Friday, April 22, 2011

First, several comments about who did the engraving on this plate.

First, from Dick Stark of Bethesda

alan…that charger does not look up to erlachers quality of engraving and the blank looks more continental in appearance

Next, from Vance White

Mike Manginela and I visited with Max Ehrlacher a few years back. He lives in Campbell NY. He has a book of every thing he ever produced and sold with written details, the time it took to engrave it and I think even the prices of the blanks and what he sold them for. He works in his studio above his garage Vance White

Al Bradtke of Cayuga, New York provides this background information.

Hi Alan –

In response to the beautifully engraved plate – There have been several pieces on ebay with engraving as intricate as that of the plate. They were all modern pieces however. One of the sellers was in Rhode Island and the other was on the west coast (either Washington or Oregon I think). These were not Steuben designed engravings to my knowledge. The seller on the west coast was the person who engraved the pieces he was selling and stated so in his listing. The Rhode Island seller gave no indication in his listing whether the engraving was Steuben or done by someone who purchased a piece that was not engraved and used it as his blank (sort of like an artist buying a blank canvas and creating his art).

I don’t know if this answers the question or creates new ones.

Al Bradtke

Frank Ford provides some background information on Sotheby’s and Skinners auctioning art glass.

Regarding art glass being offered at Skinner……….when Louise Luther left the Art Glass Dept. in evolved into 20th Century Decorative Arts and many of Louise’s old art glass customers faded away. The present department head is more of an Arts and Crafts person with a trend toward “Modern”. Not long ago they had a wonderful Quezal long stemmed floriform which was estimated at $400-600 ! When I got the catalogue and saw the estimate I almost fell on the floor. It sold for $24,000.

Best regards,

Frank W. Ford

Finally Gwen Stebbins sends along a note of thanks on identifying her Tiffany piece

Hi Alan

Just wanted to say “thank you” to everyone for their help. We think we have it narrowed down between a large candle holder or a single flower type rose bowl. Gordon is working with me on it. We have decided if it has wax residue, we will go with his thoughts and if it has staining from water, we will go with my idea (smile) I have to unpack it now and figure it out.

Have a great Easter weekend!

Gwen Stebbins

www.cardersteubenclub.org

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