Monday, May 23, 2011

I’ve owned a pair of acid etched ginger jars with a base and top of wood and gesso, including being topped off with a finial of rose quartz glass. Because of the shape (#5000), the typical Rosaline cut to Alabaster and a pattern that is pure Carder I’ve never doubted that it is Carder Steuben. However, the pattern seems to be unique and I’ve never been able to identify it. In fact the complex pattern seems to be an unusual mix of styles suggesting it may have been used for some special exhibition.

The Carder Steuben Club now supports a new website, www.cardersteubenclub.org

It is rich in search features and our webmaster, Marshall Ketchum has arranged to fill every shape number space with line drawings that he was able to obtain from the Rakow Library. This includes many line drawings with patterns. So, even if there is not a piece of glass photographed for a particular shape or pattern, the factory line drawings are available to help with review and identification.

I make it a habit to take a look at the website every few days to see what is new. My habit is to first go to the section called “Recent Additions” and see what is new that is been put up on the site by Marshall. Imagine my amazement when last week I was browsing new items and discovered under shape #5000 line drawings with patterns, the pattern of my ginger jars. Wow, there it was. Actually there were two line drawings. One pattern was called “Carved” and the other “Carved Jade”. They both look like the same pattern.

I wrote Marshall to confirm and he wrote back that while a picture of the ginger jar had been posted on the website, identified as not having a known pattern, this newly posted pattern appeared to be the correct pattern identification and he has since correlated, or filled in the blank of the line drawing for “Carved” with the picture of the ginger jar.

Marshall found the pattern name of “Carved” somewhat interesting. He noted that “Carved” and “Sculptured” seem to be as much a technique as it is a pattern. Marshall knows his business. At page 113 of Gardner he says:

Etched wares were also advertised as “carved” and “sculptured.” Carder usually used these terms to describe the more expensive designs. (No. 6702), particularly the Calcite and Alabaster pieces that had the raised designs accented with brown air-dried pigment, and Rosaline lamp bases like No. 5190. The word “sculptured” was also used to describe the pieces with applied leaves and vines, like vase No. 6766.

Bottom line—it is a good experience to check out the Club’s website on a regular basis.

www.cardersteubenclub.org

Any opinions expressed by participants to the Gazette e-mail newsletters are the opinions of the authors and are not endorsed by or the opinions of the Carder Steuben Club.

2011 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 15-17, 2011.