and design registrations. Eda, Karhula, Iittala, Kauklahti and
of course, Riihimaki, also used their factory names as moulded
trademarks on Carnival - although it must be stressed that
finding examples can be very hard indeed, as they are
undoubtedly scarce. In Argentina the factory Cristalerias Papini
used the full words INDUSTRIA ARGENTINA moulded on several of
their Carnival Glass patterns, while the firm Cristalerias
Rigolleau featured their full factory name and address on the
central section of the fabulous “Beetle Ashtray”. The Australian
maker, Crown Crystal, featured moulded design registrations on a
number of Carnival patterns; the Czech glass maker, Josef Inwald
did likewise.
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Riihimaki’s Bishop’s Mitre vase can
sometimes be found with the trademark of the factory
on its base, as you can see in the next photo |
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In more recent years, our own wwwcga commemorative also has
lettering in a variety of places on its surfaces - in fact we
think we are correct in claiming that it is the only Carnival
Glass piece to have lettering on all three of its mould
sections: plunger, mould and base plate (corresponding with
interior, exterior and marie). On the interior or upper surface,
can be found the moulded words “Woodsland World Wide Carnival
Glass Association”. On the exterior the initials GT can be
found, while on the marie there is moulded lettering (that
changes with each fresh production) commemorating the convention
location and year.
The Woodsland Pine in dark marigold,
our 2005 commemorative
And finally, do you know what Carnival piece has just letters
for its shape, pattern name and manufacturer? It’s unique and
most unusual in that its form is that of two large upper case
letters - rather like giant Alphabet Soup noodle shapes! Of
course, it’s the CR ashtray. The shape of the item is two large
letters - C and R - which stand for the maker Cristalerias
Rigolleau of Argentina. More moulded lettering on the item also
gives the full factory name and address. The shape has given the
pattern its name - the CR Ashtray.
Copyright 2006, G&S Thistlewood. All Rights
Reserved.
Photos are Copyright G&S Thistlewood, 2006. |
