 | In 2019, I received an email from Trudy Auty of the UK and a member of the Carnival Glass Society UK. She told me that their Society had made a recent trip to the Haworth Gallery in Accrington, UK. This gallery houses the largest collection of Tiffany Glass in Europe.
As they were walking around the gallery, they saw a beautiful press molded, iridized Tiffany tile which had an Iris flower pattern on it (at left). Later on, Dave Richards, who is also a CGS member, noted that this pattern was listed on this site under the name "Picture Frame." Tiffany and his company in New York made huge amounts of iridized glass as well as many, many stained glass windows and lamp shades. He began iridizing glass in the late 1800s, prior to the advent of Carnival in the early 1900s and this continued into the 1920s. Consequently, when Carnival first became popular, some folks referred to it as "Poor Man's Tiffany." The Carnival Glass Society's research suggests that, when excess glass was trimmed away from around the outer edge of the item, it formed a decorative tile used for a range of different purposes. (photo courtesy of CGS)
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| Apparently someone thought this item was intended as a frame for pictures. The trimmed version, on the right, is about 8 inches square. While the hole is large enough to frame a small picture, there is no way to secure a picture to the frame. Nor is there any way to hang the frame or even to stand it. Along with the considerable weight and fragility of the pieces, it's unlikely they were made to hold pictures. Perhaps they were a sort of tile. Hard to say. In any event, there are very few around. The trimmed example shown here sold for $600 in 1995; another with rough spots sold in 2003 for $650.
The untrimmed version above left, the only one known, brought $2,800 in 2003, $500 in 2007, and $525 in 2010. In 2018, it sold for $3,400. |
 | At the left is a souvenir piece in blue made for the 1976 International Carnival Glass Association convention in Indianapolis and was made by Joe St Clair. They are also 8 inches square. This example sold for $45 in 2000. One sold on eBay in 2005 for $128.
Updated 7/8/2018
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