Alan,

I don’t know if this helps at all, but I have found in my experiences as a collector of not only Carder Steuben, but also American Studio Art Glass, that just sitting down and firing off an email to a specific glass artist along with a digital image is a great way to receive information for any caliber of collector. I just purchased a piece of studio glass last Saturday on eBay for $117.00. The description stated that the piece was purchased some years before at a gallery for $1900.00. I thought this was rather high, so I mailed a digital image to the artist along with my inquiry, and just received a nice e-mail this morning from the artist stating that the price that the gallery was asking some years ago sounded about right to him, and he congratulated me on getting such a fine deal. If you look hard enough, eBay has proved to be quite a wonderful learning experience for me. I have contacted roughly a dozen or so studio artists via e-mail, and I have only had one that never responded back.

I had attempted to contact Harvey Littleton some months back to inquire as to the influence that Frederick Carder had in his life. I have attached the response that was sent back to me.

Mark Chamovitz

Dear Mr. Chamovitz:

Thank you for contacting Carol L. Shay of Littleton Studios concerning your question for Harvey Littleton about a remembrance of Frederick Carder. I am sorry to say that Mr. Littleton is not up to answering your question. He has virtually stopped giving interviews or answering questions of any kind.

I know that Mr Littleton holds Mr. Carder’s memory in high esteem. I attach in the body of this letter some remarks about Carder and Corning that Mr. Littleton made to a group of docents that visited Mr. Littleon last December here at The Littleton Collection. Hope you enjoy them.

Sincerely,

Ellen E. Fischer
The Littleton Collection
Fort Pierce, Florida

I

Conversation between Harvey K. Littleton (HKL) and Docents from Vero Beach Museum of Art (VBMA Docent): Caroline Carson, Deborah Pompanio Flynn, Marion A. Berry, Ruth Saracci and Sally Dressing. Ellen Fischer also present.

Recorded Dec. 11, 2008 (44 min. 44 sec.) at The Littleton Collection, 3690 N. US 1, Fort Pierce, FL

VBMA Docent: Was glass something you always did? How did you get into glass from the pots earlier? Was it always in your blood?

HKL: Well, Corning.

VBMA Docent: Well, it’s obvious, but I just wondered if you were kind of reactionary by not going into it, and then at what point-

HKL: No. You see they –they really believed everybody at Corning, and I included – that glass an industrial material, and that it required a much bigger investment than was possible by the individual artist. And it wasn’t a material like clay that you could buy, or even mix. And then model, and fire it – that way.

VBMA Docent: Glass was functional; glass was made for functional purposes. Glasses to drink out of or-

HKL: Well, yes, but then there was Frederick Carder, who founded Steuben glass. And –ah, Steuben glass was, well, Carder lived on Fifth Street, on the corner of Pine Street and Fifth Street. The streets went up the hill [in Corning].

[Many voices]

VBMA Docent: So Steuben was really pioneer in the art glass.

HKL: Well, Mr. Carder was a pioneer… And he worked for 33 years in Stourbridge, in England, for various – uh, well, the family had a pottery, and so he – ah, beer bottles were clay – made of clay at that time. And he would make up to a thousand beer bottles a day. He was an engraver for Stevens and Williams, a glass company in England, and he was hired by the government to survey the glass production – art glass production – in Austria and in America. And in his trip to America, in – let’s see, it would be nineteen-oh-three, he uh, he lived on Fifth Street, on the corner of Pine and Fifth Street. The streets that went up the hill were digital. And the other streets were named. Well, we lived at 31 East Fifth Street, and Mr. Carder lived just five houses down the street. So I got to know him, in fact I traded him one of my pots for one of his glass dishes that had a flaw in it. But I still have it.

VBMA Docent: I’d like to have one of his beer bottles! Wouldn’t that be great?