Alan –

This ad apparently appeared in the New York Times in mid-April 1932. B. Altman & Co. was a New York City based luxury department store that was one of the high end retail outlets for Carder’s Steuben glass. Given the timing of the appearance of this ad, I assume that this is advertising a “clearance” sale of Carder glass in early 1932 when the business was being reorganized in a last attempt to save it by cutting the active production of most of the pieces to concentrate on only a few best selling items and closing the rest out at bargain sale prices. I don’t think this “sale” occurred because of the coming introduction of the new colorless glass at Steuben (only small quantities of the new glass had been produced at this time). There were still technical difficulties in producing that glass in quantity which weren’t solved until later in 1932. Still, this is the only ad I have ever seen that advertises a sale at reduced prices of Steuben glass (whether of Carder’s glass or Modern Steuben).

Scott Hansen