Don't forget to tape up all glass

Carnival glass: a category of glass. All carnival glass by definition is iridescent -- that is, it has a rainbow-like play of light on its surface. This effect was created by spraying liquid metallic salts on the glass while it was still hot. Carnival glass was an American invention -- it was first issued in 1907 by the Fenton Art Glass Company of Williamstown, West Virginia. American "carnival glass" is defined as iridescent glass issued in the United States between 1907 and the late 1920's. American carnival is a variety of pressed glass: molten glass was poured into a metal mold, and then a metal plunger was used to press the hot glass against the mold, so that the glass took on the shape and design of the mold. After the still-hot glass was removed from the mold, the glassmaker was able to continue shaping the glass piece by, for example, giving it a crimped or ruffled rim, or pulling it to a taller size. Thus, there is great variety among individual pieces cast from the same mold. Carnival glass was manufactured in an endless array of colors -- the bowl shown above, an example of Northwood's "Nippon" pattern, is the carnival color known as "marigold". The major United States manufacturers of carnival glass were Dugan/Diamond, Fenton, Imperial, Millersburg, Northwood, Westmoreland and, to a lesser extent, U.S. Glass. There were also a handful of other companies with a very small carnival glass output: Cambridge, Fostoria, Hazel Atlas, Heisey, Higbee, Jenkins, McKee, and Phoenix. After the carnival glass era in the United States, carnival glass makers emerged in Europe, Australia, Latin America and Asia. If you're interested in learning about carnival glass, we recommend that you visit the phenomenal and encyclopedic website of the renown carnival glass authority, David Doty (ddoty.com), who provides information on every aspect of American carnival glass, including the sales prices of carnival glass pieces sold on E-Bay in the last few years. For information on international carnival glass, we recommend the website of authors Glen and Stephen Thistlewood