Alan:

We would like to add to the information that Scott Coots posted in yesterday’s Gazette about the Brilliant Glass weekend in Corning.

The Rakow Library of The Corning Museum of Glass will host its annual workshop on Friday, April 21st, preceding the Brilliant Glass weekend. The topic is “how to research cut glass from a distance”, as well as general tips on researching cut glass and the library’s related collections.

Gail Bardhan, Reference and Research Librarian, will present the workshop in the Library’s seminar room at 2 pm. The emphasis will be on materials that have been recently digitized, including trade catalogs, as well as using the library’s online catalog, Following this, ACGA Research Chair LindaJo Hare will also speak. She will share information on how cut glass catalog images were produced. Samples of the kinds of images and blocks used to create them will be available for attendees to review.

Reservations are not necessary, but appreciated. To RSVP or ask questions: rakow@cmog.org; phone 607-438-5300

THANKS!

Gail Bardhan

Goddess “Electra”

Yesterday John Styler said he remembered hearing at a symposium that Edison plaques gifted at the opening of the Ford Museum mysteriously disappeared.

John, I don’t think they disappeared. Many of the Edison plaques have survived in many collections and occasionally come up for sale. I think 350 or so were gifted as souvenirs of the 1929 50th anniversary dinner. Perhaps you were thinking of the Cire Perdue Goddess “Electra” candlestick. A pair of candlesticks were created in 1939 for a dinner honoring Thomas Alva Edison (then deceased) on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the electric bulb. “At the conclusion of the evening one of the pair of candlesticks disappeared and has not since resurfaced. This remaining candlestick was returned to Mr. Carder. This candlestick of the Greek Goddess ‘Electra’, a symbol of light is personally signed in script on the bottom in large letter ‘F. Carder’, as are most Cire Perdue, many of which are also dated with the year they were made” p. 97 of Objects of Desire The Art of Frederick Carder by Alan Shovers