Much Discussed

Wednesday in Gazette #1829 we covered the sale at James Julia’s of a presentation piece presumably created and delivered to John Northwood in about 1902, prior to Mr. Carder leaving Stevens & Williams and coming to the United States to co-found the Steuben Glass Works. Well, it seems this vase was sold at Bonham’s as part of the estate of the late and great Steuben dealer, Joan Miller. At that time in early 2007 there were a number of interesting discussions about this vase in the Gazelle Gazette. If you would like to see them go to the Club’s website at www.cardersteubenclub.org and click on the Gazette and then do a search under the term “Northwood”.

Before Joan Miller–Provenance

Dick Stark of Potomac, Maryland recalls an earlier sale of the Northwood vase at Sotheby’s. (In fact, if you done the search at the Club site referenced above, you’ll learn even more from Dick who commented back in 2007.)

” I remember when that piece first emerged in a major collection from Sotheby’s along with a great blue Cire Perdue- I liked it back then and thought it resembled Quezal innovation or Tiffany agate. I never bothered to actually handle it but would have liked to. I was too lazy to drive to the city to see it but did give it some rather serious thought. I think that it belongs in a museum. At that time I thought they were the finest Steuben ever to emerge.”

The Letter “C”

Jim Sutterfield of Corning notes that this piece refers to “Frederick C Carder”. Note the middle initial. Jim says: “Remember the C or no C in Carder’s name? Appears the vase solves that question”

What Jim is referring to is that Ed Bush of Painted Post, NY did some considerable research that appeared in earlier editions of the Gazette that said Mr. Carder did not have a middle initial or name. (If you have an interest you might do a search under the name Ed Bush to see this) Some of the earlier Gazette’s that show up under the term “Northwood” address that the middle initial “C” may have been used by Mr. Carder during his time in England, but not in his time in the United States. For a copy of Ed Bush’s article see click on this link.