Let me recount my day yesterday. My office manager has a love of art glass and
announced, to my surprise, that she had just ordered a small glass furnace.
From that she talked about the recent opening of a glass studio in our art
district. Well, all this then caused me to wax poetically and discuss the
resurgence of the colored art glass movement starting in the early 60s started
by Harvey Littleton. Prior to that time it was widely believed that glass objects
could only be mass-produced.
Out of this discussion the next step was my focusing on the influence of
Frederick Carder in my discussion with my office manager. (Sorry, I just
couldn’t help myself.) Of the several current influential and prominent art glass
schools, one is the Studio at CMoG. I talked about the doorway between the
Studio and the Carder Gallery. How not only are they next door to one another,
but through this doorway are two long cabinets which contain a representative
sampling of much of Mr. Carder’s works. Organized specifically as an influence
to this budding and in training artists. While I’ve heard that explained to me, I
know from talking to Debbie Tarsitano, a glass artist of growing importance who
studied at the Studio that, in fact, the students do look not only at the Carder
Gallery as a whole, but this exhibit at their doorway serves instructive to them
and Mr. Carder’s influence is strongly in play.
Well the next thing that happened is that I talked to Tom Dimitroff to see how
things are going as he prepares for his part of the programming at our upcoming
Symposium. He reports that he and Jane Spillman of CMoG have selected pieces
from the Reifschlager bequests for an exhibit to be shared at the Friday
evening wine and dessert reception at the Carder Gallery. Also, Tom talked
about his excitement about arranging panelists to discuss their “war stories”
about Mr. Carder based on their personal experiences with Mr. Carder. It’s
been 45 years since his death in 1963, and there are few people still around who
knew and dealt with him. However, Tom thought there is still enough that this
could be a fascinating recounting of this history.
Somehow, from this I mentioned Harvey Littleton and the beginning of the
current colored art glass modern experience. To my surprise Tom recounted to
me that Harvey Littleton was born in Corning and lived just a few doors away
from Mr. Carder. One can only wonder what influence that Frederick Carder and
Steuben Glass must have had on Harvey Littleton considering those connections.
Maybe someone knows some of that history and can relay it. This only suggests
to me that the influence of Frederick Carder on the art glass movement of not
only the early part of the century, but now the current emergence of colored art
glass is much deeper than most realize. Sometimes we overlook the enormous
influence of Mr. Carder.
Now, also yesterday saw me scrambling to get brochures for the Symposium in
the mail. Most brochures went out shortly after the beginning of the month.
However, through several glitches beyond our control and knowledge, we learned
that about 45 members of the Carder Steuben Club didn’t get theirs mailed
out. So, if you didn’t get one yet, our profound apologies. As they say the
brochure is in the mail. Anyone who doesn’t have one and would like me to send
one electronically, just e-mail me back.

Audrey Lipton of NYC and a participant in the Symposium’s panel discussion on
the future of Steuben Collecting passes this background about Harvey Littleton.
Harvey Littleton’s father worked at Corning. Am not sure in what capacity.
Clearly Littleton remained enamored of Carder’s work as I have seen him at Miami Antique Shows. In fact I met him at Joan Miller’s booth where he was avidly examining some Carder pieces and commenting on examples in his personal collection.

Yesterday was a day of realization. Harvey K. Littleton, b. 1922 in Corning, NY and “father” of the resurgent colored art glass period and renaissance may well have been strongly influenced by Frederick Carder. If so, the influence of Mr. Carder may run deeper than we may appreciate.

From Dick Bright of Corning

Harvey Littleton’s father, Jesse Littleton was a physicist with Corning. His wife, Bessie, conducted the first test of Nonex (later named Pyrex) as ovenware in her kitchen. As you stand in our dining room you can look directly at the Littleton house. Look for it at the pizza party.(at the Symposium) Then from Dick Weertz of Osprey, FL I believe that Littleton’s father was director of research at Corning, and was under Dr. Sullivan. I read somewhere a while back that his mother had some Steuben pieces. (Would make sense) and had known Carder but cannot find where I read that. Then from Reyne Haines, Roadshow participant and Tiffany dealer from Cincinnati. Harvey knows a lot about glass makers, turn of the century to present, American and European.
In fact, he has a pretty advanced collection of glass. He loves talking about glass. Wouldn’t it be great to have him to one of the next Symposiums as a speaker??!!
Then from Googling an encyclopedia b Corning, NY, 1922). American glassmaker, potter and teacher. He was introduced to glass science and technology by his father, Jesse Littleton, director of research for the Corning Glass Works, and had an academic art education under the sculptor Enfred Anderson at the Corning Free Academy. He studied industrial design at the University of Michigan (1947) and then sculpture and ceramics at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. During summer vacations he worked at Corning. Despite some early experiments in glass casting from ceramic models, Littleton worked primarily in ceramics from 1946 until the late 1950s, when he gradually realized that glassblowing could be carried out in small art studios and did not need to be confined to factory production. In 1962 in his workshop at the Toledo Museum of Art, OH, he demonstrated this idea to young artists with Dominick Labino (1910-87). He thus provided the foundation for forming studio glass courses in American universities; the first was set up in 1963 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he taught. Before this most studio glass was made by casting sculpture or laminating sheet glass for two-dimensional works.
Sad to report that I was a student at Madison when Harvey Littleton was teaching there and didn’t have a clue I might someday be interested in the art of glass.

From Elizabeth Creech of Brevard, NC.

Mr. Littleton also spends time in Spruce Pine, NC, where he has a shop. A number of years ago, he presented the keynote speech at the Annual Convention of the International Perfume Bottle Association (IPBA), which highlighted his premier collection of DiVilbiss perfume bottles, many of which were Steuben, of course. (He is an honorary lifetime member of that organization.) Also, some of his DiVilbiss perfume bottles were featured in a special exhibit at a museum in Atlanta a few years ago. Stunning, at least for this perfume bottle lover! He was honored this past year by Western Carolina University with a special retrospective exhibit featuring Mr. Littleton’s work and that of some of his students. The exhibit included glass, paintings and ceramics. Mr. Littleton is a visionary and an inspiration in more than the medium of glass. Perhaps we should let him know how much of a discussion he has generated amongst this group of glass lovers!

From Carol Kalinich of Gloucester, VA
More on Harvey Littleton. Harvey. He was the youngest sibling. Very nice family. His mother was very community minded and volunteered, esp. on the school board. His father was Dr. Littleton/Scientist, Development Research Division, Corning Glass Works. Harvey, you know is a “founding father” of the studio glass movement. His dream was to break the bonds that enthralled to industry and bring the medium to the service of the artist. Coming from a scientific minded father he was able to combine bot art and science in his wonderful creations, thus paving the way for others to follow. I do not know him well(but naturally my parents did) is a very nice down to earth fellow, and wonderful and inspiring to be around!

From David Goldstein of Naples, FL
We (David & Elissa) first met Harvey Littleton at a show we were doing in Washington D. C. This guy (Harvey) wanted to swap one of his pieces for a piece of Quezal that had cost me over $1,000. In my infinite wisdom, I concluded (wrongly) that his pieces would probably not appreciate as much as the Quezal I already owned. Duh!!
We often spoke with Harvey at shows and were impressed with the range of his glass knowledge. We last saw him at an NAGC field trip to Penland, where we presented him with an award in honor of his contributions to the world of glass. His daughter Maureen runs a contemporary glass gallery in the DC area and his son John is a glass craftsman working in the Asheville, NC area.