Tuesday, January-17-12

Frank & Elizabeth Creech, prominent perfume collectors, of Brevard, North Carolina send along this perspective on color v. colorless glass:

Dear Alan,

During the recent past, our beloved Gazelle Gazette has been inundated with a crescendo of articles about certain—and uncertain—shades of color. Hopefully, we won’t lose our appreciation of the sheer beauty of Mr. Carder’s Steuben glass.

Frederick Carder loved color! Over the great span of his career as a glassmaker, he experimented with and developed a palette of nearly 150 exquisite colors that were frequently presented in myriad combinations. And they never clashed!

So why did Mr. Carder choose COLORLESS glass for some of his most elegant designs? Frederick Carder visualized that certain liquids are imbued with characteristic appealing colors which would be best appreciated only if their containers were of colorless glass.

For these rare containers, Frederick Carder subordinated his love of colored glass to his higher desire to give pleasure to the user of a special vessel through the beautiful, characteristic color of its contents. Those precious contents might include a fine wine or an exotic perfume.

Go to the Carder-Steuben Club Website Shape Gallery and locate Shapes 6048 (in colorless optic glass) and 6309. Be sure to visualize these elegant containers filled with, say, a rich honey gold perfume, and you will understand that Frederick Carder gave his extraordinary gift of beauty even when it meant sacrificing his love of coloring his glass!

From the wisdom and vast experience of Dr. Edmund Launert in Perfume and Pomanders—Scent and Scent Bottles Through the Ages:

“….What could be more delightful to the eye than a carafe of burgundy against the sunlight, or a row of glass bottles full of costly perfumes ranging in color from pale sea green to deep amber? Glass, then, can be subservient to its contents and it is only by design and decorative treatment of its surface that it comes to the fore, not merely complementing what it holds but a thing of beauty in itself.”

How very fortunate we are, to have found our way to the Carder Steuben Club and all the wonderful discoveries that follow!

Please, everyone, contribute something special, great or small, to our Club.

All the best,

Elizabeth and Frank Creech

Next, we celebrate breaking growing to the 200 membership level. Thanks to all:

Norman Skolnick thought he was number 200. It turns out he was 201: Norman writes: I just joined the club for 2012 and hopefully I am member 200 and get a free piece of Carder Steuben?!?! Ha ha ha

Norman Skolnick

Treasurer Lon Knickerbocker gives us the official report:

Good evening Alan,

Wanted membership to know we have reached the 200 member plateau, new members Randy Sampson and David Cooperman became members 199 and 200! Since last evening we have added additional members Jim Anacker and Norman Skolnick, i guess in our goal to get to 300 members.

I would like to add although this has been a bit of fun and good for the Carder Steuben Club member 200 is no more important than member 16 was and 233 will be. If everyone in the current membership does not renew their memberships then we will fall back below the 200 member mark anyway and from past experience it is very difficult to keep all your members year after year. I feel we are a growing club and with our strong leadership we should be able continue to grow in some manner.

Thanks to everyone for allowing us to have a little fun with this and just because we have reached 200 members don’t let that stop you from being the next member of the Carder Steuben Club. A strong organization like this can only strengthen the art glass world.

Lon

www.cardersteubenclub.org

Any opinions expressed by participants to the Gazette e-mail newsletters are the opinions of the authors and are not endorsed by or the opinions of the Carder Steuben Club.

2012 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 20-22, 2012.