Topic: Marigold carnival lidded jar aka Milady's Powder Bowl - maker currently unknown

[Sendhandfran]

Hi, i just found this on ebay. Its hard to tell for sure but it looks like the bowl is unfrosted on this one.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=231245727154&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en

[Paul S.]

there may be a little confusion here..............hope I've interpreted your comments correctly (if not then it's me that's confused).

Marigold carnival - like other carnival glass - isn't coated in clear glass, although perhaps there is some effect that gives that appearance.
The iridescence is, I believe, always on top of the glass (whatever colour that is), and created by the salts acting on the hot glass.
Does that clarify the point, and hope Glen doesn't object to my intrusion.

Re your other piece, if you look inside the vase you should see easily what type of base colour the glass is - and if it looks orangey then probably it's Marigold as well.

[Glen]

Marigold Carnival is clear glass that has been sprayed (whilst very hot) with a liquid solution of various metallic salts – this is what produces the iridescent effect. Different chemical solutions produced different iridescent effects – the orange of marigold was produced by iron salts (ferric chloride). The temperature of the glass, when it was sprayed, had an effect on the “look” of the iridescence too.

Carnival Glass colours are usually categorised according to the base colour of the glass, but marigold is an exception. The name comes from the iridescence itself – that very characteristic orange colour. There are several variations, from pastel to pumpkin.

In the case of your powder bowl, it looks as if the iridescence has been applied to the interior of the bowl only, thus giving a slightly frosty look to the outside of the glass. But it is still marigold.

This isn’t unusual with Carnival. Some makers liked to “play” a little with their application of iridescence. Dugan, for example, sometimes put iridescence only on the interior of a piece, and not on the exterior.

If you’d like to take a look at an article we wrote on Carnival colours, it might help a little. Colour – and Carnival – is a very complex subject.

http://www.thistlewoods.net/Carnival-colours.html

Hope this helps a bit.
Glen

[chopin-liszt]

As an extra bit of info. on the salts used for producing iridesence, at Isle of Wight Studio Glass, it was Stannous Chloride (tin) used to spray onto the surface, so if you know what that looks like, that's the effect of tin, as opposed to the ferric salts (iron) used to produce the Marigold here, on Carnival Glass.

[Glen]

We explained the use of various iron salts in another article on our website here:

http://www.thistlewoods.net/Iridescence.html

And as a little extra to Sue's excellent info above, here's a photo we took some years ago at the Isle of Wight Glass. (If you want to see the article we wrote back then, it's in archive form on our old website here:
http://www.geocities.com/carni_glass_uk_2000/IofWightGlass.html

[chopin-liszt]

Wonderful stuff, Glen, thank-YOU for all this extra juicy info. 

There is a lot more to iridesence than meets the eye.

ps. I could not resist one of those "Mosaics" in the blue/black combination either. 

[Sendhandfran]

Oh lovely. What great info & photo. I thought it was a washing machine at first!

[Sendhandfran]

Thanks Glen for the link to such a fantastic website on carnival glass!