Russian Amber is a Steuben color that we basically had no information on at all. I have been working on this color for about 2 years now. I finally have a piece and know how to identify it and separate it from the other colors. We knew the color existed and Marshall showed a 7671 vase figure 34 page 15 Book 2. He acquired it from Mr. Rockwell as Russian Amber. It was our only example but we still did not have any way to identify it or a good description of the color. Dimitroff tells us on page 205 that Russian Amber along with Sea Green was on exhibition in London, England in 1935. The Bond Street Exhibition was put on by The Fine Art Society. This was the first time an American industrial art form had been shown in the United Kingdom. The “Catalog of Steuben Glass” accompanied the exhibition with more than 500 examples of glass and prices.

The interesting thing about it was many of Carder’s post 1932 designs were included. I find it very interesting that we see a few Ivrene and Sea Green pieces dated circa 1934 even though we generally understand the date range for Carder Steuben to be 1903-1933. Mr. Rockwell said that Sea Green was made only for one year. It is my opinion that it was produced in 1933 and 1934 and overall production lasted about a year. I think Russian Amber has production dates of 1933-34 also. It may possibly be the last color produced. On the rarity chart with only 2 documented pieces for now we will have to rate it a 10.

Please let me take a break from Russian Amber and share with everybody my personal experience with just this one piece of glass. This is important. None of us would be reading this if we didn’t love Steuben. We all have our reasons for loving Steuben and our stories of how we got started. We are all brought together by the beauty of Carder’s Glass and marvel at his genius. We are all very passionate about the way his glass makes us feel. It brings us pleasure when we see it, touch it, and gather it together. It brings reward to our lives. The glass is alive with history, art, mystery, and beauty. It has changed our lives for the better. It has touched all of our hearts forever. That is powerful. I just want to tell a piece of my story to share what makes it special to me. It is just an everyday story and just a slice of the reason I love Steuben. It will only make sense and be special to another Steuben lover. So here is just a
day in the life of a Steuben collector. I hope you enjoy it and it brings to light why Steuben is also special to you.

Well I wanted a piece. I had been thinking ahead in what shapes I might come across Russian Amber. As always we turn to the 6030 vase, the 2909 vase, and the 2680 sherbet and under plate as the old standbys. Shapes in the mid 7,000’s could be of the right date range. Only clue on color was from Marshall’s picture showing brownish yellow. A year and a half later it hit me. At the 1935 exhibition Sea Green was featured. That being the case the 7535 Sea Green solid color Grotesque would have had to been at that show. You can’t feature Sea Green without showing that bowl. Solid color Grotesques are not common and are a late production item. If Sea Green and Russian Amber were being featured together there might there be a Russian Amber 7535 solid color Grotesque? This is the very reason I love Steuben. It has always been about the mystery to me. It is the thrill of the hunt on the uncharted safari. I went to e-bay with guns loaded ready to bag the Sasquatch. I knew it was going to be Russian Amber from the minute the idea popped into my head.

As luck would have it one came up for sale right away. Where was it at? Of all places, it was in Europe. I entered my exorbitant bid in auction sniper attempting to fly under radar only to be out bid at the last minute by some make believe buyer with a zero feedback rating! I decided to write the seller and told them just in case your buyer flakes out on you here is my offer. The bad thing about it was the price had already been driven to twice the going rate by the make believe buyer. On top of that I had to pay $70 to have it shipped back home. I am sure we have all been there. It was one of those “I don’t care what I have to pay for it I am going to get it” situations. I need it to share with the Steuben Club about this new color. It took forever to get here but when it arrived its beauty was beyond description. I compared it to my
Venetian style 2931 Amber decanter with Flemish Blue prunts and Crown Stopper making note of its remarkable similarity in color.

I went to bed happy that night and awoke the next day excited wanting to go check it like stockings on Christmas day. I picked up the piece and was horrified to see it was the exact same color as my decanter. It was more than I could take. I was ready to pack the Steuben and take it to Salvation Army. Over thirty five years of training and I was going to wish a piece of Amber into Russian Amber. I am going to tell all of you a secret. I’m not too proud to share this wouldn’t have been the first time I have tried to put the “wish mojo” on a piece of glass. Well around lunch time I could contain myself no longer I went to see if the wish mojo was working and much to my surprise the color of the Grotesque had changed again and was glowing honey brown and yellow at the same time! Game is on.

Changing color? Off to the black light I went to find no reaction. I then went on the computer to the Steuben Club site and looked through all of the 6000 and 7000 shape numbers searching for anything similar in color. What next? Well I better call David Chadwick-Brown of San Diego like I always do. He always seems to have one of everything anyway. Besides that with a memory like a steel trap I recalled he takes fancy to solid color Grotesques and I knew he had one in this shade. I gave David a call on Saturday and interrupted him from grading papers. Bless his heart, you can always count on a Steuben fanatic to drop what they are doing and discuss Steuben. Well two and half hours later after I had managed talking him into taking a third of his collection down off the shelves to compare this and compare that. We were making some headway. We had plenty to sleep on so I abruptly ended the call leaving David to clean up the mess with fingerprints all over everything.

Thank you so much David for always taking the time to share with me. The next day I am still grappling so decided to bounce some of this off Marshall Ketchum. Marshall knows how to deal with me. He will answer my first few e-mails promptly and politely and when I start asking him to carry the glass outside and place it in a morning shaft of sunlight at 6:30 am and do it again at noon and see it change two different colors he simply just ignores me and won’t write back for a few days. No problem, I give him a couple of days to cool off and write him back with a simple reasonable question to which he always promptly replies. Thanks for the years of help you have given, Marshall.

The next day I woke up and it was raining. After pouring my cup of coffee I thought I would take a stroll through Steuben land to see what was new in that neck of the woods and lo and behold there is the grotesque bowl and it has lost all of its beautiful honey brown and yellow color and is staring at me like a cold grey ice cube emitting this strange Sea Green glow. Well by now I am not surprised by anything and suddenly found a warm comfort in coming to the realization that this bowl had taken over complete control of my life and was defiantly winning. This is enough to get me talking to myself especially since I had worn out my welcome and wasn’t about to contact anyone with the news that the bowl was now green but not to worry it only happens on rainy days. I calmly reach for my camera to get the proof like I was trying to verify a UFO sighting. Much to my disbelief I do think I got a photo of it doing its green thing. Faint, but if you squint one eye you can see the green tint in the photo. I can understand the dichromatic nature of glass colored with uranium. It seems simple to me. The glass has a green knob and the closer to the sunlight you get the higher the green knob gets cranked up. The brighter the green gets the
more the color changes. Hey it even works on Persian Blue. But the Grotesque, with no uranium turning green on rainy days? And it turning nothing but yellow when I turn it upside down and hit it from the side with a shaft of sunlight at 6:30 am.(yes I got a picture) All of this is sounding more like Strange Encounters of the Third Kind.

I better hit the internet and do some research on dichroic glass. Ahhh metal oxides. Makin a little sense to me. Sprinkle in the cobalt oxide, the piece sucks up all the red and yellow light waves and bounces back the blue. Wa la Flemish Blue. Now if you get real fancy and start mixing the metal oxides just right and start taking into consideration the refractive index of the glass you start getting a color derived from the combination of transmitted color and reflected color mixed together. The color can change depending on angle of light source or angle of viewing. I remember refractive index from my GIA diamond training. That is where the light gets bent a certain angle before it comes back out of the diamond. This is getting more complicated but I am nodding my head to myself like I understand all of it. So that is why if I turn the bowl upside down hit it with a shaft of 6:30 am sunlight stand directly above the bowl and view it straight down it reflects all yellow and not a trace of brown no matter how thick or thin the glass is. Hey cool. Wonder if I can get Marshall to go out in the backyard now? Hey new information justifies me asking again. Perhaps if I just word it differently he won’t think I am asking him twice.

By now I am feeling quite pleased with myself and am ready to take on the green glow. Although I have decided my camera is not good enough and backed up by getting a reprimand from Marshall on my pink backgrounds I am sure of it. He didn’t fall for my reasoning that I think the color looks prettier with the little
red tinge so I am off to Wal Mart to spend all my profits from my last sale on a better camera. Today armed with a new camera I find myself sitting at the computer writing this article with a handful of better photo’s waiting for another rainy day to get a better shot of the green. Time to leave well enough alone and just say the reason it has a green tone to it is the reason Carder placed it in the Amber family instead of calling it Russian Topaz. Oh that reminds me I have to finish the article on Topaz and Amber and explain why it is Amber that has the green tone and not Topaz. It is time to get out my photos of the Gemstone Amber with the green tone and the photo of Topaz crystals showing the golden brown with no green. Note to self: Shoot an e-mail to the Rockwell camp and get verification they are in agreement with the Topaz/Amber issue. Where did I leave Beth’s e-mail address? I am so absent minded. I could have sworn I left it in my Selenium Red Jade Sherbet and Underplate. As you all can see I lead a totally normal life for a Steuben nut. I also have to finish the Russian Amber article for the Gazette. I need a bulletin board. Busy, busy busy…….I so need a vacation. Can I bum a ride to New York with anyone when the weather cools off?
Alan, I will finish the article on Russian Amber complete with photos and it looks like I have come up with a back yard test (literally) for Russian Amber so the members can see if they have any. Oh what the heck…I’ll send the photo’s now. Come to think about it maybe I am finished with the article?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cardersteubenclub/sets/72157624042660423/detail/

Rande Bly
Birmingham, Alabama
May 29, 2010