Wednesday, December, 22, 2010

James Jory of Alburquerque, NM sends this along about his red vase.

Hello Alan-

Imagine my surprise when I opened your email containing information about a new red carder glass.

I have had the vase in this attached photo for over 25 years! I purchased it with the understanding that it was a piece of Steuben as it has a Steuben shape (2004) and an etched fleur-de-lis signature. Shortly thereafter I discovered that the signature was spurious just like the one shown in fig 10.56 on page 229 of Dimitroff’s book. I took the vase to the Corning museum for an opinion and they sent me over to the Rockwell museum where Bobby Rockwell dismissed it as a piece of Steuben and placed it in that catchall catigory, “Bohemian glass.” As my glass interest focused more on art nouveau, I sold off those pieces that didn’t fit that category. However, this is such a beautiful piece that I have kept it all these years. It is being used as a decorative piece on the dining room table.

Could it be Steuben? It has another feature that is seen on other Steuben pieces cased in clear glass, namely Cluthra and Cintra. It can be seen on the those pieces having a cushon foot where the clear glass is thicker and forms a ring of the clear glass that encircles the foot. I found a Cluthra example in the center piece pictured in plate #10.52 on page 228 of Dimitroff’s book.

As an aside, on an early trek to the Corning museum I saw there a display of about ten or so pieces labeled Steuben rouge flambé. One of them was cased in clear glass. I remember this because I was looking for that very thing to verify my piece. Again, this was about 25 years ago. I wonder if they still have it.

Sincerely yours,

Jim Jory