COMPARING CARDER AND POST-CARDER CLEAR GLASS

Thank you Marshall Ketchum for putting some basic material about Post-Carder Steuben on the website.

Although one of Tom Dimitroff’s mantras is “Carder is Color”, a great deal of Clear glass was produced during the Carder Period. Carder’s Clear was normally a basic silica, potash, soda lime glass with low lead content, and was fairly dull (just the facts, not blasphemy) especially when compared to the 10-M Post-Carder glass.

This difference is particularly noticeable if you compare pieces in the same shape from the Carder and Post-Carder periods. The Grotesques such as Shape 7535, the classic 12 and 1/2″ long Bowl, or Shape 7090, the 11″ tall Vase, illustrate the difference. Carder Period Clear Grotesques look gray when placed along-side similar Post-Carder examples.

The all Clear examples of these forms on the website appear to be Post-Carder. The saving grace for many of the Carder Period Grotesques examples is their color. They either shade from a Clear base to various colors at the top or are made entirely of Carder’s transparent Colors or other glasses. The color compensates for the dull look of the Clear base glass.

David Goldstein, Naples, Florida