Carnival Glass Addicts

Collecting Carnival Glass: How the Addiction Spread through One Family

By Dolores Sage

My Carnival Glass collecting began with a marigold Imperial Star Medallion milk pitcher. Where my mother found it I have no idea. It might have come from a county fair, or in a large bag of flour or chicken feed, or even from the traveling Watkins salesman who stopped by every month. No one else in my family wanted it.

From this early beginning evolved our own 700-800 piece collection and an interest in collecting Carnival Glass in our four children and two granddaughters (some more passionate than others). The other ten grandchildren all have received gifts of Carnival Glass. Seven great-grandchildren and seven great-nieces and nephews are currently members of Iridescent Nation, a Carnival Glass Club for junior collectors. The youngest member is 3 months old.

Our main love was boating and fishing, but we did manage to sandwich in a few stops to antique shops during those early years of collecting (1970s). In spite of a limited budget, our collection grew by a few pieces of Carnival Glass including a smoke Imperial Grape Decanter and two wines, and a passion for wine and cordial sets was ignited.

I did manage to join the American Carnival Glass Association but never made it to a convention with the exception of the one held in Ithaca, New York, in 1976. The convention hotel happened to be on the way to a boating trip to Lake Ontario and my husband, Dick, knew that I was really interested in checking it out. With a German Shepherd in the back seat and a boat on the trailer behind our truck, he stopped at the hotel and sat in the parking lot while I went in to take a look around. I saw some people wearing badges, a welcome sign, but no Carnival Glass so I walked back out and we drove on to our weekend of boating and fishing. Dick and I did find time to attend a few ACGA conventions and the Woodsland convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Setting out to capture all the milk pitchers I could find, and concentrating on those made by Imperial, I soon amassed a collection of about fifty. I still have about 25 -30 displayed on a high shelf above my kitchen. My interests then changed to collecting wine and cordial sets, water pitchers, dragon bowls, and more Imperial. My cabinet of dragons, off-limits to my birthday and Christmas gift-giving, holds about fifty+ pieces of Dragon and Lotus, Dragon and Strawberry and a Paneled Dragon vase (one of four known).

After Dick retired from IBM in 1986, we moved from Texas to Florida. With more free time on his hands Dick became more interested in Carnival Glass, especially candlesticks. We joined the Sunshine State Carnival Glass Association, attended all of the conventions, and became active working members of the club. No one else in the family showed much interest until after Dick died in 2002. Suddenly my four kids rallied to keep Mom’s interest in the glass going -- thinking to themselves I’m sure -- that doing so would keep me from being too involved in their lives. So they all joined SSCGA and sixteen family members attended the 2003 SSCGA convention in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

A comment from my youngest granddaughter, Alicia, about the lack of pictures of Carnival Glass in my newsletters triggered the idea of creating a Carnival Glass Club for young collectors. To persuade some doubtful members of SSCGA, I involved family members Sandy Sage and Donna Nestra to help produce a colorful newsletter and the Sunshine Club for young Carnival Glass collectors was born! The Sunshine Club was sponsored by SSCGA until it ceased to exist in late 2012. In 2013, with the help of Founder Dolores Sage, John and Loretta Nielsen, my great-granddaughter, Laikyn, and newsletter editor Sandy Sage, the Sunshine Club changed its name to Iridescent Nation and is still going strong.

The addiction has spread throughout our family. My son, Richard, loves Imperial Windmill pieces; my other son, Doug, loves all of the grape patterns; my daughter, Donna, enjoys collecting tumblers and anything blue. Donna’s daughter Alicia, the first member of the Sunshine Club (with Matt Wroda) has a beautiful collection of Imperial Ripple vases.

And my son, Bob with his wife Sandy, are devoted collectors of Carnival Glass – with a passion for collecting European Carnival Glass, Greek Key, and Horse Medallion.