Little Fishes

By Barb Chamberlain

Little Fishes is a pattern found primarily in large and small berry bowls. It is not a very distinctive pattern, but it of course shows that ring of fish swimming in a circle around the middle ring of the bowl. As does its sister pattern, Coral, Little Fishes has a ring of foliage both inside and outside the fish circle. That foliage is separated in both outer and inner rings by equally spaced X figures. If Little Fishes and Coral were not made with the same mold, then the same mold worker likely would have done the mold work.

The difference of the two patterns, other than the middle ring of fish and coral, would be that the Coral pattern is found on a collar base, and most of the Little Fishes pieces are found with three feet. Some of the small berry bowls in Little Fishes have no feet, but the majority are footed.

The large bowls are nine to ten inches in diameter. From what I have discerned from those that have sold at auction, the majority of these bowls are ruffled. There were a few blue and marigold that were ice cream shape, and the only reported white bowls have been ice cream shape. There was an ice green bowl sold, but the shaping on that was not reported.

This is the white Little Fishes ice cream shape bowl which had been in the collection of the late Dean and Diane Fry.

The small bowls are five to six inches in diameter. From what I have seen, the small bowls are ruffled. There was one on a Seeck auction and another in a Wroda auction that appear to be ice cream shape or a deeper round shape. More colors are found in the sauces than in the master bowls. Marigold and blue tend to be found more often than amethyst, aqua, celeste, and sapphire. The last three colors could possibly be the same color perceived differently at the time of auction or could be hues of the same color. No ice green or white small berry bowls are known.

According to Diane Fry on Carnival Glass 101, there is also a marigold Little Fishes chop plate. As you can imagine, if this plate was made from the bowl mold, it will be a large chop plate. There is also a blue chop plate with a bit of damage. Both these plates have the Orange Tree exterior and are not footed like this bowl. Both were once owned by the Monoskis, but the marigold one now resides in the Christina Katsikas collection.

As you can see from this photo, the bowl has a plain exterior and sits on three legs. The marie or collar base comes within one-fourth inch from the tabletop.

This white Little Fishes master bowl was purchased at the Fry auction. On Carnival Glass 101, Diane mentioned that this had been in the Don Moore collection, so we have a nice provenance of this piece with both former owners. It sits on three curled feet, and the marie base is so low that it appears to be nearly sitting on a table, but it is about one- quarter of an inch away from the tabletop.

As you can see in the photo, this beautifully iridized piece has a very pronounced overall stretchiness. Diane said that Frank Fenton examined the bowl and said it was probably an experimental piece which was acid etched.  She reported that the ice green piece also has this same finish.

As you can tell in this closeup photo of the details of the pattern, the fish swim around in the middle ring. Foliage and X figures occupy the outer and inner rings. You also can see the stretchiness of the finishing.

According to Dave Doty, there is another white ice cream shape that had been in the Grace Rinehart collection but was sold at her auction conducted by Wroda Auctions. This unfortunately was cracked. A bowl had sold previously to Grace’s bowl at a Wroda auction. This also was cracked. I don’t know if this was the same bowl that Grace had or was an additional ice cream shape bowl. So, there are at least two confirmed white Little Fishes ice cream shaped bowls.

As usual, I would be very interested in learning about other colors or shapes in the Little Fishes pieces, I would be glad to have you send the particulars and a photo, if possible, to dbcham@iowatelecom.net or 124 Honey Creek Dr., Manchester, IA 52057. Sharing this information in a future issue of The Carnival Pump would be my goal.

This article first appeared in the ICGA Pump in the December 2017 issue and is reprinted with permission.