Carnival Glass was first produced on a large scale by the newly-established Fenton Art Glass Company, of Williamstown, West Virginia, in 1908.

Fenton developed a relatively stable and safe method of mass producing iridized glass. They named their first lines "Iridill" and "Rubi-glass" and described it as "a metallic lustre much like the Tiffany favrile glass". Glass workers at the time called it "dope glass" because the hot glass was treated (or doped) with metallic sprays and vapors. It was instantly popular with the public, and they sold as much as they could make. Many others came after the first by Fenton.