Jain tumbler - Jain Glass Works - Jain pitcher - Shalimar tumbler
Daisy & Drape tumbler - Daisy & Drape pitcher - Spice Grater pitcher

The Carnival Glass of India, Part 11:

Rare and Notable Jain Pitchers and Tumblers

by curculiosglass

A Jain Shalimar carnival glass pitcher:
the red paper label near the pitcher's rim
reads "Advance Firozabad".

photograph by electricglass

          This is Part 11 of a 12-part guide on carnival glass from India.  This section of our guide offers a sampling of rare and notable carnival glass pitchers and tumblers made by the Jain Glass Works of Firozabad, India.  Part I of this guide contains general information on the Jain Glass Works, India's most prominent carnival glass manufacturer, which launched the production of the first iridized Indian glass in the 1930's.  India's carnival glass consisted primarily of tumblers and pitchers. 

          To see other parts of our guide, click on the links in the guide Table of Contents at the end of this page.  This guide was made possible by the many E-Bayers who came together to contribute photographs to this project.  Please leave feedback by clicking the button at page bottom.

Introduction

            There are 75 recorded Indian carnival glass tumbler and pitcher patterns; these are all listed in Part 8 of this guide.  Such tumblers have been documented in various resources, most notably in the works of Glen and Stephen Thistlewood, and at the website Tumbler World  (tumblerworld.com/JainNew2.html).  Parts 7-10 of this guide show several rare and notable Jain tumblers and document an additional 10 tumblers and 3 pitchers that were previously unknown in carnival glass literature, but which appeared on E-Bay between 2007 and 2009.

           This section, Part 11, showcases examples of three Jain pitchers, with the purpose of aiding E-Bayers in identifying rare specimens, and also with the aim of giving collectors a sense of the breadth and beauty of Jain's workmanship.  The patterns shown here are Australian Daisy, Shalimar and Spice Grater.

Photographic Gallery of Jain Tumblers

A rare Australian Daisy pitcher and tumbler,
Jain Glass Works, circa 1930's

photograph by electricglass

Australian Daisy.  To our knowledge, this is the first documented Jain pitcher in this pattern.  The pitcher and tumbler surfaced on E-Bay in July, 2009 and were found by Canadian E-Bayer electricglass of Saskatchewan.  Even the tumblers in this pattern are seldom seen;  they are characterized as "very scarce" by the Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 11th ed. which reports only two known examples (pp. 28, 305).  The tumbler shown above and below is the third documented example.

Impressed designs on Australian Daisy tumbler
photograph by electricglass

An Australian Daisy tumbler appears in Glen and Stephen Thistlewood's 2001 edition of A Century of Carnival Glass.  The Thistlewoods describe the pattern as featuring "four panels, each containing a stylized daisy type of flower, complete with leaves and buds.  The tumbler is pinched in near the bottom with a ribbed band and there is a 6-pointed star on the base" (p. 171).  Near the tumbler's mouth, a clear-non-iridized band circles the rim. 

The tumbler shown here measures 4 1/4"tall, with a 2 3/4" mouth and a base diameter of 1 1/8".  Australian Daisy tumblers have been reported in marigold carnival glass only.  According to international carnival glass authority and collector Bob Smith, the tops of Australian Daisy tumblers originally were frosted white, but this decorative effect often wears away with use (SECG, p. 28). 

The Australian Daisy pitcher shown above and below is decorated with a pattern that matches the tumbler:  a floral design consisting of daisy-like flowers and leaves, with a clear band circling the rim.  As with the tumbler, the pitcher's base is impressed with a design that resembles a 6-pointed flower or star.  The pitcher is also indented near the bottom, but -- unlike the tumbler -- the bottom portion bears a geometrical pattern of  crosses within diamonds. 

Impressed design on the bottom
of an Australian Daisy pitcher

photograph by electricglass

The pitcher shown here is 8 1/2" tall, with a 5" mouth and a base diameter of 3 3/8".  The pitcher's handle is non-iridized clear applied glass.  This pattern has been documented in marigold carnival glass only.

The Australian Daisy pattern derives its name from the fact that the first documented tumbler was found in Australia.  As noted in Part I of this guide, during the 1930's and after, itinerant salesmen sold Indian carnival glass in rural Australia.  Accordingly, a wealth of Indian carnival glass remains there.

An additional photograph of an Australian Daisy tumbler can be found at the Tumbler World website (tumblerworld.com/JainNew1.html).

  
A Jain Shalimar pitcher and tumbler:
note the red paper label on the pitcher.

photo by electricglass

Shalimar.  The Shalimar pitcher shown directly above and at page top is an interesting find:  until now the Shalimar pattern has been ascribed to Jain Glass by international carnival glass authorities, but this particular pitcher bears a paper label reading "Advance Firozabad".  As noted in Part 1 of this guide, various sources mention the existence of Indian carnival glass makers other than Jain Glass Works -- among them Advance, Khandelwal, Om, KP, Paliwal and West.  The Advance paper label on the above Shalimar pitcher suggests either that Shalimar pitchers are not a Jain product after all; that Advance purchased Jain molds; or that Advance acted as a distributor for Jain. Thus, the pitcher supplies a small piece of the puzzle that comprises the scantily recorded history of Indian carnival glass.

Close-up of Shalimar pitcher paper label
reading "Advance Firozabad"

photo by electricglass

The Shalimar pattern features thumbnail-shaped panels of raised stars arranged in rows, bordered by a raised curved line.  Between the panels are rows of raised pyramidal designs.  A clear, non-iridized band circles the top of each pitcher and tumbler. 

The pitcher shown here is 8 1/4" high, with a 5 1/4" mouth and a base diameter of 3 1/2".  The tumbler measures 4 1/4" high, with a 2 7/8" mouth and a base diameter of 1 3/4".  The handle of the pitcher shown above is non-iridized clear applied glass. This pattern has been documented in marigold carnival glass only.  Glen and Stephen Thistlewood write in  A Century of Carnival Glass  that the glass on Shalimar tumblers is thicker than that found typically on Indian carnival glass tumblers, and that the impressed Shalimar design resembles patterns found on Jain's Diamante Stars and Diamantes vases (p. 176).  (Examples of these vase patterns appear in Part 4 of this guide).

The pieces shown above were found by E-Bayer electricglass and appeared on E-Bay in July, 2009.  To our knowledge, these are the first documented Shalimar pitchers.  There are only two documented examples of Shalimar tumblers currently available in carnival glass literature:  a photograph of a Shalimar tumbler appears in the Standard Encyclopedia Carnival Glass, 11th ed. (p. 239), and a second tumbler is shown at the Tumbler World website (tumblerworld.com/JainNew3.html).  A variant of the Shalimar tumbler exists that has a more conventional, straight-sided shape; a Shalimar Variant tumbler also can be viewed at the Tumbler World website.

There are a handful of other known Indian carnival glass pitchers that share the same size, distinct shape and design features of the Shalimar pitcher shown above:  one is Spice Grater, shown below, and the other is Shazam, which first appeared in Edwards and Carwile's  Standard Companion to Non-American Carnival Glass  (2006, pp. 282, 287).  Such pitchers are approximately 8 1/8" to 8 1/4" high with 3 1/2" bases.  They are characterized by thicker-than-usual glass; a sturdy shape that gradually widens toward the top; impressed pyramidal designs; and a clear, non-iridized band at the top.

  
A Jain Spice Grater pitcher and
a Spice Grater Variant tumbler
photo by electricglass

Spice Grater.  The only previously documented example of this pattern belongs to Indian carnival glass expert Vikram Bacchhawat and appears in Edward and Carwile's Standard Companion to Non-America Carnival Glass, (p. 287-288), and in the Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, 11th ed., p. 246.  Like the other outstanding pieces featured in this guide, the Spice grater pitcher and tumbler shown above were found by E-Bayer electricglass and appeared on E-Bay in July, 2009.

The surface of Spice Grater pitchers and tumblers is impressed with raised rows and columns of pyramidal designs that are similar to those found on the Shalimar pieces shown higher up on this page:

  
Close-up of design on Spice Grater pitcher
photo by electricglass

Both Spice Grater pitchers and tumblers feature four large diamond-shaped panels filled with vertical and horizontal rows of small raised pyramids, bordered by raised lines.  These large panels separate eight smaller triangular panels filled with rows and columns of larger pyramids set at forty-five degree angles to the rows within the larger panels.  A band of clear, non-iridized glass encircles the rim of each tumbler and pitcher. 

The handle of the pitcher shown above is non-iridized clear applied glass. The pitcher is 8 1/8" tall, with a 51/2" mouth and a base diameter of 3 1/2".  The tumbler measures 4 1/8"tall, with a 2 1/2" mouth and a base diameter of 2 1/4".  This pattern has been documented in marigold carnival glass only. 

Pitchers and tumblers also appear in a design known as Spice Grater Variant.  On variants, the impressed pyramidal design stops about 7/8" below the clear glass band and is topped by two thick iridized rings.  These features can be seen  on the Spice Grater tumbler variant shown below:

  
Close-up of design on Spice Grater Variant tumbler
photo by electricglass

On Spice Grater Variant pitchers, the large diamond-shaped panels and smaller triangular panels enclose rows of equally large raised pyramids.  (On tumblers, as shown above, the pyramids within the large diamond-shaped panels are smaller.)  The handle on Spice Grater Variant pitchers is also set closer to the pitcher body that the handles on the non-variants. 

Additional photographs of both Spice Grater and Spice Grater Variant tumblers can be viewed at the website of Tumbler World (tumblerworld.com/JainNew3.html).  A Spice Grater Variant pitcher can be found in the Standard Encylopedia of Carnival Glass, 11th ed. (p. 246), and in Edward and Carwile's Standard Companion to Non-America Carnival Glass, (p. 287-288). 

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          Many thanks to E-Bayers electricglass,  for generously contributing photographs to this guide.   And Rights to all photos belong to the photographers, and pictures should not be used without their permission.  Text is (c) 2009 curculiosglass, all rights reserved.  To locate any E-Bayer whose name is mentioned here, or to visit his or her store, simply click on "SITE MAP" on the bottom of your screen, and then click on "Feedback Forum" on the right top corner of the screen that next appears.  Type or copy the E-Bayer's name into the search blank.  To see our other guides on glass, click on GUIDE INDEX.   If you found this guide helpful, please leave feedback by clicking the button below.