Cambridge Tomahawk in Blue ~Novelty~Toy~Souvenir~
Description
TOMAHAWK
By Jerry & Carol Curtis
We just recently purchased this little novelty item and feel very fortunate that we were able to get it. It is called “Tomahawk" by most writers and is known in Carnival Glass in Marigold and Cobalt Blue. While rare in either color, this one is in the rarer Cobalt Blue. There is not a lot known about this very interesting little novelty piece. It is one of those items that you find bits and pieces by various authors, so we will try and put those bits and pieces into perspective for you.
First, in Bill Edwards 5th Edition, he attributes this item to the Cambridge Glass Company. In John and Lucille Britt’s Educational Series Number Three, the Tomahawk is listed as a Millersburg product. In Bill Edwards 6th Edition, he makes reference to the close working relationship between the Millersburg and Cambridge Glass Companies, indicating that Millersburg may have done the actual iridizing of some of the Cambridge Glass! It is interesting to note here that through survey results of the HOACGA membership, five or less of these were found in Cobalt Blue.
Regardless of the manufacturer, this is certainly an extremely rare item and a search of Mordini’s Price Guide bears that out, as only [2] Marigold and [0] Blue ones have been reported sold at auction in the past ten years. Perhaps of all the information and illustrations presented on this piece, Marion Hartung, in her article found in Book #6 gives the most detailed information. The bold relief of an Indian Chief is found on one side of the blade only, accompanied with a “V” shaped beading on the wider portion of the blade, and what appears to be a leaf, berry, and vining design down the upper half of the handle. The beading and vine design is replicated on the reverse side of the hatchet. The length is 7 ¼” and the blade is 4 3/8” long by 2” wide.
Rose Presznick in her Book #4 adds a little more information. She refers to the piece as “Big Chief” Tomahawk and implies the Indian might possibly have been in honor of Chief Lodi for whom the city of Lodi, Ohio was named. Her illustration was copied from a Marigold example, while Ms. Hartung’s was patterned from a Blue example. Ms. Presznick stated that she also had a non-iridized Blue Milk Glass example exactly like her sketched example.
Both authors felt storeowners gave these items away or they were sold at souvenir stands, possibly even at a World’s Fair. A friend of mine, Tony Dellavecchia of Dallas, Texas has several examples of the non-iridized variety, one he described as Cobalt Blue with a white swirl effect. He has done quite a bit of research on these Tomahawks and provided the following information. The Mould originally belonged to the National Glass Conglomerate, [US Glass?], located in Cambridge, Ohio, [perhaps Cambridge Glass?]. When John Degenhart began glass production in Cambridge, Ohio, in 1947, he obtained the original mould. He reproduced these Tomahawks from the opening until 1978 in various colors, although none in Marigold or Cobalt Blue and I would suspect, mostly in non-iridized glass. He did however, place his mark, a “D” inside a heart, on the Tomahawks re-issued from the original mould. Occasionally, Degenhart Tomahawks may be found without the “ball” knob opposite the cutting edge. Later production featured “mini-tomahawks”. Boyd’s Crystal Art Glass of Cambridge, Ohio also produced Hatchets and Tomahawks, producing them in almost 300 different colors.
Perhaps one of the more interesting articles written about these Tomahawks is found in Sherman Hand’s book on Carnival Glass published in 1978. He recalled seeing these Tomahawks, mostly in clear glass, in ten pound wooden buckets of hard “Christmas Candy”. He said the storekeeper would open the buckets to sell a penny or nickel’s worth at a time, and some lucky kid who happened to be around would be given the Tomahawk. Perhaps that explains why there are so few examples of these found today. They never survived the great Indian Massacres played out by those youngsters around the turn of the century. I can recall my own experiences of playing “Cowboys and Indians” and our toy guns, much hardier than these glass Tomahawks, didn’t survive very many attacks. We found it very interesting that while Hatchets and Tomahawks were advertised in the early Butler Brothers Catalogs, in crystal and ruby-flashed finish, no Tomahawks of this particular design were advertised. This leads us to believe that this particular Tomahawk was a special production item for a single company, perhaps, as Sherman Hand indicated, a premium item included with a Candy Company’s product. In any case, you are indeed fortunate if you can count one of these rarities in your collection.
*Update. The Blue Tomahawk from the Whitley collection sold at the HOACGA Convention for $3000. Since this article was originally published, there has been a suggestion that the Tomahawk was given or sold at the Cleveland Indians baseball games.
(This article was written by Jerry & Carol Curtis as it originally appeared in both the Air Capital and International club's websites.)
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The Jerry & Carol Curtis Collection
