Here’s today’s story.
Being in our seventies, several years ago, I started writing about things that have been
important or significant to us. You know, something to pass down to future generations. I
have attached a short item that I wrote about our love for Steuben glass and how we came
to collect it. John & Diane Maryanski, Bridgman, Michigan

A Steuben Love Affair
My spinster Aunt Dorothy was the one that introduced me to the wonderful world of
Steuben Crystal. She was one of my mother’s younger sisters. Her most treasured
possession was a set of four Steuben crystal cocktail glasses with air twist stems. It
was one of the few luxuries she ever bought for herself.
During my grade school years in the 1940’s, she would occasionally take me
shopping in Chicago’s Loop. It usually was on a Saturday when she did not have to
work and I was out of school. We always wound up at the Steuben showroom at
Marshall Fields. We would spend hours there, discussing each piece on display. In the
beginning, I wanted to spend more time in the toy department but I soon got over
that. There was a striking beauty in that lead crystal. It was so smooth that it just
seemed to flow. Besides, it was expensive. We could look at it, touch it, appreciate it
but not afford it. Guess you always want what you cannot have.
Our first piece of Steuben crystal was George Thompson’s 1942 design flower vase
that my aunt bought us for a wedding gift. Our families did not approve of our
marriage. To get around the family objections, she gave it to me for a Notre Dame
graduation gift. But in my mind, it will always be my most cherished wedding present.
Diane named the vase “Hypercriticalism”. It was the only Steuben piece that she ever
chipped while washing. Would that be a Freudian slip (I mean CHIP!)? I must note that
we gave that piece of Steuben to our daughter Jill for her wedding. We acquired
another identical one that we later gave to our daughter Dawn for her wedding, but
Diane did not chip that one!
In 1958, a year after we were married, I was in the military. It was then that I was
notified that my mother had died. Very shortly after that, my Aunt Dorothy also died.
When their estates were settled, I got my Aunt Dorothy’s Steuben cocktail glasses.
By that time, the set was down to three glasses as someone had chipped one. Later,
I bought the cocktail shaker that goes with the glasses and they are displayed in my
den. They remain a testament to how my passion for Steuben developed.
Diane and I started antiquing right after we moved to New Jersey in 1966. Two times
a year we would drive up to Brimfield, Mass. for their special weekend Flea Market.
We bought antiques for our home but we knew we needed to specialize in something.
It had to be difficult to recognize and identify and thus we could make spectacular
purchases other people would miss. We settled on Steuben crystal.
We bought books on glass. We studied everything we could find about this special
crystal. We made routine visits to the Steuben Factory and Museum in Corning, New
York and the Rockwell Department Store. As fate would have it, when we moved to
New Jersey, my company offices were in the Corning Glass Building at 56th Street
and 5th Avenue in New York City. The first floor of that building was a Steuben Glass
Show Room. Going there was a great way to spend the lunch hour. You would not
dare bring a bag lunch to work and I could not afford to go out to eat too often. I am
not complaining; I loved spending time there.
Many people can recognize the clear Steuben crystal but Carder’s colored glass is
another thing, especially as much of the earlier glass was not signed. This is the area
where we discovered and bought many unique pieces.
We actually collected over 300 pieces. About half are the clear crystal, like the initial
cocktail glasses. The rest are Aurene, Amethyst, Ivrene, Calcite, Verre de Soie,
Grotesque, and Silvernia…some with reeding and other effects.
We have started to give our two daughters some of the older pieces, along with the
new. About fifteen years ago, Steuben started to make a Christmas ornament of the
year. Each year I bought three….one each for Diane, Jill, and Dawn. That way there
would be three sets that could be passed down to each of our grandsons. Each set is
now almost large enough to have a Steuben decorated Christmas tree. Our two older
grandsons have Lloyd Atkins’s 1985 Steuben eagles as a reward for becoming Eagle
Scouts. Our family pieces are Robert Cassetti’s 1955 Partnership. It is a metaphoric
crystal bridge on a black granite base. In turn, one of our prettiest pieces is James
Houston’s 1966 Trout & Gold Fly that was given to us by Jill and Kevin for our 25th
Wedding Anniversary
In 2004, we drove to New York State to spend time with Jill, Kevin, and Michael.
Planning the trip from Michigan, we decided to visit the Corning Glass Museum on the
way. We had an appointment with Ms. Jane Shadel Spillman who was the Museum’s
Curator of American Glass. We had a couple apparent pieces of Steuben that we had
questions about and brought them along. We had a very interesting hour-long
discussion with her and saw her personal collection. In the meeting, she said there
was someone else in town that we should meet and arranged for us to visit Thomas
Dimitroff. He was the Curator for the Rockwell Museum’s Carder/Steuben collection.
We then spend another hour at Mr. Dimitroff’s home viewing his large Steuben
collection and discussing Steuben glass. We had a wonderful time with both people
and got a signed copy of Mr. Dimitroff’s book Frederick Carder and Steuben Glass. We
also spent time at the Glass Museum’s new exhibit of Carder’s glass – the combined
Corning and Rockwell collections. We head East at least once a year and try to
include a Corning stop each time.
Well, now you know about our fixation on Steuben Crystal. Fixation maybe, but
probably more of a love affair.
John E. Maryanski, May, 2005