Thursday, July 19, 2012

Yesterday we fielded a question on opinions of Eric Ericson’s two volume text. We have two distinct views.

First, from Marshall Ketchum of Genoa, New York

Alan

My opinion of the Ericson books is that no one should read them not even an advanced collector. Ericson had an agenda when he wrote those books. He was an antique dealer. He collected some Steuben and made a trip to Corning and met Mr. Carder. He then self published the first book using photos from his collection. He then put his glass on the market hoping to get a premium because the photos of the glass were shown in his book. It worked so well the first time that he repeated it a few years later. The text in his books doesn’t make much sense based on later knowledge and it appears that he just made some of it up as he went along. There are photos in his book that are not Steuben. People have argued that “he was the first” to write about Steuben and that may be true but being first doesn’t make it worth reading. As I said at the beginning, no one should read them.

Marshall

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Inapposite comments from Rande Bly of Birmingham, Alabama

I am so glad the subject of Eric Ericson came up. First off I must say he is a hero of mine and I consider him most certainly our pioneer. At age 19 I sat and talked with him for hours 40 years ago. Eric was a natural. All Eric had to go with was about 13 pages of a 1932 catalog representing not even 130 pieces. He did all the rest by touch and sight. He could spot a piece of Steuben from 3 illes away on a top shelf at the Denver antique shows. Yes he also used to sit and talk with Carder personally. Just imagine for a moment if we all collected Steuben with no books. No Gardner no Mr. Dimitroff no Marshall and no Alan. Would we make a few mistakes? Eric lived in Denver and frankly that is a long way from Corning.

I cut my teeth on his books. Are his books for the novice? I think not. Yet it is the experienced collector that turns their nose up at them. I am sorry Eric didn’t even know the difference between Gold Ruby and Ruby Cerise and had them swip swapped. Practically all of his greens were wrong but he did describe how many and what to look for. On the other hand look at how many types of glass he did show. Peachblow ,Mat-Su-No-Ke, Cire Perdue, Diatreta , Moss Agate, Mica Air Twist, Mellefiore, Intarsia, the Aurenes, Ivrene, Ivory. His colors? Moonlight, Special Green, Rose du Barry, Wisteria, and Cardinal Red. Wow that is a list of exotics and still “hot topics today” He really found a lot with little to nothing to go on.

One must take Eric with a shaker of salt but I have found a treasure trove in his books. If the advanced collector took Ericson for what he did have right there never would have been the tragic mistake of mis appraising the Mirror Black ACB Midival pattern vase being identified as Sinclair when it was Steuben. Eric has a beautiful picture of a Green Jade Midival pattern covered vase on page 75 of book two. This picture shows the wing of the Griffin is up. If they used his books this mistake never would have been made. All I am asking is don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

When you read page 37-38 of book two Eric describes Cardinal Red. He describes holding a Steuben plate that looked at first glance like Rouge Flambe with a streak of unstirred Alabaster in it. Well if it has Alabaster in it that sounds like red jade. David Chadwick-Brown in San Diego has an optic ribbed signed plate that looks like Rouge Flambe that has a streak of unstirred Alabaster in it. Marshall has seen the optic ribbed plate. All three of us think it is Steuben but Marshall says the plate could be Rouge Flambe and I think it could be Cardinal Red. Come on now, optic ribbed Rouge Flambe?

Another interesting fact. On page 60 of book one Eric describes Antique Green as a dark green. So does Gardner in plate XXll B. What if Ericson was right? I know what we have today at the web site is wrong.

I do however think Eric’s books would not be appropriate for a first year collector. Any first hand reports of when Eric spoke to Carder personally you can take to the bank. One of my favorite ones is the story about Rose du Barry. Carder flat out told Eric he had stolen the color from Sevres porcelain and had the nerve to give it the exact same name!

Yes I loved Eric and loved his books too.

I would like to wrap this up by quoting what Alan just said “However, in recent years I’ve also heard that some of the things questioned in the books as to accuracy, have been shown by later recordings of interviews with Mr. Carder to have, in fact, been correct”.

Rande Bly

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Ed. On another note about Ericson and Rose du Barry. In his second book at p. 49-53 he refers to a Rose du Barry Sherbet(cased in alabaster) as distinguished from Rosaline, as so identified by Mr. Carder. I’m familiar with Mr. Carder signing his pieces, post production. However, I’m not familiar with post production signatures from collectors. In this instance Mr. Ericson is signing one of his pieces with what I remember to be, “Collection of Eric E. Ericson ( name in his signature script) Rose du Barry”. I’m told such a signature on a piece of Mr. Carder’s glass by Mr. Ericson is not unusual. Perhaps a bit egotisti.

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