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My bride, Jan, and I will be selling a total of 34 carnival glass plates and an additional 9 chop plates at the "100th Anniversary of Carnival Glass" celebration auction being conducted in conjunction with the HOACGA convention April 25th through 28th, 2007. Meet us at the Airport Embassy Suites near the Kansas City Airport for a wonderful celebration of this beautiful glass and a landmark auction. You will have a good time. Guaranteed!

With a single exception, all of the ‘choppers’ have been featured in previous articles in this series, so I’ll start with the missing one. This plate was the very first ‘significant piece’ of carnival glass I ever purchased, plate or otherwise. It’s a stunning purple Homestead chop plate.

I had really just started actively collecting carnival glass in the early 70’s when I was visiting with a dealer in a small ‘collective’ in the community of Fair Oaks, near Sacramento, on a Saturday morning. There were only 5 or so dealers in "The Old Ice House." One of the late-arrivers came in carrying a good-sized cardboard box with the chop plate and a variety of other "smalls." I was on it like a bee to honey! She said she had already promised it to another person for $150. An hour later, I left with the plate and the dealer went home with a check considerably larger that $150. These purple Homesteads are almost always pretty, but prejudiced tho’ I may be, I think this is one of the prettiest. What do you think?

Like some others of you, I am attracted to some non-iridized pieces of glass that were made in the 'carnival era,' or thereabouts. You will also find some lovely examples of non-iridized 'blue opal' glass in the auction. In my case, so as to not get sidetracked too far, I limited my collecting to include only pieces that also appeared in carnival glass, in both pattern and shape. To me, they are like 'cousins' and I think they're beautiful.

This is a good place to profile another South Pacific bring-back, a gorgeous electric purple 9" Lustre Rose plate. This came back with me just last summer from the Adelaide area of South Australia. What a great trip that was! Ah, carnival memories. Thanks, mates!

As I’ve noted, chop plates other than those noted above, are profiled in other articles in this series. Similarly, a few of the 9" plates being sold are also featured in other articles, but forgive me if I ‘double-up’ here on one of my favorites, the horehound Stippled Three Fruits. I just love this plate’s color, brand-new ‘look’ and pattern. I have, ever since I bought it in 1975. This plate is so unusual that I want you to see a photo of it on a white background as well. These 'true horehound' Northwood pieces are super rare, especially ones with this quality. Here's your chance to give a shot of excitement to your collection!

Stippled Three Fruits has long been a favorite pattern of mine. In the auction we will be selling a total of six of these plates. All are beautiful and hopefully, without over-dosing your eyes, I’d like to share the remaining five with you in living color. Not necessarily in order, they are aqua opal, aqua (tinsiest bit of tip opal), dark and pastel marigold and electric blue. The AO example also goes way back to 1975 when I bought it from Mr. Caudle in South (North?) Carolina. I’ve been lucky enough to own three of these magnificent carnival glass icons, but have never been able to let this one go -- ‘til now. Take good care of it!

Here are photos of the other Stippled Tree Fruits plates that will be sold.

The only non-stippled Three Fruits plate in our collection is this purple example. I always call it my "Jack Frost plate," for obvious reasons.

We have our share of Peacocks plates. At the risk of repeating myself, the ones that have made it this far in our collection are the result of too many upgrades to count over the 37 years I’ve been collecting. I’m sure most of you have some of these Northwood standards, but maybe you might consider upgrading some of yours herewith (love that lawyer talk!) the nine examples to be offered.

Ditto the nine Rose Show plates and the six Poppy Show plates (following.) We can’t show them all to you but check out the following. They have come from many different collections and auctions, over many, many years, and again are the results of multiple upgrades. Hopefully, you’ll see some that will tickle your fancy.

This plate is also profiled in an article that you will be seeing entitled "Rare and Unusual" and it certainly is both! It came in a collection I bought several years ago and was one of the reasons I wanted the collection in the first place! There are only about a half-dozen or so of these plates around, and more than likely, the only way you could persuade the existing owners to ever let go of one would be to do what I had to do -- buy the entire collection!

I hope we haven’t over-loaded your eyes with too much ‘eye candy’ here and that you find your way clear to add some of these beautiful plates to your personal Christmas list. Remember, Santa is making a list of those who are naughty and nice! That includes you, Stacy and Rick!

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