Electric Blue

I'm not fond of the word "electric" as applied to Carnival Glass. It's greatly overused, often by sellers wanting to inflate the prices of their glass. Consequently, it's become almost valueless as a genuine description of blue glass with bright iridescence. Sort of like saying a piece is beautiful--all in the eye of the beholder. Nonetheless, I've decided to give a shot at describing what I think of as electric blue.

Electric blue is a very subjective color and difficult to capture in photos. What may be electric to one person, may not be to another. Shown above, within the limits of photography (and the static display of a computer monitor), are two pieces that I would consider excellent examples of electric blue. Both show the qualities that meet my criteria for electric blue; the piece must look blue and should have brilliant multi-color iridescence. The Rose Show bowl on the left has a satin iridescence so the electric effect is not as dramatic, but the Grape and Cable bonbon shows all the characteristics needed to be an excellent example of electric blue.

Is it really electric blue?
According to my rather strict interpretation of electric blue, the two pieces below would not be, although they were both listed as electric at the auctions where they sold. To me, there are not enough colors in the iridization, specifically yellow/golds and purples. Again, other folks may not may not agree with me, but these photos should help give you an idea about the general range of electric blue as perceived by different folks. Tricky, isn't it?.

Below are two plates that are definitely not electric blue. The Fenton Heart and Vine plate has pretty good iridescence. The problem here is that it doesn't look blue; the base glass color is masked by the green iridescence. The Fenton Peacock and Grape plate looks blue (well, actually teal) but has virtually no multi-color in the iridescence.
Bear in mind that the colors you see on your monitor may not necessarily the ones I see on mine. Monitors can vary widely in their color balance and intensity.
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