Big Butterfly (or Butterfly)

This is one of only two known marigold examples of this tumbler and is courtesy of the late Cecil Whitley. It moved on to another collection in 2010 for $11,500. In 2016, another example listed as marigold and with a tiny nick on the base, sold for $1,200. This same one, apparently, sold in 2017 for $1,100. In 2019, one of these sold for $1,250.

Cecil also owned one of the four known tumblers in a sort of olive green. One of these green tumblers sold in 2007 for $6,000, another in 2010 for $650 and in 2014 another brought $675. Another green example with a manufacturing pit on the top edge sold for $1,100 in 2017.

In 2019, two of these green examples sold for $575 and $675. The same year one listed as smokey green sold for $350.

Hartung Book Five: Butterfly Tumbler

Christina Katsikas has a wonderful, and extensive, article on these rare tumblers on her site "Carnival Glass Showcase." You can view it here.

Report on Big Butterfly tumbler from 1974 by O. Joe Olson here.

What appears to be a matching pitcher is shown, not iridized, in a 1915 US Glass catalog.


This is the first reported pitcher in the Big Butterfly pattern. It's marigold and sold for $1,200 at the 2014 American Carnival Glass Association convention auction. It would certainly have brought more if not for a crack down the side.

Updated 11/8/2019