Friday, May 11, 2012

Recently, the picture of a piece of glass appeared for verification as a Carder era Steuben piece for placement on the Club’s website. Everything pictured on the website has to be vetted. While the process isn’t perfect, since it is based on pictures, without the opportunity to see the physical piece, most items submitted can be verified by shape, color and construction through a jpg. If in doubt, no listing is provided. If you peruse the website, www.cardersteubenclub.org you’ll see quite a substantial number of shapes have been identified by their shape number and then shown in picture form. Hundreds are added monthly. This provides a wealth of information and help in identifying items, and is a major part of the work of the Club, provided by dues membership.

Recently, the following pictured piece showed up. Its design was attributed to Walter Dorwin Teague. In the early 1930s when Steuben Glass Works was struggling through the depression this well known industrial designer was brought in to bring a new look to Steuben. It appears the history of Mr. Carder and Mr. Teague may have been short and rocky. Some Teague designs were produced by Steuben, but apparently without much commercial success. Time wise, this apparently was all shortly before Mr. Carder was ousted as manager of Steuben Glass Works by Steuben’s parent company, Corning. Mr. Carder then was made artistic director of Corning and at age 70 began his studio art period. Perhaps someone could elaborate on this experience in further Gazettes. Since Mr. Teague was brought in at the insistence of Corning Glass Works, it appears Mr. Teague may have done some design work for Corning, also. The bottom line is a question of whether this pictured piece is attributable to Steuben or Corning. To help with sorting this out, David Goldstein wrote to Bobby Rockwell of Corning, who has something of an encyclopedia mind on all things Steuben. Here follows the picture and then Bobby’s comments on the distinction between the Steuben and its parent Corning Glass.

David:

Bobby here. You are right and one has to be very careful with these. The ones that Corning made can be made with the lead crystal(Arthur Houghton actually borrowed this formula for his Steuben Glass from the optical division where it had been used since 1910 or there about) or Pyrex. Steuben borrowed this design in 1931, Teague may claim credit but he had nothing to do with it, in a 5″ size and ground the bottom flat. They also ground off the rim so that Corning’s trademarks and sizes were erased. As the Art Deco
movement grew they began making them in 10″, 13″ and 16″ sizes. These are the Aviation lenses probably made for beacons of some sorts. As far as I can discern these later ones were clear (that Steuben offered), color was for industrial purposes. Production of the larger ones I have found in salesman’s catalogs as late as 1972 under Steuben Lighting (another story by itself. Color was still available as late as 1983. Information from Jack Holtzman and John Hoxie. These lenses are very easy to alter and a professional grinder and polisher should have no trouble doing the alteration. I own the 5″ and 10″ mold. In fact Steuben borrowed them to make a lens bowl for an exhibition since they couldn’t find an older one. I hope this answers your question David.

Best Regards as always,
Bobby

www.cardersteubenclub.org

2012 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 20-22, 2012.

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