Frank

I have no problem with the Carder/Rockwell glass being shown where it is. It would be nicer if it were in a larger room but we sometimes need to live with what we can get. As Jane mentions the Carder/Rockwell glass can be seen for free if it is left where it is. A greater question for me is the destruction of the Rockwell Museum and why that had to occur. Surely people do not journey to Corning to see western art no matter how good it is.

I personally am not much in favor of including modern Steuben with the Carder glass but will go along with what the members think. It seems to me that the design philosophy that Carder used was so much different from what the modern Steuben used that there is little similarity. It might make more sense to combine Carder glass with Sinclaire than with modern Steuben but that is surely not an option to consider. We are considering modern Steuben only because the name stayed the same and was produced, if not designed, by the same people using similar techniques.

If we decide to include modern Steuben in our mission it is hoped that it may attract new members and open up new avenues for discussion. It should make little difference in the short run but will make a considerable difference when the website needs to be expanded or redesigned. There would seem to be a lot of serious work and some money expended to make that happen. It might make sense, if the mission is modified, to wait to see if there is really any interest in modern Steuben among the members before we undertake the website problem.

Marshall Ketchum, Genoa, NY

ANOTHER CONTINUING RESPONSES

Hi Frank,

Bobby Rockwell here. First I have no objections to include the Houghton Era Steuben into the club. To me it is a natural extension of the history of a great company. Carder himself must have been proud to an extent even though he without a doubt cringed at the modern designs. Houghton wanted to promote the more modern designs in order to prove that the company could exist as he was by no means given Steuben on a platter. I remember a conversation that Arthur Houghton was having with my father on his early years. They (modern Steuben) had just introduced the new clear glass. Arhtur had instructed Gates to phone him when they had sold the first $100.00 in a days time. He turned to my father and said that it was an awfully long wait. Arthur Houghton, although promoting the modern era, considered Carder as one of the greatest glass designers. Much of the the so called bitterness between the two was more a product of a journalist writing years after the change. The Houghtons also caused the Rockwell Collections to become a museum so I wouldn’t say that they were hostile to it.

As for CMOG hostility toward Carder we have to remember that the museum covers the world history of glass from BC to the present. The space that they gave for the current display of Carder glass was an arrangement by the late David Whitehouse and the Rockwell Museum. Without David’s efforts I would have feared that the entire collection would have gone into storage and that would have been the end of it.

Sincerely,

Bobby Rockwell, Corning, NY

2013 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 19-21, 2013. The festivities will begin with Frederick Carder’s 150th birthday celebration on the evening of September 18, 2013.

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