Ohio Glass Museum exhibit displaying crystalline relics

LANCASTER - Every antique has a story. In the case of carnival glass, that story could be one of hope during the Great Depression - that of a small luxury full of memories and coated in iridescence.

The latest exhibit at the Ohio Glass Museum is a display of those pieces: "Iridescence in Essence ... Carnival Glass."

The exhibit features glass from the Fenton Glass Company and the Millersburg Glass Museum, as well as from area collectors. Carnival glass is pressed glass that has been sprayed with metallic salts to give it an iridescent finish. It was first produced by Fenton Glass Co. in 1907 as an imitation of Tiffany's iridized glass, which was much more expensive to produce.

When the Great Depression hit, however, not even the cheaper imitations sold well. As the story goes, the glass companies were able to find buyers for their inventories in the traveling carnivals, and the glass became prizes - thus, carnival glass.

The Ohio Glass Museum is working with two guest curators from the Millersburg Glass Museum, Chris Sieverdes and Sharon Strouse, as well as with a guest historian from Fenton Glass, James Measell.

One of the local collectors who lent pieces to the exhibit is Dave Ream. Ream began collecting antiques with his wife, who has since passed away. In addition to carnival glass, the Ream collection includes furniture, paintings and lamps.

"Anything we liked, we collected," Ream said.

The Ohio Glass Museum's carnival glass exhibit will run through mid-January, until its next exhibit - "Glass Slippers ... A Cinderella Story" - opens with a gala on Jan. 17.