Club President David Goldstein postures an interesting thought about the chemistry of Rouge changing in 1926. With all this discussion also keep in mind that Rouge Flambé is not lead glass, but a lighter and more fragile soda lime glass.

The original Rouge Flambé, like Mandarin Yellow, was an unstable glass. It apparently was difficult to work at the fire and would have been hard to form into complex shapes. Furthermore, apparently good pieces could crack spontaneously. Glass chemistry is not my thing but I wonder if the later Rouge had a different formulation which produced the same color (or range of color) since the later pieces were made in more complex shapes (like the toothbrush holder) and
seem to be more stable.

Having a piece of “Rouge” and proving that it is in fact Rouge is serious issue because the prices are so high and other companies made similar red opaque glass. Fortunately, there are good factory records regarding the shapes that were made in Rouge. However, there are still the “lunch box pieces” such as the darners and canes which can only be documented through their provenance.

The best piece of Rouge that I ever owned, a 10″ double gourd shaped vase with excellent color, required a trip to Corning and a most pleasant visit with Bob and Bobby Rockwell at the old Rcokwell Museum for authentication. Many years ago I had a Rouge plate in the 10″ size and at the time, the thinking was that only 8″ plates had been made. A Steuben ad showing what was clearly a 10″ plate provided proof that the larger size had been made.

David Goldstein