There were several companies making glass in Australia during the time that Carnival Glass was in its glory days in the USA and Europe, and so the interest in iridescent glass began to gain momentum in Australia. It is thought that iridescent glass was probably being produced as early as 1919 by one or more of these companies although most Australian collectors are only aware of Crown Crystal Glass Co. Ltd, which is, in fact, formed from the amalgamation in 1926 of:
- The Balmain Glass Works of Margaret Street, Rozelle, NSW
- The Crown Glass Works of Euston Road, Alexandria, NSW
- The Crystal Glass Works of Wyndham Street, Waterloo, NSW
- Zetland Glass Works of Bourke Street, Waterloo, NSW
The first Carnival Glass pattern to be made by Crown Crystal was a simplified version of the Kingfisher master bowl. It may have been produced to test the market to see how well this new type of iridescent glass would sell. The first run of bowls lack the Registered Design number, there are less details on the Kingfisher and the band of leaves surrounding the bird are fewer, and smaller than the later versions. Another major difference is that the bowls were round and quite deep, more like a "pudding bowl" than the more familar shape that was produced later, the iridescence was quite weak. The original bowls must have proved popular with the public because a second batch was released, but this time to protect the design they have the Registered Design number Rd4184 beneath the Kingfisher. The second batch were also in the "pudding bowl" shape and the iridescence was much stronger. These bowls from the first two batches are rare and very few exist in collections, a picture of one of the bowls, without the Registerd Design number can be found on the Master Bowls page. From here the other designs were registered and put into production. The registered designs and registrations dates were:
- Kingfisher on 4th January 1923 Regd No. 4184
- Kangaroo on 15th January 1924 Regd No. 4696
- Swan on 15th January 1924 Regd No. 4697
- Emu on 14th November 1924 Regd No. 40360
- Kookaburra on 14th November 1924 Regd No. 40361
- Magpie on 14th November 1924 Regd No. 40363
- Waratah on 14th November 1924 Regd No. 40364
- Kiwi on 19th April 1926 Regd No. 44289
Two other designs were registered but seem to have never been used:
- Lyrebird on 14th November 1924 Regd No. 40362
- Koala on 8th December 1924 Regd No. 40547
Crown Crystal's production of Carnival Glass began around 1919 and continued until approximately 1928. During this time they produced the familar Fruit Sets depicting the Flora and Fauna of Australia and New Zealand, comports, water sets, vases, float bowls, sugar bowls, ice cream sundae dishes and a small range of bowls in various sizes and designs. The fruit sets consisted of one master bowl and 6 nappy bowls, and the watersets one pitcher and 6 tumblers. The float bowls are often found with the original flower arranger, called a flower "frog", it can be found in marigold and dark carnival and often has the Diamond shape Crown Crystal logo on the base, the majority of the frogs seem to have cracks running through them, this may have been due to a manufacturing fault or by being placed down heavily into the float bowl. Pictures of some of these patterns and shapes can be found on the pages linked to this page.
