The Colors of Carnival Glass

Carnival glass guides and other reference materials usually refer to a piece's base glass color.

You can determine the base glass color of a piece of carnival glass by holding it up to a strong light source. This minimizes the visibility of the 'carnival finish' and reveals the base glass color of the piece.

Common base glass colors are marigold, amethyst, blue and green.





Other carnival glass colors include smoke (with a gray base color), helios green, and deep purple, all of which were mainly manufactured by Imperial.

Ice colors, also called pastels, are scarce and are sometimes found in Australia, the United Kingdom and Europe.