Monday evening, March 7, 2011

Jim Sutterfield of Corning comments about lead in glassware produced by the current Steuben.

Alan: Let me elaborate on the lead statement. I was trying to be terse and I can not say with certainty that the stemware is non lead. I can say with certainty that Corning has always been very concerned with lead or other heavy metals used in products as decorations or composition where foods or liquids are ingested.I do know Steuben had looked at non lead compositions and therefore suspect they found a stemware/drinkware solution already in production in Germany with a non lead composition. As someone with glass production experience, it would make sense not to have 2 different glass that look exactly alike in the same facility because there would be no fool proof way of preventing the cullets getting mixed. I would also suspect there would be some process differences requiring capital to melt another glass which would be a Steuben negative. I could be wrong but suspect not.

Next, Brent Wedding of Corning provides some background that may provide insight on the lead glass question.

In the early 1990s Dr. George Hares developed a lead-free composition for Steuben drink ware, since there were some concerns about lead release. As I recall, the major change was barium for the lead, plus some witchcraft to adjust the internal friction to get the proper “ring”. I believe that the composition was used in the 1993 Whirlwind collection, but am not sure where it was made.

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