Most black glass, of various glass producers, is dark amethyst rather than truly black. While it appears black, when held to a strong light source it appears dark amethyst in color. It’s my understanding that Carder’s mirror black glass is, however, indeed pure black.

Shape: 938

Form: Vase

Color: Mirror Black

Component Colors: Foot: Alabaster

Type: Translucent

However, Eric E. Ericson in his text, A Guide To Colored Steuben Glass 1903 – 1933 at page 61 says ,”It is common belief that Steuben’s Black glass is opaque. Most certainly it is for all intents and purposes; however, when subjected to an intense concentrated light source, the light will appear pinpointed as a potassium permanganate, i.e., violate-red. The common pressed glass known as black amethyst has the same characteristic.

“…we can say without reserve that less (Steuben black glass) was offered to us in this color than any other single crystal item, with perhaps the translucent exceptions of Yellow Jade and Amethyst Jade.”

Perhaps some of our readers can add clarity between the editorial introduction and Ericson’s analysis.

Shape 938

While there are thousands of shapes that Mr. Carder created, some like shape #938 above were created in large numbers and collectors will call out shape numbers like 938 and many collectors will know what they’re talking about. On the CSC website there are some 70 pictures of this shape and largely each one is in a unique pattern, color or technique or as many as five different sizes.