MJ Madigan’s Book

What kind of discoveries occurs at a Symposium? For me it was all about Isobel Lee. Who, you ask? Well, let me see if I can make some sense of this. First for me was acquiring a Cire Perdue bust. This bust was pictured in a companion piece entitled “”Brilliance in Glass, The Lost Wax Sculpture of Frederick Carder” for an exhibit sponsored by The Rockwell Museum from August 13, 1993 to January 9, 1994. It identified the bust figure as “Isabel Lee”, although records at CMoG correct this as “Isobel Lee”.

Isobel Lee

Now step 2. Deb Tarsitano a leading paper weight glass artist presented at the Symposium. Deb has undertaken these past three years to replicate Mr. Carder’s Cire Perdue process, to the exclusion of her fame as one of the foremost paperweight artists in the country. Deb put on a fascinating presentation showing the complex creation of Cire Perdue from beginning to end. As part of her examples of Mr. Carder’s work she showed a plaque Mr. Carder created with a head of who, you ask? Isobel Lee. Now that makes two different Isobel Lee Cire Perdue pieces.

So, who is this Isobel Lee? Another presenter was MJ (Mary Jane) Madigan. MJ is author of the tome, “Steuben Glass, an American Tradition in Crystal”. This text is the seminal text on post Carder Steuben. Its 383 pages address how the glass is made, the Carder Period, post Carder and the many periods of production from 1932 through 2002. The text was updated to celebrate 100 years of Steuben in 1983. MJ spoke of the “Asian Artists in Crystal” project.

Right at the beginning I saw in MJ slides the name, “Isobel Lee”. Oh, my gosh, how amazing this was to me. So, let me continue. Isobel was a Steuben salesperson who was on leave to serve in the Red Cross in the South Pacific in WWII. There she became acquainted with many high-ranking military and government officials, who stayed in touch after the war’s end. One of Isabel’s friend, Harold Stassen became director of the Foreign Operations Administration in the early 1950s. Steuben had done an international project of goodwill in Europe “British Artists in Crystal”. Stassen wanted a similar project for Asia, with Asian artists.

Stassen asked Arthur Houghton if “It would be possible for Steuben glass to be of very significant service to our country” The response led to the Asian Artists series. The result was a total of 130 drawings by prominent Asian artists. 36 were chosen and translated into crystal. Each of the 36 was done in duplicate. One of the presentation pieces was given to government officials in various countries where the artists resided. The others were put on exhibit to much acclaim at the National Gallery in Washington, then to the Metropolitan in New York and later on national tour and eventually sale.

Bottom line, henceforth, Steuben was widely accepted as the usual gift of state from the United States. For those who missed this fascinating discussion you can follow it at pp. 117-121 of MJ’s book (2nd ed.).

Alan Shovers, Evansville, Indiana

2014 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY September 19 and 20, 2014. The festivities will begin with Frederick Carder’s 151st birthday celebration on the evening of Thursday, September 18, 2014.

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