Kookaburra by Dave Ayers
Tonight we are going to talk about one of my favorite patterns, the mighty Kookaburra.
Crown Crystal Glass Company had twelve years to master and tweak the formula for some outstanding patterns and iridescence. The production of the Poor Man’s Tiffany, American Carnival Glass started around 1906. The first piece of Australian Carnival is thought to have been produced around 1919. The first in a long line of animal patterned bowls came along in 1923 with the production of the Kingfisher Bowls.
A lot of people confuse the Kingfisher and another Australian pattern, the Kookaburra. To tell them apart, keep in mind the Kingfisher sets on a branch and the kookaburra sets on a log. You can also distinguish them apart by their tail feathers. The Kookaburra is depicted with three very distinct tail feathers. In nature, the Kookaburra are a larger bird and has a bird call which some say sounds like laughter, while the Kingfisher is a small to medium size bird.
How many of you remember singing a song when you were young … Kookaburra sits on the old Gum Tree … What an outstanding bird.
The first set of pictures are of the two heaviest pieces of Australian Carnival Glass, the marigold and dark Kookaburra Float Bowls. The Kookaburra Float Bowls are ICS, approx. 11-12 inches round, have what is known as the bullet edge treatment and come with either the Broken Chain or the Plain back. This dark version may be the most awesome Crown Crystal bowl I have ever seen; with its’ outstanding iridescence and super pattern strike, although the marigold versions are rarer than the dark.
Next up is the very rare, dark example of the Kookaburra Variant ICS 9” Bowl. The ICS is the only difference between the Variant and the regular Master, and comes with the Fern and Wattle back.
The Kookaburra Master bowl is 9”, is ruffled and paired with 6 nappies to be a berry set. Pictured are the Master and one nappy in dark, front and back. And then in marigold, front and back. These are becoming hard to get, especially in the dark version. The Kookaburra dark pieces have sky-rocketed in value over the last year.
As a note, I have to add that there have been two dark ruffled Kookaburra Float Bowl versions reported.