Japanese Carnival Glass

Google search around the online world for Japanese glass and the chances are you'll find yourself wading through glass fishing floats and glass beads (some of which are fabulously iridised), but you may also just come across some Carnival Glass ..... read on.

The development of the glass industry in Japan is fairly recent, compared to many other countries. Although it has its roots in the 1800s, the industry grew in response to a combination of outside influences and domestic needs. Larger scale production began in the early 1900s, with the demand for lighting and utilitarian tableware, and output was diversified during the 1950s and 1960s when US military personnel in the area started a growing demand for souvenir items. Today it boasts highly sophisticated industrial glass production at one extreme and a thriving studio glass community at the other, and somewhere in between lies the production of tableware and giftware.

Here are two fascinating glass items in marigold Carnival. Each has the distinction of bearing the moulded words MADE IN JAPAN.

Photos are courtesy of and Copyright of Tony Hodgson and may not be copied without permission.

The covered sugar on the left was found in Australia some years ago and is in marigold Carnival. It was reported by Yvonne and Jack Dennis and the illustration is based on their line drawing of the item. It is very similar to pattern glass from the United States Glass Company - in fact it has a resemblance to the US Glass design "Bullseye and Fan", But there are differences, the main one being the fact that moulded on the inside of the base are the words: DESIGN PAT. No. 25949 and MADE IN JAPAN. Yvonne and Jack report that the "glass is crude and heavy with bubbles. The marigold iridescence is pale though even on the outside, but rather splotchy on the inside.

On the right is a marigold bowl (perhaps a rose bowl or an open sugar) that was found just recently by Tony Hodgson in New Zealand. Like the one on the left, it also has a United States Glass "feel" to the pattern - a little like "Manhattan" or "The States" and yet not. The bowl also has the words MADE IN JAPAN moulded on the inside of the base. If you click Tony's photo (right) you can see a larger image against a light background as well as the one (right) at full size.

Below are more Carnival items that appear to be from Japan:

Top left is a Carnival ashtray that appears to have Japanese characters moulded on the side, and top right is a red Carnival plate that had attached to it the paper label shown in the top middle photo.  The label reads: "Lefton TRADE MARK EXCLUSIVES JAPAN" and yet the glass that it was stuck on seems to be Indiana Glass "Heirloom" Series in Sunset Carnival. Has the mould been sold, or was the paper label transferred, do you think? We don't know the answer to that conundrum. What we do know, though, is that Lefton (we understand they are an international importer / wholesaling group based in the USA) have sourced a great deal of their wares from Japan, and that includes glass. Examples (usually vases) crop up with paper stickers that read: "Lefton's Japan Hand Blown Glass Works".

On the bottom row, an as yet unidentified tumbler, with an etched design in marigold Carnival. There was a label on it, as shown, with a picture of the head of a dog. The lable reads "Registered Trade Mark. T.Yanagawa Glass Works. Made in Japan.