Alan,

Thought I might add an image to the Grotesque conversation started by David Chadwick-Brown. This a a great little piece 6.5″ high and the gold ruby color is shaded but very slight. I have not been able to find it in the line drawings but it is signed Steuben by the acid stamp method. I have several other pieces in the collection but they are shaded. Love to get feedback from the rest of the club.

Regards,
David W. Sherwood
Coral Springs, Florida

From Thursday’s Gazette Gazelle #2008

Greetings, Alan –

I’ve always been interested in the variety of grotesque pieces, and wondered why only certain colors were used. Has anyone ever seen a clear-to-rosa, or clear-to-Bristol Yellow, though given Mr. Carder’s aversion to yellow, maybe I already have the answer to the latter. Furthermore, why were only some colors – wisteria and sea green – the only ones that did not transition to clear, and why didn’t they shade to clear in those colors? (I do have a Pomona grotesque that is of uniform shade of green, top to bottom, and have always been on the lookout for other transparent colors that are un-shaded.)

Then, there is the absence of certain colors in the jades and iridescents. Ivrene grotesques abound, but are there any VDS ones out there? And while two line pillar vases can come in black, ivory, dark and medium blue (the only ones that come to mind at the
moment), only some of those colors appear in their near-cousin shapes, the grotesques. And are there grotesques, or even two line pillar, jade vases/bowls in yellow, rosaline, light blue, turquoise, Persian, plum, etc.? I have been told that there is a rouge flambe grotesque in a collection, but assume it is one of a kind.

Does anyone know if there are such exotics out there?

Regards,
David Chadwick-Brown, San Diego

P.S., I forgot the non-shaded Russian amber #7535, which is sitting on my dining room cabinet, and the wonderful green jade on alabaster, which I wish were reposing on my cabinet! It is shown in Dimitroff, p. 179. Also, upon checking the website, there is an all-Celeste Blue #7091.