Wheels

By John Nielsen

Originally published in: The Carnival Pump, Vol. XXXIX No. 2 (December 2004)

Blue is a scarce color on Imperial pieces and is especially rare on geometric patterns. The pictures show a blue 10” Wheels bowl that I purchased at a Seeck auction. Wheels was Imperial’s pattern #3888 and was not found in Imperial literature until the 1909 catalog showing Imperial’s crystal production pieces was found on the walls of an antique shop by George Allen. Most references state that Wheels is only found in large or small marigold bowls, but Doty’s “Field Guide” mentions the 10” clambroth bowl listed below and pictures a blue Wheels bowl then owned by Dennis & Denise Harp (this is the same bowl I now own). The 8th Edition of the Edwards & Carwile “Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass” pictures a 5” clambroth bowl recently found.

As shown by the pictures, the pattern is entirely on the outside and consists of four large deeply cut circular medallions around the bowl with smaller medallions between the large ones. The bowl is 3” high and has a 4” collar base and a saw-toothed top edge. Under the base is a complex star design with 30 points on the outer and inner stars, an 18-point small inner star and a center button. This base pattern appears on other Imperial pieces and was originally used to identify Imperial as the manufacturer. That the Wheels pattern rarely appears is shown by the fact that it appeared in Marion Hartung’s last book, Book 10, on page 81, where Mrs. Hartung made a shrewd guess that this might be Imperial.

I cannot find any sale of a blue Wheels bowl in the last 10 years in Mordini’s “Carnival Glass Auction Prices” other than my purchase of this one in 2001; in fact the only sales of Wheel pieces I find are a 9” marigold bowl in 1998 and a 10” clambroth bowl in 1999. Apparently I have another piece to add to my collection of “rare but who cares” items.