A lovely set of 7 Culver "Mardi Gras" jeweled rocks glasses. This pattern is the pinnacle of Culver! One of their most popular patterns during the Mid-Century and still incredibly popular today. Each glass depicts three different versions of a jester playing an instrument. In between the jesters are 22k gold "strings" broken by tiny gold starbursts, diamonds, dots and colored "jewels" (the jewels come in red, green, orange, and blue).
A quick summary about this glassware maker: Culver started the application of the 22-karat gold to their glassware. Fun fact: the super-heated, roll-on process of gold remains a secret today. Culver comes in a variety of patterns including gilded mushrooms, owls, cats, wildlife, Egyptian or Asian inspired design themes, scrolling leaf patterns, holiday designs, sports motifs and many others. The Mardi Gras pattern is one of Culver's harder to find patterns and is the essence of Mid Century Modern glassware style.
A bit about the Mardi Gras pattern: Culver made several variations of this pattern including a version with jewels as well as a version without jewels. The variation with jewels was made over the course of a few years and during that time the "back" or interior of each jester is either a light blue or more of a light gray. These are the blue version. The non-jeweled version came along in the late 70s/80s.
Maker/pattern: Culver Ltd., Mardi Gras
Hallmarks: Please note, this earlier pattern was not signed. Culver didn't sign a number of their patterns (likely to not interfere with the pattern) so again, these glasses/pattern do not bare the Culver signature.
Measurements: 3 1/4" tall x 3 1/2" in diameter (*please note: Culver made the Mardi Gras rocks glass in several different sizes so please note these are the 3 1/4" tall x 3 1/2" in diameter)
Condition: Good vintage condition with mild age. The gold is vibrant overall, very little gold loss. The glass clarity is perfect (no cloudiness). We're pretty Type A about summarizing the exact condition of our glassware, so here is a glass by glass summary:
Glass 1 - All jewels are present. There's very subtle glue "residue"" around a few jewels (very subtle, this is completely common for this Culver pattern).
Glass 2 - All jewels are present. There's very subtle glue "residue"" around a few jewels.
Glass 3 - There's 1 missing jewel. There's very subtle glue "residue"" around a few jewels.
Glass 4 - All jewels are present.
Glass 5 - All jewels are present. There's very subtle glue "residue"" around a few jewels.
Glass 6 - There's 1 missing jewel (and you can see/feel the "pock" mark where the jewel originally was). There's very subtle glue "residue"" around a few jewels.
Glass 7 - There's 1 missing jewel (and you can see/feel the "pock" mark where the jewel originally was). There's very subtle glue "residue"" around a few jewels.
In short, these glasses are in good condition with mild signs of age inline with glasses that are 70 years old. The gold is vibrant. The "strings" are in present. Excellent glass clarity. These glasses display beautifully.
Please note: Mid Century glassware often has imperfections (i.e. tiny bubbles in the glass, or a tiny bit of "opaque residue" where an extra bit of glue around the jewels when they were applied, etc -- purely the nature of vintage glassware). Truly a stunning, magical set.
**On shipping: We take our packaging very seriously and carefully wrap our sets/pieces to ensure safe delivery. This set will be double-boxed to ensure safe arrival.
****Important to note pre-purchase: Buyers, please examine all photos carefully as we cannot accept returns due to the fragile nature (the possibility of breakage when being shipped back) of our vintage/antique pieces. We try to explain the condition/description in an accurate and thorough manner but we ask that you please examine all photos carefully and ask all questions before purchasing an item as we are unable to accept returns due to the risk of breakage.